Bifurcation from stability to instability for a free boundary problem modeling tumor growth by Stokes equation

We consider a free boundary problem modeling tumor growth in fluid-like tissue. The model equations include a diffusion equation for the nutrient concentration, and the Stokes equation with a source which represents the proliferation of tumor cells. The proliferation rate μ and the cell-to-cell adhesiveness γ which keeps the tumor intact are two parameters which characterize the “aggressiveness” of the tumor. For any positive radius R there exists a unique radially symmetric stationary solution with radius r=R. For a sequence μ/γ=Mn(R) there exist symmetry-breaking bifurcation branches of solutions with free boundary r=R+εYn,0(θ)+O(ε²) (n even ?2) for small |ε|, where Yn,0 is the spherical harmonic of mode (n,0). Furthermore, the smallest Mn(R), say Mn_∗(R), is such that n_∗=n_∗(R)→∞ as R→∞. In this paper we prove that the radially symmetric stationary solution with R=RS is linearly stable if μ/γ<N_∗(RS,γ) and linearly unstable if μ/γ>N_∗(RS,γ), where N_∗(RS,γ)?Mn_∗(RS), and we prove that strict inequality holds if γ is small or if γ is large. The biological implications of these results are discussed at the end of the paper.     

Asymptotic stability for a free boundary problem arising in a tumor model

We consider a tumor model in which all cells are proliferating at a rate μ and their density is proportional to the nutrient concentration. The model consists of a coupled system of an elliptic equation and a parabolic equation, with the tumor boundary as a free boundary. It is known that for an appropriate choice of parameters, there exists a unique spherically symmetric stationary solution with radius RS which is independent of μ. It was recently proved that there is a function μ_∗(RS) such that the spherical stationary solution is linearly stable if μ<μ_∗(RS) and linearly unstable if μ>μ_∗(RS). In this paper we prove that the spherical stationary solution is nonlinearly stable (or, asymptotically stable) if μ<μ_∗(RS).     

On oscillatory solutions of certain forced Emden-Fowler like equations

We give a constructive proof of existence to oscillatory solutions for the differential equations x^″(t)+a(t)λ|x(t)|sign[x(t)]=e(t), where t?t₀?1 and λ>1, that decay to 0 when t→+∞ as O(t−μ) for μ>0 as close as desired to the “critical quantity” . For this class of equations, we have limt→+∞E(t)=0, where E(t)<0 and E^″(t)=e(t) throughout [t₀,+∞). We also establish that for any μ>μ^? and any negative-valued E(t)=o(t−μ) as t→+∞ the differential equation has a negative-valued solution decaying to 0 at + ∞ as o(t−μ). In this way, we are not in the reach of any of the developments from the recent paper [C.H. Ou, J.S.W. Wong, Forced oscillation of nth-order functional differential equations, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 262 (2001) 722-732].     

On nonuniqueness of solutions to elliptic equations for probability measures

We consider the set of all probability measures μ on Rd satisfying an elliptic equation L^∗μ=0 in the weak worm. We give sufficient conditions in order that this set contains at least two different elements. We also construct new examples of nonuniqueness for such equations.     

New oscillation criteria for linear matrix Hamiltonian systems

Some new oscillation criteria are established for the matrix linear Hamiltonian system X′=A(t)X+B(t)Y, Y′=C(t)X−A∗(t)Y under the hypothesis: A(t), B(t)=B∗(t)>0, and C(t)=C∗(t) are n×n real continuous matrix functions on the interval [t₀,∞), (−∞<t₀). These results are sharper than some previous results even for self-adjoint second order matrix differential systems.     

Oscillation criteria related to integral averaging technique for linear matrix Hamiltonian systems

By employing a generalized Riccati technique and an integral averaging technique, new oscillation criteria are established for the linear matrix Hamiltonian system U′=A(x)U+B(x)V, V′=C(x)U−A∗(x)V under the assumption that all A(x), B(x)=B∗(x)>0, and C(x)=C∗(x) are n×n matrices of real-valued continuous functions on the interval I=[x₀,∞) (−∞<x₀). These criteria extend, improve, and unify a number of existing results and also handle cases not covered by known criteria. Several interesting examples that illustrate the importance of our results are included.     

Classification of type I and type II behaviors for a supercritical nonlinear heat equation

We study blow-up of radially symmetric solutions of the nonlinear heat equation ut=Δu+|u|^p−1u either on RN or on a finite ball under the Dirichlet boundary conditions. We assume and that the initial data is bounded, possibly sign-changing. Our first goal is to establish various characterizations of type I and type II blow-ups. Among many other things we show that the following conditions are equivalent: (a) the blow-up is of type II; (b) the rescaled solution w(y,s) converges to either φ^∗(y) or −φ^∗(y) as s→∞, where φ^∗ denotes the singular stationary solution; (c) u(x,T)/φ^∗(x) tends to ±1 as x→0, where T is the blow-up time.Our second goal is to study continuation beyond blow-up. Among other things we show that if a blow-up is of type I and incomplete, then its limit L¹ continuation becomes smooth immediately after blow-up, and that type I blow-up implies “type I regularization,” that is, (t−T)^1/(p−1)‖u(⋅,t)L^∞_‖ is bounded as t↘T. We also give various criteria for complete and incomplete blow-ups.     

