Persistent regional null contrillability for a class of degenerate parabolic equations

Motivated by physical models and the so-called Crocco equation, we study the controllability properties of a class of degenerate parabolic equations. Due to degeneracy, classical null controllability results do not hold for this problem in general. First, we prove that we can drive the solution to rest at time $T$ in a suitable subset of the space domain (regional null controllability). However, unlike for nondegenerate parabolic equations, this property is no more automatically preserved with time. Then, we prove that, given a time interval $(T,T')$, we can control the equation up to $T'$ and remain at rest during all the time interval $(T,T')$ on the same subset of the space domain (persistent regional null controllability). The proofs of these results are obtained via new observability inequalities derived from classical Carleman estimates by an appropriate use of cut-off functions. With the same method, we also derive results of regional controllability for a Crocco type linearized equation and for the nondegenerate heat equation in unbounded domains.