Optimality conditions for an extended tumor growth model with double obstacle potential via deep quench approach

In this work, we investigate a distributed optimal control problem for an extended phase field system of Cahn–Hilliard type which physical context is that of tumor growth dynamics. In a previous contribution, the author has already studied the corresponding problem for the logarithmic potential. Here, we try to extend the analysis by taking into account a non-smooth singular nonlinearity, namely the double obstacle potential. Due to its non-smoothness behavior, the standard procedure to characterize the necessary conditions for the optimality cannot be performed. Therefore, we follow a different strategy which in the literature is known as the “deep quench” approach in order to obtain some optimality conditions that have to be interpreted in a more general framework. We establish the existence of optimal controls and some first-order optimality conditions for the system are derived by employing suitable approximation schemes.