Generic Hamiltonian Dynamics

In this paper we contribute to the generic theory of Hamiltonians by proving that there is a \(C^2\)-residual \({\mathcal {R}}\) in the set of \(C^2\) Hamiltonians on a closed symplectic manifold \(M\), such that, for any \(H\in {\mathcal {R}}\), there is a full measure subset of energies \(e\) in \(H(M)\) such that the Hamiltonian level \((H,e)\) is topologically mixing; moreover these level sets are homoclinic classes.     

A Note on the Relative Equilibria Bifurcations in the $$$$-Body Problem

Consider the planar Newtonian \((2N+1)\)-body problem, \(N\ge 1,\) with \(2N\) bodies of unit mass and one body of mass \(m\). Using the discrete symmetry due to the equal masses and reducing by the rotational symmetry, we show that solutions with the \(2N\) unit mass points at the vertices of two concentric regular \(N\)-gons and \(m\) at the centre at all times form invariant manifold. We study the regular \(2N\)-gon with central mass \(m\) relative equilibria within the dynamics on the invariant manifold described above. As \(m\) varies, we identify the bifurcations, relate our results to previous work and provide the spectral picture of the linearization at the relative equilibria.     

Topological Pressure of Generic Points for Amenable Group Actions

Let (X, G) be a G-action topological dynamical system (t.d.s. for short), where G is a countably infinite discrete amenable group. In this paper, we study the topological pressure of the sets of generic points. We show that when the system satisfies the almost specification property, for any G-invariant measure \(\mu \) and any continuous map \(\varphi \),

$$\begin{aligned} P\left( X_{\mu },\varphi ,\{F_n\}\right) = h_{\mu }(X)+\int \varphi d\mu , \end{aligned}$$

where \(\{F_n\}\) is a Følner sequence, \(X_{\mu }\) is the set of generic points of \(\mu \) with respect to (w.r.t. for short) \(\{F_n\}\), \(P(X_{\mu },\varphi ,\{F_n\})\) is the topological pressure of \(X_{\mu }\) for \(\varphi \) w.r.t. \(\{F_n\}\) and \(h_{\mu }(X)\) is the measure-theoretic entropy.

     

On the Justification of Viscoelastic Elliptic Membrane Shell Equations

We consider a family of linearly viscoelastic shells with thickness \(2\varepsilon\), clamped along their entire lateral face, all having the same middle surface \(S=\boldsymbol{\theta}(\bar{\omega})\subset \mathbb{R}^{3}\), where \(\omega\subset\mathbb{R}^{2}\) is a bounded and connected open set with a Lipschitz-continuous boundary \(\gamma\). We make an essential geometrical assumption on the middle surface \(S\), which is satisfied if \(\gamma\) and \(\boldsymbol{\theta}\) are smooth enough and \(S\) is uniformly elliptic. We show that, if the applied body force density is \(O(1)\) with respect to \(\varepsilon\) and surface tractions density is \(O(\varepsilon)\), the solution of the scaled variational problem in curvilinear coordinates, \(\boldsymbol{u}( \varepsilon)\), defined over the fixed domain \(\varOmega=\omega\times (-1,1)\) for each \(t\in[0,T]\), converges to a limit \(\boldsymbol{u}\) with \(u_{\alpha}(\varepsilon)\rightarrow u_{\alpha}\) in \(W^{1,2}(0,T,H ^{1}(\varOmega))\) and \(u_{3}(\varepsilon)\rightarrow u_{3}\) in \(W^{1,2}(0,T,L^{2}(\varOmega))\) as \(\varepsilon\to0\). Moreover, we prove that this limit is independent of the transverse variable. Furthermore, the average \(\bar{\boldsymbol{u}}= \frac{1}{2}\int_{-1}^{1} \boldsymbol{u}dx_{3}\), which belongs to the space \(W^{1,2}(0,T, V_{M}( \omega))\), where

$$V_{M}(\omega)=H^{1}_{0}(\omega)\times H^{1}_{0}(\omega)\times L ^{2}(\omega), $$

satisfies what we have identified as (scaled) two-dimensional equations of a viscoelastic membrane elliptic shell, which includes a long-term memory that takes into account previous deformations. We finally provide convergence results which justify those equations.