Semismall perturbations, semi-intrinsic ultracontractivity, and integral representations of nonnegative solutions for parabolic equations

We consider nonnegative solutions of a parabolic equation in a cylinder D×I, where D is a noncompact domain of a Riemannian manifold and I=(0,T) with 0<T?∞ or I=(−∞,0). Under the assumption [SSP] (i.e., the constant function 1 is a semismall perturbation of the associated elliptic operator on D), we establish an integral representation theorem of nonnegative solutions: In the case I=(0,T), any nonnegative solution is represented uniquely by an integral on (D×{0})∪(M_∂D×[0,T)), where M_∂D is the Martin boundary of D for the elliptic operator; and in the case I=(−∞,0), any nonnegative solution is represented uniquely by the sum of an integral on M_∂D×(−∞,0) and a constant multiple of a particular solution. We also show that [SSP] implies the condition [SIU] (i.e., the associated heat kernel is semi-intrinsically ultracontractive).     

Involutions and representations for reduced quantum algebras

In the context of deformation quantization, there exist various procedures to deal with the quantization of a reduced space Mred. We shall be concerned here mainly with the classical Marsden-Weinstein reduction, assuming that we have a proper action of a Lie group G on a Poisson manifold M, with a moment map J for which zero is a regular value. For the quantization, we follow Bordemann et al. (2000) [6] (with a simplified approach) and build a star product red_? on Mred from a strongly invariant star product ? on M. The new questions which are addressed in this paper concern the existence of natural ^∗-involutions on the reduced quantum algebra and the representation theory for such a reduced ^∗-algebra.We assume that ? is Hermitian and we show that the choice of a formal series of smooth densities on the embedded coisotropic submanifold C=J−1(0), with some equivariance property, defines a ^∗-involution for red_? on the reduced space. Looking into the question whether the corresponding ^∗-involution is the complex conjugation (which is a ^∗-involution in the Marsden-Weinstein context) yields a new notion of quantized modular class.We introduce a left (C^∞(M)?λ?,?)-submodule and a right (C^∞(Mred)?λ?,red_?)-submodule of C^∞(C)?λ?; we define on it a C^∞(Mred)?λ?-valued inner product and we establish that this gives a strong Morita equivalence bimodule between C^∞(Mred)?λ? and the finite rank operators on . The crucial point is here to show the complete positivity of the inner product. We obtain a Rieffel induction functor from the strongly non-degenerate ^∗-representations of (C^∞(Mred)?λ?,red_?) on pre-Hilbert right D-modules to those of (C^∞(M)?λ?,?), for any auxiliary coefficient ^∗-algebra D over C?λ?.     

Contractive maps on normed linear spaces and their applications to nonlinear matrix equations

In this paper we will give necessary and sufficient conditions under which a map is a contraction on a certain subset of a normed linear space. These conditions are already well known for maps on intervals in R. Using the conditions and Banach’s fixed point theorem we can prove a fixed point theorem for operators on a normed linear space. The fixed point theorem will be applied to the matrix equation X = I_n + A^∗f(X)A, where f is a map on the set of positive definite matrices induced by a real valued map on (0, ∞). This will give conditions on A and f under which the equation has a unique solution in a certain set. We will consider two examples of f in detail. In one example the application of the fixed point theorem is the first step in proving that the equation has a unique positive definite solution under the conditions on A.     

Special exact soliton solutions for the K(2, 2) equation with non-zero constant pedestal

Special exact solutions of the K(2, 2) equation, u_t + (u²)_x + (u²)_xxx = 0, are investigated by employing the qualitative theory of differential equations. Our procedure shows that the K(2, 2) equation either has loop soliton, cusped soliton and smooth soliton solutions when sitting on the non-zero constant pedestal lim_x→±∞u = A ≠ 0, or possesses compacton solutions only when lim_x→±∞u = 0. Mathematical analysis and numerical simulations are provided for these soliton solutions of the K(2, 2) equation.     

