Existence and regularity to an elliptic equation with logarithmic nonlinearity

We study the nonlinear elliptic problem −Δu=χ{u>0}(logu+λf(x,u)) in Ω⊂Rn with u=0 on ∂Ω. The function is nondecreasing, sublinear and fu is continuous. For every λ>0, we obtain a maximal solution uλ?0 and prove its global regularity . There is a constant λ^∗ such that uλ vanishes on a set of positive measure for 0<λ<λ^∗, and uλ>0 for λ>λ^∗. If f is concave, for λ>λ^∗ we characterize uλ by its stability.     

On the stability of the Serrin problem

We investigate stability issues concerning the radial symmetry of solutions to Serrin's overdetermined problems. In particular, we show that, if u is a solution to Δu=n in a smooth domain Ω⊂Rn, u=0 on ∂Ω and |Du| is “close” to 1 on ∂Ω, then Ω is “close” to the union of a certain number of disjoint unitary balls.     

Energy method in the partial Fourier space and application to stability problems in the half space

The energy method in the Fourier space is useful in deriving the decay estimates for problems in the whole space Rn. In this paper, we study half space problems in and develop the energy method in the partial Fourier space obtained by taking the Fourier transform with respect to the tangential variable x^′∈Rn−1. For the variable x₁∈R₊ in the normal direction, we use L² space or weighted L² space. We apply this energy method to the half space problem for damped wave equations with a nonlinear convection term and prove the asymptotic stability of planar stationary waves by showing a sharp convergence rate for t→∞. The result obtained in this paper is a refinement of the previous one in Ueda et al. (2008) [13].     

Monotonicity of solutions of Fully nonlinear uniformly elliptic equations in the half-plane

In this paper we study the monotonicity of positive (or non-negative) viscosity solutions to uniformly elliptic equations F(∇u,D²u)=f(u) in the half plane, where f is locally Lipschitz continuous (with f(0)?0) and zero Dirichlet boundary conditions are imposed. The result is obtained without assuming the u or |∇u| are bounded.     

Positive solutions of the p-Laplacian involving a superlinear nonlinearity with zeros

Using a combination of several methods, such as variational methods, the sub and supersolutions method, comparison principles and a priori estimates, we study existence, multiplicity, and the behavior with respect to λ of positive solutions of p-Laplace equations of the form −Δpu=λh(x,u), where the nonlinear term has p-superlinear growth at infinity, is nonnegative, and satisfies h(x,a(x))=0 for a suitable positive function a. In order to manage the asymptotic behavior of the solutions we extend a result due to Redheffer and we establish a new Liouville-type theorem for the p-Laplacian operator, where the nonlinearity involved is superlinear, nonnegative, and has positive zeros.     

Asymptotic behaviour of nonlocal reaction-diffusion equations

The existence of a global attractor in L²(Ω) is established for a reaction-diffusion equation on a bounded domain Ω in R^d with Dirichlet boundary conditions, where the reaction term contains an operator F:L²(Ω)→L²(Ω) which is nonlocal and possibly nonlinear. Existence of weak solutions is established, but uniqueness is not required. Compactness of the multivalued flow is obtained via estimates obtained from limits of Galerkin approximations. In contrast with the usual situation, these limits apply for all and not just for almost all time instants.     

An analytic approach to the normalized Ricci flow-like equation

This paper is concerned with a parabolic equation with a non-local term defined on a compact two-dimensional Riemannian surface Ω. If the total mass of the solution, λ, is equal to 8π and Ω is the standard sphere S², it is a Hamilton’s normalized Ricci flow. We obtain the global in time existence of the solution to this problem for 0<λ≤8π. If 0<λ<8π, the orbit is compact while for λ=8π, there is a time sequence along which the solution converges to a stationary solution.     

