OPTIMAL SHAPES FOR TREE ROOTS

Alberto Bressan, Sondre T. Galtung, Qing Sun

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Abstract. The paper studies a class of variational problems, modeling optimal shapes for tree roots. Given a measure μ describing the distribution of root hair cells, we seek to maximize a harvest functional H, computing the total amount of water and nutrients gathered by the roots subject to a cost for transporting these nutrients from the roots to the trunk. Earlier papers have established the existence of an optimal measure and a priori bounds. Here we derive necessary conditions for optimality. Moreover, in space dimension d = 2, we prove that the support of an optimal measure is nowhere dense.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4757-4784
Number of pages28
JournalSIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis
Volume54
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Analysis
  • Computational Mathematics
  • Applied Mathematics

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