Traveling wavefronts for time-delayed reaction-diffusion equation: (I) Local nonlinearity

In this paper, we study a class of time-delayed reaction-diffusion equation with local nonlinearity for the birth rate. For all wavefronts with the speed c>c_∗, where c_∗>0 is the critical wave speed, we prove that these wavefronts are asymptotically stable, when the initial perturbation around the traveling waves decays exponentially as x→−∞, but the initial perturbation can be arbitrarily large in other locations. This essentially improves the stability results obtained by Mei, So, Li and Shen [M. Mei, J.W.-H. So, M.Y. Li, S.S.P. Shen, Asymptotic stability of traveling waves for the Nicholson's blowflies equation with diffusion, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 134 (2004) 579-594] for the speed with small initial perturbation and by Lin and Mei [C.-K. Lin, M. Mei, On travelling wavefronts of the Nicholson's blowflies equations with diffusion, submitted for publication] for c>c_∗ with sufficiently small delay time r≈0. The approach adopted in this paper is the technical weighted energy method used in [M. Mei, J.W.-H. So, M.Y. Li, S.S.P. Shen, Asymptotic stability of traveling waves for the Nicholson's blowflies equation with diffusion, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 134 (2004) 579-594], but inspired by Gourley [S.A. Gourley, Linear stability of travelling fronts in an age-structured reaction-diffusion population model, Quart. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 58 (2005) 257-268] and based on the property of the critical wavefronts, the weight function is carefully selected and it plays a key role in proving the stability for any c>c_∗ and for an arbitrary time-delay r>0.     

Large time behavior of solutions to degenerate parabolic equations with weights

We study the degenerate parabolic equation t_∂u=a(δ(x))upΔu−g(u) in Ω×(0,∞), where Ω⊂RN (N?1) is a smooth bounded domain, p?1, δ(x)=dist(x,∂Ω) and a is a continuous nondecreasing function such that a(0)=0. Under some suitable assumptions on a and g we prove the existence and the uniqueness of a classical solution and we study its asymptotic behavior as t→∞.     

Multiplication operators in Köthe-Bochner spaces

Let X be a Banach space and E an order continuous Banach function space over a finite measure μ. We prove that an operator T in the Köthe-Bochner space E(X) is a multiplication operator (by a function in L^∞(μ)) if and only if the equality T(g〈f,x^∗〉x)=g〈T(f),x^∗〉x holds for every g∈L^∞(μ), f∈E(X), x∈X and x^∗∈X^∗.     

Global existence of solutions for semilinear damped wave equation in 2-D exterior domain

We consider a mixed problem of a damped wave equation u_tt−Δu+u_t=|u|^p in the two dimensional exterior domain case. Small global in time solutions can be constructed in the case when the power p on the nonlinear term |u|^p satisfies p∗=2<p<+∞. For this purpose we shall deal with a radially symmetric solution in the exterior domain. A new device developed in Ikehata-Matsuyama (Sci. Math. Japon. 55 (2002) 33) plays an effective role.     

Morse index of layered solutions to the heterogeneous Allen-Cahn equation

Let u? be a single layered radially symmetric unstable solution of the Allen-Cahn equation −?²Δu=u(u−a(|x|))(1−u) over the unit ball with Neumann boundary conditions. We estimate the small eigenvalues of the linearized eigenvalue problem at u? when ? is small. As a consequence, we prove that the Morse index of u? is asymptotically given by [μ^∗+o(1)]?−(N−1)/2 with μ^∗ a certain positive constant expressed in terms of parameters determined by the Allen-Cahn equation. Our estimates on the small eigenvalues have many other applications. For example, they may be used in the search of other non-radially symmetric solutions, which will be considered in forthcoming papers.     

Asymptotic behavior of positive solutions for heat equation with nonlinear term

We study the nonlinear parabolic equation , in Rn×(0,∞) with boundary condition u(x,0)=u₀(x), not necessarily bounded function. The nonlinearity φ((x,t),u) is required to satisfy some conditions related to the parabolic Kato class P^∞(Rn) while allowing existence of positive solutions of the equation and continuity of such solutions. Our approach is based on potential theory tools.     

Complete quenching for singular parabolic problems

We prove finite time extinction of the solution of the equation ut−Δu+χ{u>0}(u−β−λf(u))=0 in Ω×(0,∞) with boundary data u(x,t)=0 on ∂Ω×(0,∞) and initial condition u(x,0)=u₀(x) in Ω, where Ω⊂RN is a bounded smooth domain, 0<β<1 and λ>0 is a parameter. For every small enough λ>0 there exists a time t₀>0 such that the solution is identically equal to zero.     

Existence of three nontrivial solutions for an elliptic system

In this paper we consider the existence of nontrivial solutions for an elliptic system, where the nonlinear term is superlinear in one equation and sublinear in the other equation. By constructing two cones and computing the fixed point index in K₁, K₂ and K₁×K₂, we obtain that the elliptic system has three nontrivial solutions (u,0), (0,v) and (u^∗,v^∗). It is remarkable that the third nontrivial solution (u^∗,v^∗) is established on the Cartesian product of two cones, in which the feature of two equations can be exploited better.