Convergence of the wave equation damped on the interior to the one damped on the boundary

In this paper, we study the convergence of the wave equation with variable internal damping term γn(x)ut to the wave equation with boundary damping γ(x)⊗δx∈∂Ωut when (γn(x)) converges to γ(x)⊗δx∈∂Ω in the sense of distributions. When the domain Ω in which these equations are defined is an interval in R, we show that, under natural hypotheses, the compact global attractor of the wave equation damped on the interior converges in X=H¹(Ω)×L²(Ω) to the one of the wave equation damped on the boundary, and that the dynamics on these attractors are equivalent. We also prove, in the higher-dimensional case, that the attractors are lower-semicontinuous in X and upper-semicontinuous in H1−ε(Ω)×H−ε(Ω).     

Large time behavior for a viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equation with Neumann boundary condition

We prove the existence and the uniqueness of strong solutions for the viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equation: with Neumann boundary condition, and initial data μ₀, a continuous function. The domain Ω is a bounded and convex open set with smooth boundary, a∈R,a≠0 and p>0. Then, we study the large time behavior of the solution and we show that for p∈(0,1), the extinction in finite time of the gradient of the solution occurs, while for p?1 the solution converges uniformly to a constant, as t→∞.     

Bounded components of positive solutions of abstract fixed point equations: mushrooms, loops and isolas

In this work a general class of nonlinear abstract equations satisfying a generalized strong maximum principle is considered in order to study the behavior of the bounded components of positive solutions bifurcating from the curve of trivial states (λ,u)=(λ,0) at a nonlinear eigenvalue λ=λ₀ with geometric multiplicity one. Since the unilateral theorems of Rabinowitz (J. Funct. Anal. 7 (1971) 487, Theorems 1.27 and 1.40) are not true as originally stated (cf. the very recent counterexample of Dancer, Bull. London Math. Soc. 34 (2002) 533), in order to get our main results the unilateral theorem of López-Gómez (Spectral Theory and Nonlinear Functional Analysis, Research Notes in Mathematics, vol. 426, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2001, Theorem 6.4.3) is required. Our analysis fills some serious gaps existing is some published papers that were provoked by a direct use of Rabinowitz's unilateral theory. Actually, the abstract theory developed in this paper cannot be covered with the pioneering results of Rabinowitz (1971), since in Rabinowitz's context any component of positive solutions must be unbounded, by a celebrated result attributable to Dancer (Arch. Rational Mech. Anal. 52 (1973) 181).     

Decay rates to the planar rarefaction waves for a model system of the radiating gas in n dimensions

In this paper, we study the asymptotic decay rates to the planar rarefaction waves to the Cauchy problem for a hyperbolic-elliptic coupled system called as a model system of the radiating gas in Rn (n=3,4,5) if the initial perturbations corresponding to the planar rarefaction waves are sufficiently small in (H²∩L¹∩W2,6) (Rn). The analysis is based on the Lp-energy method and several special interpolation inequalities.     

On symmetry of nonnegative solutions of elliptic equations

We consider the Dirichlet problem for a class of fully nonlinear elliptic equations on a bounded domain Ω. We assume that Ω is symmetric about a hyperplane H and convex in the direction perpendicular to H. By a well-known result of Gidas, Ni and Nirenberg and its generalizations, all positive solutions are reflectionally symmetric about H and decreasing away from the hyperplane in the direction orthogonal to H. For nonnegative solutions, this result is not always true. We show that, nonetheless, the symmetry part of the result remains valid for nonnegative solutions: any nonnegative solution u is symmetric about H  . Moreover, we prove that if u?0$u?0$, then the nodal set of u divides the domain Ω into a finite number of reflectionally symmetric subdomains in which u has the usual Gidas–Ni–Nirenberg symmetry and monotonicity properties. We also show several examples of nonnegative solutions with a nonempty interior nodal set.     

Global existence and asymptotic convergence of weak solutions for the one-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations with capillarity and nonmonotonic pressure

We construct global weak solution of the Navier-Stokes equations with capillarity and nonmonotonic pressure. The volume variable v₀ is initially assumed to be in H¹ and the velocity variable u₀ to be in L² on a finite interval [0,1]. We show that both variables become smooth in positive time and that asymptotically in time u→0 strongly in L²([0,1]) and v approaches the set of stationary solutions in H¹([0,1]).     

