The Kalman rank condition and the optimal cost for the null-controllability of coupled Stokes systems

Abstract: This paper considers the controllability of a class of coupled Stokes systems with distributed controls. The coupling terms are of a different nature. The first coupling is through the principal part of the Stokes operator with a constant real-valued positive-definite matrix. The second one acts through zero-order terms with a constant real-valued matrix. We assume the controls have their support in different measurable subsets of the spatial domain. Our main result states that such a system is small-time null-controllable if and only if a Kalman rank condition is satisfied. Moreover, when this condition holds, we prove the sharp upper bound for the cost of null-controllability for these systems. Our method is based on two ingredients. We start from the recent spectral estimate for the Stokes operator from Chaves-Silva, Souza, and Zhang. Then, we adapt Lissy and Zuazua's strategy concerning the internal observability for coupled systems of linear parabolic equations to coupled Stokes systems.