Uniqueness of weak DLSS solutions in dimensions four and higher

Establish uniqueness for weak solutions of the Derrida–Lebowitz–Speer–Spohn equation in dimensions d≥4, and thereby determine whether the contraction semigroup constructed in L² coincides with weak solutions generated by the approximation schemes of Jüngel–Pinnau, Gualdani–Jüngel–Toscani, and Jüngel–Matthes.

Background

The paper constructs a canonical contraction semigroup for the DLSS equation in the square-root variable on a bounded convex domain with Neumann boundary conditions, for arbitrary nonnegative L² initial data and in every space dimension. It identifies this semigroup with the established weak-solution theory only in dimensions d≤3, using Fischer’s uniqueness theorem in the relevant regularity class and, for the Neumann setting, an additional conditional boundary-adaptation issue.

For dimensions d≥4, no uniqueness theory for the relevant weak solutions is available. Consequently, it is unresolved whether the canonical semigroup solution agrees with weak solutions obtained through the earlier approximation schemes; resolving this would connect the paper’s operator-theoretic construction to those approximation-based weak formulations in higher dimensions.

References

For $d\ge4$ no uniqueness theory for weak solutions is available, and the question remains open; what our results do give in every dimension is that one distinguished, canonically determined solution exists, depends continuously on the datum, and is characterized by the equivalent formulations listed above.

— Maximal monotonicity and contraction semigroup for the quantum drift-diffusion (Derrida-Lebowitz-Speer-Spohn) equation  (2608.16792 - Matthes et al., 17 Aug 2026) in Introduction, paragraph “What is new?”, limitation paragraph