Singular control of SPDEs with space-mean dynamics

Abstract: We consider the problem of optimal singular control of a stochastic partial differential equation (SPDE) with space-mean dependence. Such systems are proposed as models for population growth in a random environment. We obtain sufficient and necessary maximum principles for such control problems. The corresponding adjoint equation is a reflected backward stochastic partial differential equation (BSPDE) with space-mean dependence. We prove existence and uniqueness results for such equations. As an application we study optimal harvesting from a population modelled as an SPDE with space-mean dependence.