     

Initial and Boundary Blow-U Problem for $$$$-Lalacian Parabolic Equation with General Absortion

In this article, we investigate the initial and boundary blow-up problem for the \(p\)-Laplacian parabolic equation \(u_t-\Delta _p u=-b(x,t)f(u)\) over a smooth bounded domain \(\Omega \) of \(\mathbb {R}^N\) with \(N\ge 2\), where \(\Delta _pu=\mathrm{div}(|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u)\) with \(p>1\), and \(f(u)\) is a function of regular variation at infinity. We study the existence and uniqueness of positive solutions, and their asymptotic behaviors near the parabolic boundary.     

Topological Structural Stability of Partial Differential Equations on Projected Spaces

In this paper we study topological structural stability for a family of nonlinear semigroups \(T_h(\cdot )\) on Banach space \(X_h\) depending on the parameter h. Our results shows the robustness of the internal dynamics and characterization of global attractors for projected Banach spaces, generalizing previous results for small perturbations of partial differential equations. We apply the results to an abstract semilinear equation with Dumbbell type domains and to an abstract evolution problem discretized by the finite element method.     

Homoclinic Orbits and Entropy for Three-Dimensional Flows

We prove that every \(C^1\) three-dimensional flow with positive topological entropy can be \(C^1\) approximated by flows with homoclinic orbits.     

A Reaction–Diffusion–Advection Equation with Mixed and Free Boundary Conditions

We investigate a reaction–diffusion–advection equation of the form \(u_t-u_{xx}+\beta u_x=f(u)\) \((t>0,\,0<x<h(t))\) with mixed boundary condition at \(x=0\) and Stefan free boundary condition at \(x=h(t)\). Such a model may be applied to describe the dynamical process of a new or invasive species adopting a combination of random movement and advection upward or downward along the resource gradient, with the free boundary representing the expanding front. The goal of this paper is to understand the effect of advection environment and no flux across the left boundary on the dynamics of this species. For the case \(|\beta |<c_0\), we first derive the spreading–vanishing dichotomy and sharp threshold for spreading and vanishing, and then provide a much sharper estimate for the spreading speed of h(t) and the uniform convergence of u(t, x) when spreading happens. For the case \(|\beta |\ge c_0\), some results concerning virtual spreading, vanishing and virtual vanishing are obtained. Here \(c_0\) is the minimal speed of traveling waves of the differential equation.     

Long-time Dynamics of Resonant Weakly Nonlinear CGL Equations

Consider a weakly nonlinear CGL equation on the torus \(\mathbb {T}^d\):

$$\begin{aligned} u_t+i\Delta u=\epsilon [\mu (-1)^{m-1}\Delta ^{m} u+b|u|^{2p}u+ ic|u|^{2q}u]. \end{aligned}$$

(*)

Here \(u=u(t,x)\), \(x\in \mathbb {T}^d\), \(0<\epsilon <<1\), \(\mu \geqslant 0\), \(b,c\in \mathbb {R}\) and \(m,p,q\in \mathbb {N}\). Define \(I(u)=(I_{\mathbf {k}},\mathbf {k}\in \mathbb {Z}^d)\), where \(I_{\mathbf {k}}=v_{\mathbf {k}}\bar{v}_{\mathbf {k}}/2\) and \(v_{\mathbf {k}}\), \(\mathbf {k}\in \mathbb {Z}^d\), are the Fourier coefficients of the function \(u\) we give. Assume that the equation \((*)\) is well posed on time intervals of order \(\epsilon ^{-1}\) and its solutions have there a-priori bounds, independent of the small parameter. Let \(u(t,x)\) solve the equation \((*)\). If \(\epsilon \) is small enough, then for \(t\lesssim {\epsilon ^{-1}}\), the quantity \(I(u(t,x))\) can be well described by solutions of an effective equation:

$$\begin{aligned} u_t=\epsilon [\mu (-1)^{m-1}\Delta ^m u+ F(u)], \end{aligned}$$

where the term \(F(u)\) can be constructed through a kind of resonant averaging of the nonlinearity \(b|u|^{2p}+ ic|u|^{2q}u\).

