Pairs of positive solutions for nonlinear elliptic equations with the <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Laplacian and a nonsmooth potential

In this paper we examine a nonlinear elliptic problem driven by the p-Laplacian differential operator and with a potential function which is only locally Lipschitz, not necessarily C¹ (hemivariational inequality). Using the nonsmooth critical point theory of Chang, we obtain two strictly positive solutions. One solution is obtained by minimization of a suitable modification of the energy functional. The second solution is obtained by generalizing a result of Brezis-Nirenberg about the local C¹₀-minimizers versus the local H¹₀-minimizers of a C¹-functional. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000) 35J50, 35J85, 35R70     

Existence of Solutions and of Multiple Solutions for Nonlinear Nonsmooth Periodic Systems

In this paper we examine nonlinear periodic systems driven by the vectorial p-Laplacian and with a nondifferentiable, locally Lipschitz nonlinearity. Our approach is based on the nonsmooth critical point theory and uses the subdifferential theory for locally Lipschitz functions. We prove existence and multiplicity results for the sublinear problem. For the semilinear problem (i.e. p = 2) using a nonsmooth multidimensional version of the Ambrosetti-Rabinowitz condition, we prove an existence theorem for the superlinear problem. Our work generalizes some recent results of Tang (PAMS 126(1998)).     

Multiple solutions of constant sign for nonlinear nonsmooth eigenvalue problems near resonance

In this paper we study a class of nonlinear elliptic eigenvalue problems driven by the p-Laplacian and having a nonsmooth locally Lipschitz potential. We show that as the parameter approaches (= the principal eigenvalue of ) from the right, the problem has three nontrivial solutions of constant sign. Our approach is variational based on the nonsmooth critical point theory for locally Lipschitz functions. In the process of the proof we also establish a generalization of a recent result of Brezis and Nirenberg for C₀¹ versus W₀^1,p minimizers of a locally Lipschitz functional. In addition we prove a result of independent interest on the existence of an additional critical point in the presence of a local minimizer of constant sign. Finally by restricting further the asymptotic behavior of the potential at infinity, we show that for all the problem has two solutions one strictly positive and the other strictly negative.Received: 7 January 2003, Accepted: 12 May 2003, Published online: 4 September 2003Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 35J20, 35J85, 35R70     

A multiplicity theorem for the Neumann p-Laplacian with an asymmetric nonsmooth potential

We consider a nonlinear Neumann problem driven by the p-Laplacian differential operator with a nonsmooth potential (hemivariational inequality). By combining variational with degree theoretic techniques, we prove a multiplicity theorem. In the process, we also prove a result of independent interest relating and local minimizers, of a nonsmooth locally Lipschitz functional.      

Global and superlinear convergence of the smoothing Newton method and its application to general box constrained variational inequalities

The smoothing Newton method for solving a system of nonsmooth equations , which may arise from the nonlinear complementarity problem, the variational inequality problem or other problems, can be regarded as a variant of the smoothing method. At the th step, the nonsmooth function is approximated by a smooth function , and the derivative of at is used as the Newton iterative matrix. The merits of smoothing methods and smoothing Newton methods are global convergence and convenience in handling. In this paper, we show that the smoothing Newton method is also superlinearly convergent if is semismooth at the solution and satisfies a Jacobian consistency property. We show that most common smooth functions, such as the Gabriel-Moré function, have this property. As an application, we show that for box constrained variational inequalities if the involved function is -uniform, the iteration sequence generated by the smoothing Newton method will converge to the unique solution of the problem globally and superlinearly (quadratically).

     

Multiple solutions for strongly resonant nonlinear elliptic problems with discontinuities

We examine a nonlinear strongly resonant elliptic problem driven by the -Laplacian and with a discontinuous nonlinearity. We assume that the discontinuity points are countable and at them the nonlinearity has an upward jump discontinuity. We show that the problem has at least two nontrivial solutions without using a multivalued interpretation of the problem as it is often the case in the literature. Our approach is variational based on the nonsmooth critical point theory for locally Lipschitz functions.

     

An inexact algorithm for composite nondifferentiable optimization

We describe an inexact version of Fletcher's QL algorithm with second-order corrections for minimizing composite nonsmooth functions. The method is shown to retain the global and local convergence properties of the original version, if the parameters are chosen appropriately. It is shown how the inexact method can be implemented, for the case in which the function to be minimized is an exact penalty function arising from the standard nonlinear programming problem. The method can also be applied to the problems of nonlinearl ₁ - andl -approximation.This research supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant DMS-8619903, and by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Grant AFOSR-ISSA-870092.     

