On fractional $1$-Laplacian evolution equation

Abstract

We study a nonlocal evolution problem driven by the fractional $1$-Laplacian with a Carathéodory nonlinearity satisfying subcritical growth conditions. We develop a potential well framework to investigate the existence and qualitative behavior of solutions at different initial energy levels. By combining a modified potential well method with Galerkin approximations, we establish the global existence of weak and strong solutions under appropriate conditions on the initial energy and the sign of the associated Nehari functional. To address the singular nature of the fractional $1$-Laplacian, we approximate the problem by a family of fractional $p$-Laplacian equations, derive estimates uniform with respect to $p>1$, and pass to the limit as $p\to 1^{+}$. Furthermore, in the low-dimensional regime $N<2s$, we employ a subdifferential approach to establish the local existence of strong solutions and investigate their qualitative behavior.