     

On Entropy of Graph Maps That Give Hereditarily Indecomposable Inverse Limits

We prove that if \(f:G\rightarrow G\) is a map on a topological graph G such that the inverse limit \(\varprojlim (G,f)\) is hereditarily indecomposable, and entropy of f is positive, then there exists an entropy set with infinite topological entropy. When G is the circle and the degree of f is positive then the entropy is always infinite and the rotation set of f is nondegenerate. This shows that the Anosov-Katok type constructions of the pseudo-circle as a minimal set in volume-preserving smooth dynamical systems, or in complex dynamics, obtained previously by Handel, Herman and Chéritat cannot be modeled on inverse limits. This also extends a previous result of Mouron who proved that if \(G=[0,1]\), then \(h(f)\in \{0,\infty \}\), and combined with a result of Ito shows that certain dynamical systems on compact finite-dimensional Riemannian manifolds must either have zero entropy on their invariant sets or be non-differentiable.     

On the Convexity of Nonlinear Elastic Energies in the Right Cauchy-Green Tensor

We present a sufficient condition under which a weak solution of the Euler-Lagrange equations in nonlinear elasticity is already a global minimizer of the corresponding elastic energy functional. This criterion is applicable to energies \(W(F)=\widehat{W}(F^{T}F)=\widehat{W}(C)\) which are convex with respect to the right Cauchy-Green tensor \(C=F^{T}F\), where \(F\) denotes the gradient of deformation. Examples of such energies exhibiting a blow up for \(\det F\to0\) are given.     

Threshold Behavior and Non-quasiconvergent Solutions with Localized Initial Data for Bistable Reaction–Diffusion Equations

We consider bounded solutions of the semilinear heat equation \(u_t=u_{xx}+f(u)\) on \(R\), where \(f\) is of the unbalanced bistable type. We examine the \(\omega \)-limit sets of bounded solutions with respect to the locally uniform convergence. Our goal is to show that even for solutions whose initial data vanish at \(x=\pm \infty \), the \(\omega \)-limit sets may contain functions which are not steady states. Previously, such examples were known for balanced bistable nonlinearities. The novelty of the present result is that it applies to a robust class of nonlinearities. Our proof is based on an analysis of threshold solutions for ordered families of initial data whose limits at infinity are not necessarily zeros of \(f\).     

Models of Elastic Shells in Contact with a Rigid Foundation: An Asymptotic Approach

We consider a family of linearly elastic shells with thickness \(2\varepsilon\) (where \(\varepsilon\) is a small parameter). The shells are clamped along a portion of their lateral face, all having the same middle surface \(S\), and may enter in contact with a rigid foundation along the bottom face.We are interested in studying the limit behavior of both the three-dimensional problems, given in curvilinear coordinates, and their solutions (displacements \(\boldsymbol{u}^{\varepsilon}\) of covariant components \(u_{i}^{\varepsilon}\)) when \(\varepsilon\) tends to zero. To do that, we use asymptotic analysis methods. On one hand, we find that if the applied body force density is \(O(1)\) with respect to \(\varepsilon\) and surface tractions density is \(O(\varepsilon)\), a suitable approximation of the variational formulation of the contact problem is a two-dimensional variational inequality which can be identified as the variational formulation of the obstacle problem for an elastic membrane. On the other hand, if the applied body force density is \(O(\varepsilon^{2})\) and surface tractions density is \(O(\varepsilon^{3})\), the corresponding approximation is a different two-dimensional inequality which can be identified as the variational formulation of the obstacle problem for an elastic flexural shell. We finally discuss the existence and uniqueness of solution for the limit two-dimensional variational problems found.     

Standard decomposition of expansive ergodically supported dynamics

In this work, we introduce the notion of weak quasigroups, which are quasigroup operations defined almost everywhere on some set. Then, we prove that the topological entropy and the ergodic period of an invertible expansive ergodically supported dynamical system \((X,T)\) with the shadowing property establish a sufficient criterion for the existence of quasigroup operations defined almost everywhere outside of universally null sets and for which \(T\) is an automorphism. Furthermore, we find a decomposition of the dynamics of \(T\) in terms of \(T\) -invariant weak topological subquasigroups.     

