A microscopic convexity principle for spacetime convex solutions of fully nonlinear parabolic equations

We study microscopic spacetime convexity properties of fully nonlinear parabolic partial differential equations. Under certain general structure condition, we establish a constant rank theorem for the spacetime convex solutions of fully nonlinear parabolic equations. At last, we consider the parabolic convexity of solutions to parabolic equations and the convexity of the spacetime second fundamental form of geometric flows.     

Large time behavior for some nonlinear degenerate parabolic equations

We study the asymptotic behavior of Lipschitz continuous solutions of nonlinear degenerate parabolic equations in the periodic setting. Our results apply to a large class of Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equations. Defining Σ as the set where the diffusion vanishes, i.e., where the equation is totally degenerate, we obtain the convergence when the equation is uniformly parabolic outside Σ and, on Σ, the Hamiltonian is either strictly convex or satisfies an assumption similar of the one introduced by Barles–Souganidis (2000) for first-order Hamilton–Jacobi equations. This latter assumption allows to deal with equations with nonconvex Hamiltonians. We can also release the uniform parabolic requirement outside Σ. As a consequence, we prove the convergence of some everywhere degenerate second-order equations.     

IDENTIFICATION OF PARAMETERS IN SEMILINEAR PARABOLIC EQUATIONS

An optimization theoretic approach of coefficients in semilinear parabolic equation is presented. It is based on convex analysis techniques. General theorems on existence are proved in L¹ setting. A necessary condition is given for the solutions of the parameter estimation problem.     

Convexity with respect to a differential equation

The concepts of convexity of a set, convexity of a function and monotonicity of an operator with respect to a second-order ordinary differential equation are introduced in this paper. Several well-known properties of usual convexity are derived in this context, in particular, a characterization of convexity of function and monotonicity of an operator. A sufficient optimality condition for a optimization problem is obtained as an application. A number of examples of convex sets, convex functions and monotone operators with respect to a differential equation are presented.     

Globally strictly convex cost functional for an inverse parabolic problem

A coefficient inverse problem for a parabolic equation is considered. Using a Carleman weight function, a globally strictly convex cost functional is constructed for this problem. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal boundary regularity for a singular Monge–Ampère equation

In this paper we study the optimal global regularity for a singular Monge–Ampère type equation which arises from a few geometric problems. We find that the global regularity does not depend on the smoothness of domain, but it does depend on the convexity of the domain. We introduce $(a,\eta )$ type to describe the convexity. As a result, we show that the more convex is the domain, the better is the regularity of the solution. In particular, the regularity is the best near angular points.     

Solitary waves and a stability analysis of an equation of short and long dispersive waves

A universal model for the interaction of long nonlinear waves and packets of short waves with long linear carrier waves is given by a system in which an equation of Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) type is coupled to an equation of nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) type. The system has solutions of steady form in which one component is like a solitary-wave solution of the KdV equation and the other component is like a ground-state solution of the NLS equation. We study the stability of solitary-wave solutions to an equation of short and long waves by using variational methods based on the use of energy–momentum functionals and the techniques of convexity type. We use the concentration compactness method to prove the existence of solitary waves. We prove that the stability of solitary waves is determined by the convexity or concavity of a function of the wave speed.     

Global attractor for a non-autonomous integro-differential equation in materials with memory

The long-time behavior of an integro-differential parabolic equation of diffusion type with memory terms, expressed by convolution integrals involving infinite delays and by a forcing term with bounded delay, is investigated in this paper. The assumptions imposed on the coefficients are weak in the sense that uniqueness of solutions of the corresponding initial value problems cannot be guaranteed. Then, it is proved that the model generates a multivalued non-autonomous dynamical system which possesses a pullback attractor. First, the analysis is carried out with an abstract parabolic equation. Then, the theory is applied to the particular integro-differential equation which is the objective of this paper. The general results obtained in the paper are also valid for other types of parabolic equations with memory.     

Fundamental results for pointfree convex geometry

Inspired by locale theory, we propose “pointfree convex geometry”. We introduce the notion of convexity algebra as a pointfree convexity space. There are two notions of a point for convexity algebra: one is a chain-prime meet-complete filter and the other is a maximal meet-complete filter. In this paper we show the following: (1) the former notion of a point induces a dual equivalence between the category of “spatial” convexity algebras and the category of “sober” convexity spaces as well as a dual adjunction between the category of convexity algebras and the category of convexity spaces; (2) the latter notion of point induces a dual equivalence between the category of “m-spatial” convexity algebras and the category of “m-sober” convexity spaces. We finally argue that the former notion of a point is more useful than the latter one from a category theoretic point of view and that the former notion of a point actually represents a polytope (or generic point) and the latter notion of a point properly represents a point. We also remark on the close relationships between pointfree convex geometry and domain theory.     

