Poincaré inequality and Palais–Smale condition for the <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Laplacian

An improved Poincaré inequality and validity of the Palais-Smale condition are investigated for the energy functional on , 1 < p < ∞, where Ω is a bounded domain in , is a spectral (control) parameter, and is a given function, in Ω. Analysis is focused on the case λ = λ₁, where −λ₁ is the first eigenvalue of the Dirichlet p-Laplacian Δ _p on , λ₁ > 0, and on the “quadratization” of within an arbitrarily small cone in around the axis spanned by , where stands for the first eigenfunction of Δ _p associated with −λ₁.     

Multilevel frames for sparse tensor product spaces

For Au = f with an elliptic differential operator and stochastic data f, the m-point correlation function of the random solution u satisfies a deterministic equation with the m-fold tensor product operator A ^(m) of A. Sparse tensor products of hierarchic FE-spaces in are known to allow for approximations to which converge at essentially the rate as in the case m = 1, i.e. for the deterministic problem. They can be realized by wavelet-type FE bases (von Petersdorff and Schwab in Appl Math 51(2):145–180, 2006; Schwab and Todor in Computing 71:43–63, 2003). If wavelet bases are not available, we show here how to achieve the fast computation of sparse approximations of for Galerkin discretizations of A by multilevel frames such as BPX or other multilevel preconditioners of any standard FEM approximation for A. Numerical examples illustrate feasibility and scope of the method.     

Solutions of elliptic problems with nonlinearities of linear growth

In this paper, we study existence of nontrivial solutions to the elliptic equation

Pointwise estimates for relative fundamental solutions of heat equations in $${\mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{C}}$$

Let be a subharmonic, nonharmonic polynomial and a parameter. Define , a closed, densely defined operator on . If and , we solve the heat equations , u(0,z) = f(z) and , . We write the solutions via heat semigroups and show that the solutions can be written as integrals against distributional kernels. We prove that the kernels are C ^∞ off of the diagonal {(s, z, w) : s = 0 and z = w} and find pointwise bounds for the kernels and their derivatives.      

Multiplicity of Positive Solutions for a Class of Inhomogeneous Neumann Problems Involving the p(x)-Laplacian

We study the existence and multiplicity of positive solutions for the inhomogeneous Neumann boundary value problems involving the p(x)-Laplacian of the form

<Emphasis Type="Italic">hp</Emphasis>-Discontinuous Galerkin methods for strongly nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems

In this paper, we have analyzed a one parameter family of hp-discontinuous Galerkin methods for strongly nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems with Dirichlet boundary conditions. These methods depend on the values of the parameter , where θ = + 1 corresponds to the nonsymmetric and θ = −1 corresponds to the symmetric interior penalty methods when and f(u,∇u) = −f, that is, for the Poisson problem. The error estimate in the broken H ¹ norm, which is optimal in h (mesh size) and suboptimal in p (degree of approximation) is derived using piecewise polynomials of degree p ≥ 2, when the solution . In the case of linear elliptic problems also, this estimate is optimal in h and suboptimal in p. Further, optimal error estimate in the L ² norm when θ = −1 is derived. Numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the theoretical results. Supported by DST-DAAD (PPP-05) project.     

Partial regularity for polyconvex functionals depending on the Hessian determinant

We prove a C ^2,α partial regularity result for local minimizers of polyconvex variational integrals of the type , where Ω is a bounded open subset of , and is a convex function, with subquadratic growth.     

On the Multiplicity of Nodal Solutions to a Singularly Perturbed Neumann Problem

We consider the problem

A note on curvature of α-connections of a statistical manifold

The family of α-connections ∇^(α) on a statistical manifold equipped with a pair of conjugate connections and is given as . Here, we develop an expression of curvature R ^(α) for ∇^(α) in relation to those for . Immediately evident from it is that ∇^(α) is equiaffine for any when are dually flat, as previously observed in Takeuchi and Amari (IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 51:1011–1023, 2005). Other related formulae are also developed. The work was conducted when the author was on sabbatical leave as a visiting research scientist at the Mathematical Neuroscience Unit, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako-shi, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.     

Weighted Hardy inequalities and the size of the boundary

We establish necessary and sufficient conditions for a domain to admit the (p, β)-Hardy inequality , where d(x) = dist(x, ∂Ω) and . Our necessary conditions show that a certain dichotomy holds, even locally, for the dimension of the complement Ω ^c when Ω admits a Hardy inequality, whereas our sufficient conditions can be applied in numerous situations where at least a part of the boundary ∂Ω is “thin”, contrary to previously known conditions where ∂Ω or Ω ^c was always assumed to be “thick” in a uniform way. There is also a nice interplay between these different conditions that we try to point out by giving various examples. The author was supported in part by the Academy of Finland.     

Simplicity of principal eigenvalue for p-Laplace operator with singular indefinite weight

Given a connected open set and a function w ∈L^N/p(Ω) if 1 < p < N and w ∈L^r (Ω) for some r ∈(1, ∞) if p ≧ N, with we prove that the positive principal eigenvalue of the problem

A weighted eigenvalue problem for the p-Laplacian plus a potential

Let Δ _p denote the p-Laplacian operator and Ω be a bounded domain in . We consider the eigenvalue problem

Immersions of spheres and algebraically constructible functions

Let Λ be an algebraic set and let (n is even) be a polynomial mapping such that for each there is r(λ) > 0 such that the mapping g _λ  =  g(· , λ) restricted to the sphere S ⁿ (r) is an immersion for every 0  <  r  <  r (λ), so that the intersection number I(g _λ|S ⁿ (r)) is defined. Then is an algebraically constructible function. I. Karolkiewicz and A. Nowel supported by the grant BW/5100-5-0286-7.     

