Variational Formula for the Time Constant of First‐Passage Percolation

We consider first‐passage percolation with positive, stationary‐ergodic weights on the square lattice ?^d. Let T(x) be the first‐passage time from the origin to a point x in ?^d. The convergence of the scaled first‐passage time T([nx])/n to the time constant as n → ∞ can be viewed as a problem of homogenization for a discrete Hamilton‐Jacobi‐Bellman (HJB) equation. We derive an exact variational formula for the time constant and construct an explicit iteration that produces a minimizer of the variational formula (under a symmetry assumption). We explicitly identify when the iteration produces correctors.© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A mixed‐type Galerkin variational formulation and fast algorithms for variable‐coefficient fractional diffusion equations

We consider the variable‐coefficient fractional diffusion equations with two‐sided fractional derivative. By introducing an intermediate variable, we propose a mixed‐type Galerkin variational formulation and prove the existence and uniqueness of the variational solution over . On the basis of the formulation, we develop a mixed‐type finite element procedure on commonly used finite element spaces and derive the solvability of the finite element solution and the error bounds for the unknown and the intermediate variable. For the Toeplitz‐like linear system generated by discretization, we design a fast conjugate gradient normal residual method to reduce the storage from O(N²) to O(N) and the computing cost from O(N³) to O(NlogN). Numerical experiments are included to verify our theoretical findings. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

TV‐like regularization for backward parabolic problems

This paper investigates an inverse problem for parabolic equations backward in time, which is solved by total‐variation‐like (TV‐like, in abbreviation) regularization method with cost function ∥u_x∥². The existence, uniqueness and stability estimate for the regularization problem are deduced in the linear case. For numerical illustration, the variational adjoint method, which presents a simple method to derive the gradient of the optimization functional, is introduced to reconstruct the unknown initial condition for both linear and nonlinear parabolic equations. The conjugate gradient method is used to iteratively search for the optimal approximation. Numerical results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An elliptic equation under the effect of two nonlocal terms

The aim of this note is to investigate the existence of signed and sign‐changing solutions to the Kirchhoff type problem (0.1) where Ω is a bounded smooth domain in (N = 1,2,3), a,b > 0 and 2 < p < 2^?, with 2^?=+∞ if N = 1,2 and 2^?=6 if N = 3. Using variational methods, we show that (0.1) possesses three solutions of mountain pass type (one positive, one negative and one sign‐changing) and infinitely many high‐energy sign‐changing solutions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The existence of solutions for an impulsive fractional coupled system of (p,q)‐Laplacian type without the Ambrosetti‐Rabinowitz condition

In this article, based on the variational approach, the existence of at least one nontrivial solution is studied for (p, q)‐Laplacian type impulsive fractional differential equations involving Riemann‐Liouville derivatives. Without the usual Ambrosetti‐Rabinowitz condition, the nonlinearity f in the paper is considered under some suitable assumptions.     

Estimates of the deviations from the exact solutions for variational inequalities describing the stationary flow of certain viscous incompressible fluids

This paper is concerned with computable and guaranteed upper bounds of the difference between exact solutions of variational inequalities arising in the theory of viscous fluids and arbitrary approximations in the corresponding energy space. Such estimates (also called error majorants of functional type) have been derived for the considered class of nonlinear boundary‐value problems in (Math. Meth. Appl. Sci. 2006; 29:2225–2244) with the help of variational methods based on duality theory from convex analysis. In the present paper, it is shown that error majorants can be derived in a different way by certain transformations of the variational inequalities that define generalized solutions. The error bounds derived by this techniques for the velocity function differ from those obtained by the variational method. These estimates involve only global constants coming from Korn‐ and Friedrichs‐type inequalities, which are not difficult to evaluate in case of Dirichlet boundary conditions. For the case of mixed boundary conditions, we also derive another form of the estimate that contains only one constant coming from the following assertion: the L² norm of a vector‐valued function from H¹(Ω) in the factor space generated by the equivalence with respect to rigid motions is bounded by the L² norm of the symmetric part of the gradient tensor. As for some ‘simple’ domains such as squares or cubes, the constants in this inequality can be found analytically (or numerically), we obtain a unified form of an error majorant for any domain that admits a decomposition into such subdomains. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Monotone first‐order weighted schemes for scalar conservation laws

In this work, we present a monotone first‐order weighted (FORWE) method for scalar conservation laws using a variational formulation. We prove theoretical properties as consistency, monotonicity, and convergence of the proposed scheme for the one‐dimensional (1D) Cauchy problem. These convergence results are extended to multidimensional scalar conservation laws by a dimensional splitting technique. For the validation of the FORWE method, we consider some standard bench‐mark tests of bidimensional and 1D conservation law equations. Finally, we analyze the accuracy of the method with L¹ and L^∞ error estimates. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

Well‐posedness and approximation of solutions of linear divergence‐form elliptic problems on exterior regions

