Oliver Tse

IDENTIFICATION OF TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENT PARAMETERS IN LASER-INTERSTITIAL THERMO THERAPY

Laser-induced thermotherapy (LITT) is an established minimally invasive percutaneous technique of tumor ablation. Nevertheless, there is a need to predict the effect of laser applications and optimize irradiation planning in LITT. Optical attributes (attenuation, absorption, scattering) change due to thermal denaturation. The work presents the possibility to identify these temperature-dependent parameters from given temperature measurements via an optimal control problem. The solvability of the optimal control problem is analyzed and results of successful implementations are shown.

A consensus-based model for global optimization and its mean-field limit

We introduce a novel first-order stochastic swarm intelligence (SI) model in the spirit of consensus formation models, namely a consensus-based optimization (CBO) algorithm, which may be used for the global optimization of a function in multiple dimensions. The CBO algorithm allows for passage to the mean-field limit, which results in a nonstandard, nonlocal, degenerate parabolic partial differential equation (PDE). Exploiting tools from PDE analysis we provide convergence results that help to understand the asymptotic behavior of the SI model. We further present numerical investigations underlining the feasibility of our approach.

An analytical framework for consensus-based global optimization method

In this paper we provide an analytical framework for investigating the efficiency of a consensus-based model for tackling global optimization problems. This work justifies the optimization algorithm in the mean-field sense showing the convergence to the global minimizer for a large class of functions. Theoretical results on consensus estimates are then illustrated by numerical simulations where variants of the method including nonlinear diffusion are introduced.

Trend to equilibrium for a delay Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equation and explicit decay estimates

In this paper, a delay Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equation associated to a stochastic interacting particle system with delay is investigated analytically. Under certain restrictions on the parameters well-posedness and ergodicity of the mean-field equation are shown and an exponential rate of convergence towards the unique stationary solution is proven as long as the delay is finite. For infinte delay i.e., when all the history of the solution paths are taken into consideration polynomial decay of the solution is shown.

The Quasi-Neutral Limit in Optimal Semiconductor Design

We study the quasi-neutral limit in an optimal semiconductor design problem constrained by a nonlinear, nonlocal Poisson equation modelling the drift diffusion equations in thermal equilibrium. While a broad knowledge on the asymptotic links between the different models in the semiconductor model hierarchy exists, there are so far no results on the corresponding optimization problems available. Using a variational approach we end up with a bi-level optimization problem, which is thoroughly analysed. Further, we exploit the concept of Gamma-convergence to perform the quasi-neutral limit for the minima and minimizers. This justifies the construction of fast optimization algorithms based on the zero space charge approximation of the drift-diffusion model. The analytical results are underlined by numerical experiments confirming the feasibility of our approach.

On a regularized system of self-gravitating particles

We consider a macroscopic model describing a system of self-gravitating particles. We study the existence and uniqueness of non-negative stationary solutions and allude the differences to results obtained from classical gravitational models. The problem is considered on a bounded domain up to three space dimension, subject to Neumann boundary condition for the particle density, and Dirichlet boundary condition for the self-interacting potential. Finally, we show numerical simulations that affirm our findings.

Convergence to Equilibrium in Wasserstein Distance for Damped Euler Equations with Interaction Forces

We develop tools to construct Lyapunov functionals on the space of probability measures in order to investigate the convergence to global equilibrium of a damped Euler system under the influence of external and interaction potential forces with respect to the 2-Wasserstein distance. We also discuss the overdamped limit to a nonlocal equation used in the modelling of granular media with respect to the 2-Wasserstein distance, and provide rigorous proofs for particular examples in one spatial dimension.

An analytic method for agent-based modeling of spatially inhomogeneous disease dynamics

In this article we set up a microscopic model for the spread of an infectious disease based on configuration space analysis. Using the so-called Vlasov scaling we obtained the corresponding mesoscopic (kinetic) equations, describing the density of susceptible and infected individuals (particles) in space. The resulting system of equations can be seen as a generalization to a ‘spatial’ SIS-model. The equations showing up in the limiting system are of the type which is know in literature as Fisher–Kolmogorov–Petrovsky–Piscounov type.

A RETARDED MEAN-FIELD APPROACH FOR INTERACTING FIBER STRUCTURES

We consider an interacting system of one-dimensional structures modeling fibers with fiber-fiber interaction in a fiber lay-down process. The resulting microscopic system is investigated by looking at different asymptotic limits of the corresponding stochastic model. Equations arising from mean-field and diffusion limits are considered. Furthermore, numerical methods for the stochastic system and its mean-field counterpart are discussed. A numerical comparison of solutions corresponding to the different scales (microscopic, mesoscopic, and macroscopic) is included.