Applications of differential calculus to quasilinear elliptic boundary value problems with non-smooth data

This paper concerns boundary value problems for quasilinear second order elliptic systems which are, for example, of the type

Very weak solutions to elliptic equations with nonlinear Neumann boundary conditions

Consider the equation −Δu = 0 in a bounded smooth domain , complemented by the nonlinear Neumann boundary condition ∂_ν u = f(x, u) − u on ∂Ω. We show that any very weak solution of this problem belongs to L ^∞(Ω) provided f satisfies the growth condition |f(x, s)| ≤ C(1 + |s| ^p ) for some p ∈ (1, p*), where . If, in addition, f(x, s) ≥ −C + λs for some λ > 1, then all positive very weak solutions are uniformly a priori bounded. We also show by means of examples that p* is a sharp critical exponent. In particular, using variational methods we prove the following multiplicity result: if N ∈ {3, 4} and f(x, s) =  s ^p then there exists a domain Ω and such that our problem possesses at least two positive, unbounded, very weak solutions blowing up at a prescribed point of ∂Ω provided . Our regularity results and a priori bounds for positive very weak solutions remain true if the right-hand side in the differential equation is of the form h(x, u) with h satisfying suitable growth conditions.     

Geometric second derivative estimates in Carnot groups and convexity

We prove some new a priori estimates for H ₂-convex functions which are zero on the boundary of a bounded smooth domain Ω in a Carnot group . Such estimates are global and are geometric in nature as they involve the horizontal mean curvature of ∂Ω. As a consequence of our bounds we show that if has step two, then for any smooth H ₂-convex function in vanishing on ∂Ω one has

Limit Laws for Norms of IID Samples with Weibull Tails

We are concerned with the limit distribution of l _t -norms (of order t) of samples of i.i.d. positive random variables, as N→∞, t→∞. The problem was first considered by Schlather [(2001), Ann. Probab. 29, 862–881], but the case where {X _i } belong to the domain of attraction of Gumbel’s double exponential law (in the sense of extreme value theory) has largely remained open (even for an exponential distribution). In this paper, it is assumed that the log-tail distribution function is regularly varying at infinity with index . We proceed from studying the limit distribution of the sums , which is of interest in its own right. A proper growth scale of N relative to t appears to be of the form (). We show that there are two critical points, α₁ = 1 and α₂ = 2, below which the law of large numbers and the central limit theorem, respectively, break down. For α < 2, under a slightly stronger condition of normalized regular variation of h, we prove that the limit laws for S _N (t) are stable, with characteristic exponent and skewness parameter . A complete picture of the limit laws for the norms R _N (t) = S _N (t)^1/t is then derived. In particular, our results corroborate a conjecture in Schlather [(2001), Ann. Probab. 29, 862–881] regarding the “endpoints” , α→ 0.      

Analysis of FETI methods for multiscale PDEs

In this paper, we study a variant of the finite element tearing and interconnecting (FETI) method which is suitable for elliptic PDEs with highly heterogeneous (multiscale) coefficients α(x); in particular, coefficients with strong variation within subdomains and/or jumps that are not aligned with the subdomain interfaces. Using energy minimisation and cut-off arguments we can show rigorously that for an arbitrary (positive) coefficient function the condition number of the preconditioned FETI system can be bounded by C(α) (1 + log(H/h))² where H is the subdomain diameter and h is the mesh size, and where the function C(α) depends only on the coefficient variation in the vicinity of subdomain interfaces. In particular, if varies only mildly in a layer Ω _i,η of width η near the boundary of each of the subdomains Ω _i , then , independent of the variation of α in the remainder Ω _i \Ω _i,η of each subdomain and independent of any jumps of α across subdomain interfaces. The quadratic dependence of C(α) on H/η can be relaxed to a linear dependence under stronger assumptions on the behaviour of α in the interior of the subdomains. Our theoretical findings are confirmed in numerical tests. C. Pechstein was supported by the Austrian Science Funds (FWF) under grant F1306.     

Solutions to nonlinear Neumann problems with an inverse square potential

Let Ω be an open bounded domain in with smooth boundary . We are concerned with the critical Neumann problem

A <Emphasis Type="Italic">V</Emphasis>-cycle Multigrid for multilevel matrix algebras: proof of optimality

We analyze the convergence rate of a multigrid method for multilevel linear systems whose coefficient matrices are generated by a real and nonnegative multivariate polynomial f and belong to multilevel matrix algebras like circulant, tau, Hartley, or are of Toeplitz type. In the case of matrix algebra linear systems, we prove that the convergence rate is independent of the system dimension even in presence of asymptotical ill-conditioning (this happens iff f takes the zero value). More precisely, if the d-level coefficient matrix has partial dimension n _r at level r, with , then the size of the system is , , and O(N(n)) operations are required by the considered V-cycle Multigrid in order to compute the solution within a fixed accuracy. Since the total arithmetic cost is asymptotically equivalent to the one of a matrix-vector product, the proposed method is optimal. Some numerical experiments concerning linear systems arising in 2D and 3D applications are considered and discussed.