This paper describes well‐posedness, spectral representations, and approximations of solutions of uniformly elliptic, second‐order, divergence form elliptic boundary value problems on exterior regions U in when N ≥ 3. Inhomogeneous Dirichlet, Neumann, and Robin boundary conditions are treated. These problems are first shown to be well‐posed in the space E¹(U) of finite‐energy functions on U using variational methods. Spectral representations of these solutions involving Steklov eigenfunctions and solutions subject to zero Dirichlet boundary conditions are described. Some approximation results for the A‐harmonic components are obtained. Positivity and comparison results for these solutions are given. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non‐standard Stokes and Navier–Stokes problems: existence and regularity in stationary case

This paper is devoted to Stokes and Navier–Stokes problems with non‐standard boundary conditions: we consider, in particular, the case where the pressure is given on a part of the boundary. These problems were studied by Bégue, Conca, Murat and Pironneau. They proved the existence of variational solutions, indicating that these were solutions of the initial non‐standard problems, if they are regular enough, but without specifying the conditions on the data which would imply this regularity. In this paper, first we show that the variational solutions, on supposing pressure on the boundary Γ₂ of regularity H^1/2 instead of H^?1/2, have their Laplacians in L² and, therefore, are solutions of non‐standard Stokes problem. Next, we give a result of regularity H², which we generalize, obtaining regularities W^{m, r}, m∈?, m?2, r?2. Finally, by a fixed‐point argument, we prove analogous results for the Navier–Stokes problem, in the case where the viscosity νis large compared to the data. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A critical Kirchhoff‐type problem involving the ‐Laplacian

In this paper we provide an existence result for a nonlocal problem of Kirchhoff‐type which involves both the p‐ and the q‐Laplacian and contains a critical term. Our approach is variational: we derive the existence of one non‐trivial solution via the multidimensional mountain pass theorem.     

Discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods for variational inequalities of first and second kinds

We develop the error analysis for the h‐version of the discontinuous Galerkin finite element discretization for variational inequalities of first and second kinds. We establish an a priori error estimate for the method which is of optimal order in a mesh dependant as well as L²‐norm.© 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2007     

On cubic non‐Cayley vertex‐transitive graphs

In 1983, the second author [D. Maru?i?, Ars Combinatoria 16B (1983), 297–302] asked for which positive integers n there exists a non‐Cayley vertex‐transitive graph on n vertices. (The term non‐Cayley numbers has later been given to such integers.) Motivated by this problem, Feng [Discrete Math 248 (2002), 265–269] asked to determine the smallest valency ?(n) among valencies of non‐Cayley vertex‐transitive graphs of order n. As cycles are clearly Cayley graphs, ?(n)?3 for any non‐Cayley number n. In this paper a goal is set to determine those non‐Cayley numbers n for which ?(n) = 3, and among the latter to determine those for which the generalized Petersen graphs are the only non‐Cayley vertex‐transitive graphs of order n. It is known that for a prime p every vertex‐transitive graph of order p, p² or p³ is a Cayley graph, and that, with the exception of the Coxeter graph, every cubic non‐Cayley vertex‐transitive graph of order 2p, 4p or 2p² is a generalized Petersen graph. In this paper the next natural step is taken by proving that every cubic non‐Cayley vertex‐transitive graph of order 4p², p>7 a prime, is a generalized Petersen graph. In addition, cubic non‐Cayley vertex‐transitive graphs of order 2p^k, where p>7 is a prime and k?p, are characterized. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 69: 77–95, 2012     

Variational derivatives and p-gradients of functionals on spaces of continuously differentiable functions

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and study a new type of derivative – the variational gradient – for a functional on Cⁿ[a, b]. Local and global versions of this concept are analyzed. This notion provides a natural approach to variational derivatives on Cⁿ[a, b] under rather mild smoothness assumptions on the functional. When applied in the context of the Calculus of Variations, the notion of the variational gradient captures the natural boundary conditions (as well as the Euler-Lagrange equations) under weaker smoothness assumptions than those usually required using Gǎteaux variations. Conditions are established for the existence of the variational derivative and an integral representation for the Gǎteaux variation in terms of the variational derivative is derived. Conditions for the variational derivative to be differentiable are also established.     

A Priori Error Estimates of Crank–Nicolson Finite Volume Element Method for a Hyperbolic Optimal Control Problem

In this article, a Crank–Nicolson linear finite volume element scheme is developed to solve a hyperbolic optimal control problem. We use the variational discretization technique for the approximation of the control variable. The optimal convergent order O(h² + k²) is proved for the numerical solution of the control, state and adjoint‐state in a discrete L²‐norm. To derive this result, we also get the error estimate (convergent order O(h² + k²)) of Crank–Nicolson finite volume element approximation for the second‐order hyperbolic initial boundary value problem. Numerical experiments are presented to verify the theoretical results.© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 1331–1356, 2016     

Numerical analysis of a locking‐free mixed finite element method for a bending moment formulation of Reissner‐Mindlin plate model