Boundedness for Some Doubly Nonlinear Parabolic Equations in Measure Spaces

In the context of measure spaces equipped with a doubling non-trivial Borel measure supporting a Poincaré inequality, we derive local and global sup bounds of the nonnegative weak subsolutions of

$$\begin{aligned} (u^{q})_t-\nabla \cdot {(|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u)}=0, \quad \mathrm {in} \ U_\tau = U \times (\tau _1, \tau _2] , \quad p>1,\quad q>1 \end{aligned}$$

and of its associated Dirichlet problem, respectively. For particular ranges of the exponents p and q, we show that any locally nonnegative weak subsolution, taken in \(Q (\subset \bar{Q}\subset U_\tau )\), is controlled from above by the \(L^\alpha (\bar{Q}) \)-norm, for \(\alpha = \max \{p, q+1\}\). As for the global setting, under suitable assumptions on the boundary datum g and on the initial datum, we obtain sup bounds for u, in \(U \times \{ t\}\), which depend on the \(\sup g\) and on the \(L^{q+1}(U \times (\tau _1, \tau _1+t])\)-norm of \((u-\sup g)_+\), for all \(t \in (0, \tau _2-\tau _1]\). On the critical ranges of p and q, a priori local and global \(L^\infty \) estimates require extra qualitative information on u.

     

One-Dimensional Super-Fast Diffusion: Persistence Versus Extinction Revisited—Extinction at Spatial Infinity

We consider positive classical solutions of

$$\begin{aligned} v_t=(v^{m-1}v_x)_x, \qquad x\in {\mathbb {R}}, \ t>0, \qquad (\star ) \end{aligned}$$

in the super-fast diffusion range \(m<-1\). Our main interest is in smooth positive initial data \(v_0=v(\cdot ,0)\) which decay as \(x\rightarrow +\infty \), but which are possibly unbounded as \(x\rightarrow -\infty \), having in mind monotonically decreasing data as prototypes. It is firstly proved that if \(v_0\) decays sufficiently fast only in one direction by satisfying

$$\begin{aligned} v_0(x) \le cx^{-\beta } \qquad \text{ for } \text{ all } ~x>0 \quad \hbox { with some }\quad \beta >\frac{2}{1-m} \end{aligned}$$

and some \(c>0\), then the so-called proper solution of (\(\star \)) vanishes identically in \({\mathbb {R}}\times (0,\infty )\), and accordingly no positive classical solution exists in any time interval in this case. Complemented by some sufficient criteria for solutions to remain positive either locally or globally in time, this condition for instantaneous extinction is shown to be optimal at least with respect to algebraic decay of the initial data. This partially extends some known nonexistence results for (\(\star \)) (Daskalopoulos and Del Pino in Arch Rat Mech Anal 137(4):363–380, 1997) in that it does not require any knowledge on the behavior of \(v_0(x)\) for \(x<0\). Next focusing on the phenomenon of extinction in finite time, we show that in this respect a mass influx from \(x=-\infty \) can interact with mass loss at \(x=+\infty \) in a nontrivial manner. Namely, we shall detect examples of monotone initial data, with critical decay as \(x\rightarrow +\infty \) and exponential growth as \(x\rightarrow -\infty \), that lead to solutions of (\(\star \)) which become extinct at a finite positive time, but which have empty extinction sets. This is in sharp contrast to known extinction mechanisms which are such that the corresponding extinction sets coincide with all of \({\mathbb {R}}\).

     

Whirl Mappings on Generalised Annuli and the Incompressible Symmetric Equilibria of the Dirichlet Energy