A general Farkas lemma and characterization of optimality for a nonsmooth program involving convex processes

In this paper, a generalization of the Farkas lemma is presented for nonlinear mappings which involve a convex process and a generalized convex function. Using this result, a complete characterization of optimality is obtained for the following nonsmooth programming problem: minimizef(x), subject to – H(x) wheref is a locally Lipschitz function satisfying a generalized convexity hypothesis andH is a closed convex process.This work was partially written while the author was a PhD Student under the supervision of Dr. B. D. Craven, University of Melbourne, whose helpful guidance is much appreciated.     

On the Dynamics of a Differential Inclusion Built upon a Nonconvex Constrained Minimization Problem

In this paper, we study the dynamics of a differential inclusion built upon a nonsmooth, not necessarily convex, constrained minimization problem in finite-dimensional spaces. In particular, we are interested in the investigation of the asymptotic behavior of the trajectories of the dynamical system represented by the differential inclusion. Under suitable assumptions on the constraint set and the two involved functions (one defining the constraint set, the other representing the functional to be minimized), it is proved that all the trajectories converge to the set of the constrained critical points. We present also a large class of constraint sets satisfying our assumptions. As a simple consequence, in the case of a smooth convex minimization problem, we have that any trajectory converges to the set of minimizers.Research partially supported by the research project CNR-GNAMPA Mathematical Methods for Control Theory and supported in part by the European Communitys Human Potential Program under Contract HPRN-CT-2002-00281, Evolution Equations.     

Existence and multiplicity results for nonlinear nonautonomous second-order systems

In this paper we consider nonlinear periodic systems driven by the ordinary p$p$-Laplacian and having a nonsmooth potential function. Under minimal and natural hypotheses on the nonsmooth potential and using variational methods based on the nonsmooth critical point theory we prove four existence theorems and a multiplicity theorem. We conclude the paper with an existence theorem for the scalar problem, in which the energy functional is indefinite (i.e. it is unbounded both above and below).     

Estimates for multilinear singular integral operators with nonsmooth kernels

Let (, d, μ) be a space of homogeneous type in the sense of Coifman and Weiss. In this paper, we consider the behavior on × ⋯ × for the m-linear singular integral operators with nonsmooth kernels which were first introduced by Duong, Grafakos and Yan.     

New Bundle Methods for Solving Lagrangian Relaxation Dual Problems

Bundle methods have been used frequently to solve nonsmooth optimization problems. In these methods, subgradient directions from past iterations are accumulated in a bundle, and a trial direction is obtained by performing quadratic programming based on the information contained in the bundle. A line search is then performed along the trial direction, generating a serious step if the function value is improved by or a null step otherwise. Bundle methods have been used to maximize the nonsmooth dual function in Lagrangian relaxation for integer optimization problems, where the subgradients are obtained by minimizing the performance index of the relaxed problem. This paper improves bundle methods by making good use of near-minimum solutions that are obtained while solving the relaxed problem. The bundle information is thus enriched, leading to better search directions and less number of null steps. Furthermore, a simplified bundle method is developed, where a fuzzy rule is used to combine linearly directions from near-minimum solutions, replacing quadratic programming and line search. When the simplified bundle method is specialized to an important class of problems where the relaxed problem can be solved by using dynamic programming, fuzzy dynamic programming is developed to obtain efficiently near-optimal solutions and their weights for the linear combination. This method is then applied to job shop scheduling problems, leading to better performance than previously reported in the literature.     

Lagrangian Globalization Methods for Nonlinear Complementarity Problems

This paper extends the Lagrangian globalization (LG) method to the nonsmooth equation arising from a nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP) and presents a descent algorithm for the LG phase. The aim of this paper is not to present a new method for solving the NCP, but to find such that when the NCP has a solution and is a stationary point but not a solution.     

Existence and multiplicity of solutions for second order periodic systems with the <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Laplacian and a nonsmooth potential

In this paper we study nonlinear periodic systems driven by the ordinary p-Laplacian with a nonsmooth potential. We prove an existence theorem using a nonsmooth variant of the reduction method. We also prove two multiplicity results. The first is for scalar problems and uses the nonsmooth second deformation lemma. The second is for systems and it is based on the nonsmooth local linking theorem.     

