Strong stability of linear parabolic time-optimal control problems

Abstract

Sufficient conditions for strong stability of a class of linear time-optimal control problems with general convex terminal set are derived. Strong stability in turn guarantees qualified optimality conditions. The theory is based on a characterization of weak invariance of the target set under the controlled equation. An appropriate strengthening of the resulting Hamiltonian condition ensures strong stability and yieldsa prioribounds on the size of multipliers, independent of,e.g., the initial point or the running cost. In particular, the results are applied to the control of the heat equation into anL2-ball around a desired state.