In this paper we show a striking contrast in the symmetries of equilibria and extremisers of the total elastic energy of a hyperelastic incompressible annulus subject to pure displacement boundary conditions. Indeed upon considering the equilibrium equations, here, the nonlinear second order elliptic system formulated for the deformation \(u=(u_{1}, \ldots, u_{N})\):

$$ {\mathbb{E}} {\mathbb{L}}[u, {\mathbf {X}}] = \left \{ \textstyle\begin{array}{l@{\quad}l} \Delta u = \operatorname{div}(\mathscr{P} (x) \operatorname{cof} \nabla u) & \textrm{in }{\mathbf {X}},\\ \det\nabla u = 1 & \textrm{in }{\mathbf {X}},\\ u \equiv\varphi& \textrm{on }\partial{\mathbf {X}}, \end{array}\displaystyle \right . $$

where \({\mathbf {X}}\) is a finite, open, symmetric \(N\)-annulus (with \(N \ge2\)), \(\mathscr{P}=\mathscr{P}(x)\) is an unknown hydrostatic pressure field and \(\varphi\) is the identity mapping, we prove that, despite the inherent rotational symmetry in the system, when \(N=3\), the problem possesses no non-trivial symmetric equilibria whereas in sharp contrast, when \(N=2\), the problem possesses an infinite family of symmetric and topologically distinct equilibria. We extend and prove the counterparts of these results in higher dimensions by way of showing that a similar dichotomy persists between all odd vs. even dimensions \(N \ge4\) and discuss a number of closely related issues.

     

A Characterization of Benford’s Law in Discrete-Time Linear Systems

A necessary and sufficient condition (“nonresonance”) is established for every solution of an autonomous linear difference equation, or more generally for every sequence \((x^\top A^n y)\) with \(x,y\in \mathbb {R}^d\) and \(A\in \mathbb {R}^{d\times d}\), to be either trivial or else conform to a strong form of Benford’s Law (logarithmic distribution of significands). This condition contains all pertinent results in the literature as special cases. Its number-theoretical implications are discussed in the context of specific examples, and so are its possible extensions and modifications.     

On the Damped Harmonic Oscillator with Time Dependent Damping Coefficient

Conditions guaranteeing asymptotic stability for the differential equation

$$\begin{aligned} x''+h(t)x'+\omega ^2x=0 \qquad (x\in \mathbb {R}) \end{aligned}$$

are studied, where the damping coefficient \(h:[0,\infty )\rightarrow [0,\infty )\) is a locally integrable function, and the frequency \(\omega >0\) is constant. Our conditions need neither the requirement \(h(t)\le \overline{h}<\infty \) (\(t\in [0,\infty )\); \(\overline{h}\) is constant) (“small damping”), nor \(0< \underline{h}\le h(t)\) (\(t\in [0,\infty )\); \(\underline{h}\) is constant) (“large damping”); in other words, they can be applied to the general case \(0\le h(t)<\infty \) (\(t\in [0,\infty \))). We establish a condition which combines weak integral positivity with Smith’s growth condition

$$\begin{aligned} \int ^\infty _0 \exp [-H(t)]\int _0^t \exp [H(s)]\,\mathrm{{d}}s\,\mathrm{{d}}t=\infty \qquad \left( H(t):=\int _0^t h(\tau )\,\mathrm{{d}}\tau \right) , \end{aligned}$$

so it is able to control both the small and the large values of the damping coefficient simultaneously.

     

Spreading in a Shifting Environment Modeled by the Diffusive Logistic Equation with a Free Boundary

We investigate the influence of a shifting environment on the spreading of an invasive species through a model given by the diffusive logistic equation with a free boundary. When the environment is homogeneous and favourable, this model was first studied in Du and Lin (SIAM J Math Anal 42:377–405, 2010), where a spreading–vanishing dichotomy was established for the long-time dynamics of the species, and when spreading happens, it was shown that the species invades the new territory at some uniquely determined asymptotic speed \(c_0>0\). Here we consider the situation that part of such an environment becomes unfavourable, and the unfavourable range of the environment moves into the favourable part with speed \(c>0\). We prove that when \(c\ge c_0\), the species always dies out in the long-run, but when \(0<c<c_0\), the long-time behavior of the species is determined by a trichotomy described by (a) vanishing, (b) borderline spreading, or (c) spreading. If the initial population is written in the form \(u_0(x)=\sigma \phi (x)\) with \(\phi \) fixed and \(\sigma >0\) a parameter, then there exists \(\sigma _0>0\) such that vanishing happens when \(\sigma \in (0,\sigma _0)\), borderline spreading happens when \(\sigma =\sigma _0\), and spreading happens when \(\sigma >\sigma _0\).