Propagation of chaos for the Keller–Segel equation over bounded domains

In this paper we rigorously justify the propagation of chaos for the parabolic–elliptic Keller–Segel equation over bounded convex domains. The boundary condition under consideration is the no-flux condition. As intermediate steps, we establish the well-posedness of the associated stochastic equation as well as the well-posedness of the Keller–Segel equation for bounded weak solutions.     

Example of a displacement convex functional of first order

We present a family of first-order functionals which are displacement convex, that is convex along the geodesics induced by the quadratic transportation distance on the circle. The displacement convexity implies the existence and uniqueness of gradient flows of the given functionals. More precisely, we show the existence and uniqueness of gradient-flow solutions of a class of fourth-order degenerate parabolic equations with periodic boundary data. Moreover, positivity of the absolutely continuous part of the solutions is preserved along the flow.     

Parabolic quasi‐concavity for solutions to parabolic problems in convex rings

We investigate some geometric properties of level sets of the solutions of parabolic problems in convex rings. We introduce the notion of parabolic quasi‐concavity, which involves time and space jointly and is a stronger property than the spatial quasi‐concavity, and study the convexity of superlevel sets of the solutions (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Singular and degenerate anisotropic parabolic equations with a nonlinear source

The Dirichlet problem in arbitrary domain for degenerate and singular anisotropic parabolic equations with a nonlinear source term is considered. We state conditions that guarantee the existence and uniqueness of a global weak solution to the problem. A similar result is proved for the parabolic p-Laplace equation.     

An anisotropic area-preserving flow for convex plane curves

This paper will deal with an anisotropic area-preserving flow which keeps the convexity of the evolving curve and the limiting curve converges to a homothety of a symmetric smooth strictly convex plane curve.     

Diffusive approximations for a class of nonlinear parabolic equations

We study a class of discrete velocity type approximations to nonlinear parabolic equations with source. After proving existence results and estimates on the solution to the relaxation system, we pass into the limit towards a weak solution, which is the unique entropy solution if the coefficients of the parabolic equation are constant.     

Large time behavior of free boundary for a degenerate parabolic equation with absorption

This work studies the large time behavior of free boundary and continuous dependence on nonlinearity for the Cauchy problem of a degenerate parabolic partial differential equation with absorption. Our objective is to give an explicit expression of speed of propagation of the solution and to show that the solution depends on the nonlinearity of the equation continuously.     

Extremal solutions of quasilinear parabolic inclusions with generalized Clarke's gradient

In this paper we consider an initial boundary value problem for a parabolic inclusion whose multivalued nonlinearity is characterized by Clarke's generalized gradient of some locally Lipschitz function, and whose elliptic operator may be a general quasilinear operator of Leray-Lions type. Recently, extremality results have been obtained in case that the governing multivalued term is of special structure such as, multifunctions given by the usual subdifferential of convex functions or subgradients of so-called dc-functions. The main goal of this paper is to prove the existence of extremal solutions within a sector of appropriately defined upper and lower solutions for quasilinear parabolic inclusions with general Clarke's gradient. The main tools used in the proof are abstract results on nonlinear evolution equations, regularization, comparison, truncation, and special test function techniques as well as tools from nonsmooth analysis.     

Monotonicity of solutions and blow-up for semilinear parabolic equations with nonlinear memory

We show the existence of monotone in time solutions for a semilinear parabolic equation with memory. The blow-up rate estimate of the solution is known to be a consequence of the monotonicity property.     

The ignition problem for a scalar nonconvex combustion model

The ignition problem for the scalar Chapman-Jouguet combustion model without convexity is considered. Under the pointwise and global entropy conditions, we constructively obtain the existence and uniqueness of the solution and show that the unburnt state is stable (unstable) when the binding energy is small (large), which is the desired property for a combustion model. The transitions between deflagration and detonation are shown, which do not appear in the convex case.     

Application of the G class of functions in the parabolic class

In this paper,the application of the G class of functions in the parabolic class is considered. The regularity of the solution for the first boundary value problem of parabolic equation in divergence form is proved.