Approximation of null controls for semilinear heat equations using a least-squares approach

The null distributed controllability of the semilinear heat equation $y_t-Delta y + g(y)=f ,1_{omega}$, assuming that $g$ satisfies the growth condition $g(s)/(vert svert log^{3/2}(1+vert svert))rightarrow 0$ as $vert svert rightarrow infty$ and that $g^primein L^infty_{loc}(mathbb{R})$ has been obtained by Fernandez-Cara and Zuazua in 2000. The proof based on a fixed point argument makes use of precise estimates of the observability constant for a linearized heat equation. It does not provide however an explicit construction of a null control. Assuming that $g^primein W^{s,infty}(mathbb{R})$ for one $sin (0,1]$, we construct an explicit sequence converging strongly to a null control for the solution of the semilinear equation. The method, based on a least-squares approach, generalizes Newton type methods and guarantees the convergence whatever be the initial element of the sequence. In particular, after a finite number of iterations, the convergence is super linear with a rate equal to $1+s$. Numerical experiments in the one dimensional setting support our analysis.