Controllability of parabolic equations with inverse square infinite potential wells via global Carleman estimates

Abstract: We consider heat operators on a convex domain $\Omega$, with a critically singular potential that diverges as the inverse square of the distance to the boundary of $\Omega$. We establish a general boundary controllability result for such operators in all dimensions, in particular providing the first such result in more than one spatial dimension. The key step in the proof is a novel global Carleman estimate that captures both the appropriate boundary conditions and the $H^1$-energy for this problem. The estimate is derived by combining two intermediate Carleman inequalities with distinct and carefully constructed weights involving non-smooth powers of the boundary distance.