This article deals with the approximation of the bending of a clamped plate, modeled by Reissner‐Mindlin equations. It is known that standard finite element methods applied to this model lead to wrong results when the thickness t is small. Here, we propose a mixed formulation based on the Hellinger‐Reissner principle which is written in terms of the bending moments, the shear stress, the rotations and the transverse displacement. To prove that the resulting variational formulation is well posed, we use the Babu?ka‐Brezzi theory with appropriate t ‐dependent norms. The problem is discretized by standard mixed finite elements without the need of any reduction operator. Error estimates are proved. These estimates have an optimal dependence on the mesh size h and a mild dependence on the plate thickness t. This allows us to conclude that the method is locking‐free. The proposed method yields direct approximation of the bending moments and the shear stress. A local postprocessing leading to H¹ ‐type approximations of transverse displacement and rotations is introduced. Moreover, we propose a hybridization procedure, which leads to solving a significantly smaller positive definite system. Finally, we report numerical experiments which allow us to assess the performance of the method. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

Self‐dual and self‐petrie‐dual regular maps

Regular maps are cellular decompositions of surfaces with the “highest level of symmetry”, not necessarily orientation‐preserving. Such maps can be identified with three‐generator presentations of groups G of the form G = 〈a, b, c|a² = b² = c² = (ab)^k = (bc)^m = (ca)² = … = 1〉; the positive integers k and m are the face length and the vertex degree of the map. A regular map (G;a, b, c) is self‐dual if the assignment b?b, c?a and a?c extends to an automorphism of G, and self‐Petrie‐dual if G admits an automorphism fixing b and c and interchanging a with ca. In this note we show that for infinitely many numbers k there exist finite, self‐dual and self‐Petrie‐dual regular maps of vertex degree and face length equal to k. We also prove that no such map with odd vertex degree is a normal Cayley map. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 69:152‐159, 2012     

Limit theory for the random on‐line nearest‐neighbor graph

In the on‐line nearest‐neighbor graph (ONG), each point after the first in a sequence of points in ?^d is joined by an edge to its nearest neighbor amongst those points that precede it in the sequence. We study the large‐sample asymptotic behavior of the total power‐weighted length of the ONG on uniform random points in (0,1)^d. In particular, for d = 1 and weight exponent α > 1/2, the limiting distribution of the centered total weight is characterized by a distributional fixed‐point equation. As an ancillary result, we give exact expressions for the expectation and variance of the standard nearest‐neighbor (directed) graph on uniform random points in the unit interval. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2008     

Mathematical analysis of some new Reynolds‐rod elastohydrodynamic models

In this paper, some new elastohydrodynamic Reynolds‐rod models are posed to obtain the existence of solution (the lubricant pressure and the elastic rod displacement). More precisely, a sign restriction on fluid pressure for cavitation modelling and different unilateral conditions on the rod displacement associated with a rigid structure coating are formulated in terms of coupled variational inequalities. The particular hinged or clamped boundary conditions on the rod displacement require different techniques to prove the existence of solution. Besides nearly linear coupled problems, two non‐linear rod problems including curvature effects are analysed. Mainly, regularity results and L^∞ estimates for the solution of variational inequalities and fixed‐point theorems lead to the existence results for the various coupled models. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Asymptotic analysis and estimates of blow‐up time for the radial symmetric semilinear heat equation in the open‐spectrum case

We estimate the blow‐up time for the reaction diffusion equation u_t=Δu+ λf(u), for the radial symmetric case, where f is a positive, increasing and convex function growing fast enough at infinity. Here λ>λ^*, where λ^* is the ‘extremal’ (critical) value for λ, such that there exists an ‘extremal’ weak but not a classical steady‐state solution at λ=λ^* with ∥w(?, λ)∥_∞→∞ as 0<λ→λ^*?. Estimates of the blow‐up time are obtained by using comparison methods. Also an asymptotic analysis is applied when f(s)=e^s, for λ?λ^*?1, regarding the form of the solution during blow‐up and an asymptotic estimate of blow‐up time is obtained. Finally, some numerical results are also presented. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Time‐weighted blow‐up rates and pointwise profile for single‐point blow‐up solutions in reaction–diffusion equations

This paper deals with asymptotic behavior for blow‐up solutions to time‐weighted reaction–diffusion equations u_t=Δu+e^αtv^p and v_t=Δv+e^βtu^q, subject to homogeneous Dirichlet boundary. The time‐weighted blow‐up rates are defined and obtained by ways of the scaling or auxiliary‐function methods for all α, . Aiding by key inequalities between components of solutions, we give lower pointwise blow‐up profiles for single‐point blow‐up solutions. We also study the solutions of the system with variable exponents instead of constant ones, where blow‐up rates and new blow‐up versus global existence criteria are obtained. Time‐weighted functions influence critical Fujita exponent, critical Fujita coefficient and formulae of blow‐up rates, but they do not limit the order of time‐weighted blow‐up rates and pointwise profile near blow‐up time. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.