Global Interval Methods for Local Nonsmooth Optimization

An interval method for determining local solutions of nonsmooth unconstrained optimization problems is discussed. The objective function is assumed to be locally Lipschitz and to have appropriate interval inclusions. The method consists of two parts, a local search and a global continuation and termination. The local search consists of a globally convergent descent algorithm showing similarities to -bundle methods. While -bundle methods use polytopes as inner approximations of the -subdifferentials, which are the main tools of almost all bundle concepts, our method uses axes parallel boxes as outer approximations of the -subdifferentials. The boxes are determined almost automatically with inclusion techniques of interval arithmetic. The dimension of the boxes is equal to the dimension of the problem and remains constant during the whole computation. The application of boxes does not suffer from the necessity to invest methodical and computational efforts to adapt the polytopes to the latest state of the computation as well as to simplify them when the number of vertices becomes too large, as is the case with the polytopes. The second part of the method applies interval techniques of global optimization to the approximative local solution obtained from the search of the first part in order to determine guaranteed error bounds or to improve the solution if necessary. We present prototype algorithms for both parts of the method as well as a complete convergence theory for them and demonstrate how outer approximations can be obtained.     

Multiplicity of nontrivial solutions for elliptic equations with nonsmooth potential and resonance at higher eigenvalues

We consider a semilinear elliptic equation with a nonsmooth, locally Lipschitz potential function (hemivariational inequality). Our hypotheses permit double resonance at infinity and at zero (double-double resonance situation). Our approach is based on the nonsmooth critical point theory for locally Lipschitz functionals and uses an abstract multiplicity result under local linking and an extension of the Castro-Lazer-Thews reduction method to a nonsmooth setting, which we develop here using tools from nonsmooth analysis.     

一类椭圆型半变分不等式解的存在性(英文)

本文研究了一类Dirichlet边界的椭圆型半变分不等式问题.利用非光滑形式的环绕定理和非光滑形式的对称山路定理,得到了在相应假设条件下此不等式问题至少有一个非平凡解和无穷多解.本文中非光滑势能在原点处关于算子+V(x)的第一正特征值λ是不完全共振的.     

A maximization method for a class of quasiconcave programs

An implementable linearized method of centers is presented for solving a class of quasiconcave programs of the form (P): maximizef ⁰(x), subject tox B andf ⁱ (x)0, for everyi{1, ...,m}, whereB is a convex polyhedral subset ofR ⁿ (Euclideann-space). Each problem function is a continuous quasiconcave function fromR ⁿ intoR ¹. Also, it is assumed that the feasible region is bounded and there existsx B such thatf _i (x) for everyi {1, ...,m}. For a broad class of continuous quasiconcave problem functions, which may be nonsmooth, it is shown that the method produces a sequence of feasible points whose limit points are optimal for Problem (P). For many programs, no line searches are required. Additionally, the method is equipped with a constraint dropping devise.The author wishes to thank a referee for suggesting the use of generalized gradients and a second referee whose detailed informative comments have enhanced the paper.This work was done while the author was in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Delaware.     

Invariant sets and Lyapunov pairs for differential inclusions with maximal monotone operators

We give different conditions for the invariance of closed sets with respect to differential inclusions governed by a maximal monotone operator defined on Hilbert spaces, which is subject to a Lipschitz continuous perturbation depending on the state. These sets are not necessarily weakly closed as in [3], [4], while the invariance criteria are still written by using only the data of the system. So, no need to the explicit knowledge of neither the solution of this differential inclusion, nor the semi-group generated by the maximal monotone operator. These invariant/viability results are next applied to derive explicit criteria for a-Lyapunov pairs of lower semi-continuous (not necessarily weakly-lsc) functions associated to these differential inclusions. The lack of differentiability of the candidate Lyapunov functions and the consideration of general invariant sets (possibly not convex or smooth) are carried out by using techniques from nonsmooth analysis.     

On a periodic Schrödinger equation with nonlocal superlinear part

We consider the Choquard-Pekar equation and focus on the case of periodic potential V. For a large class of even functions W we show existence and multiplicity of solutions. Essentially the conditions are that 0 is not in the spectrum of the linear part –+V and that W does not change sign. Our results carry over to more general nonlinear terms in arbitrary space dimension N2.Mathematics Subject Classification (2000):35Q55, 35Q40, 35J10, 35J20, 35J60, 46N50, 49J35, 81V70in final form: 14 November 2003