Global existence and blowup for sign-changing solutions of the nonlinear heat equation

In this paper, given 0<α<2/N, we prove the existence of a function ψ with the following properties. The solution of the equation ut−Δu=α|u|u on RN with the initial condition u(0)=ψ is global. On the other hand, the solution with the initial condition u(0)=λψ blows up in finite time if λ>0 is either sufficiently small or sufficiently large.     

A higher-dimensional partial Legendre transform, and regularity of degenerate Monge-Ampère equations

In dimension n?3, we define a generalization of the classical two-dimensional partial Legendre transform, that reduces interior regularity of the generalized Monge-Ampère equation to regularity of a divergence form quasilinear system of special form. This is then used to obtain smoothness of C^2,1 solutions, having n-1 nonvanishing principal curvatures, to certain subelliptic Monge-Ampère equations in dimension n?3. A corollary is that if k?0 vanishes only at nondegenerate critical points, then a C^2,1 convex solution u is smooth if and only if the symmetric function of degree n-1 of the principal curvatures of u is positive, and moreover, u fails to be when not smooth.     

Regularity of the extremal solution for some elliptic problems with singular nonlinearity and advection

In this note, we investigate the regularity of the extremal solution u^? for the semilinear elliptic equation −△u+c(x)⋅∇u=λf(u) on a bounded smooth domain of Rn with Dirichlet boundary condition. Here f is a positive nondecreasing convex function, exploding at a finite value a∈(0,∞). We show that the extremal solution is regular in the low-dimensional case. In particular, we prove that for the radial case, all extremal solutions are regular in dimension two.     

Global and periodic solutions for nonlinear wave equations with some localized nonlinear dissipation

We discuss the existence of global or periodic solutions to the nonlinear wave equation with the boundary condition , where Ω is a bounded domain in R^N,ρ(x,v) is a function like ρ(x,v)=a(x)g(v) with g′(v)?0 and β(x,u) is a source term of power nonlinearity. a(x) is assumed to be positive only in a neighborhood of a part of the boundary ∂Ω and the stability property is very delicate, which makes the problem interesting.     

Local smoothing effects, positivity, and Harnack inequalities for the fast p-Laplacian equation

We study qualitative and quantitative properties of local weak solutions of the fast p-Laplacian equation, t_∂u=Δpu, with 1<p<2. Our main results are quantitative positivity and boundedness estimates for locally defined solutions in domains of Rn×[0,T]. We combine these lower and upper bounds in different forms of intrinsic Harnack inequalities, which are new in the very fast diffusion range, that is when 1<p?2n/(n+1). The boundedness results may be also extended to the limit case p=1, while the positivity estimates cannot.We prove the existence as well as sharp asymptotic estimates for the so-called large solutions for any 1<p<2, and point out their main properties.We also prove a new local energy inequality for suitable norms of the gradients of the solutions. As a consequence, we prove that bounded local weak solutions are indeed local strong solutions, more precisely .     

Effects of reactive gradient term in a multi-nonlinear parabolic problem

This paper deals with parabolic equation ut=Δu+r|∇u|−aepu subject to nonlinear boundary flux ∂u/∂η=equ, where r>1, p,q,a>0. There are two positive sources (the gradient reaction and the boundary flux) and a negative one (the absorption) in the model. It is well known that blow-up or not of solutions depends on which one dominating the model, the positive or negative sources, and furthermore on the absorption coefficient for the balance case of them. The aim of the paper is to study the influence of the reactive gradient term on the asymptotic behavior of solutions. We at first determine the critical blow-up exponent, and then obtain the blow-up rate, the blow-up set as well as the spatial blow-up profile for blow-up solutions in the one-dimensional case. It turns out that the gradient term makes a substantial contribution to the formation of blow-up if and only if r?2, where the critical r=2 is such a balance situation of the two positive sources for which the effects of the gradient reaction and the boundary source are at the same level. In addition, it is observed that the gradient term with r>2 significantly affects the blow-up rate also. In fact, the gained blow-up rates themselves contain the exponent r of the gradient term. Moreover, the blow-up rate may be discontinuous with respect to parameters included in the problem due to convection. As for the influence of gradient perturbations on spatial blow-up profiles, we only need some coefficients related to r for the profile estimates, while the exponent of the profile itself is r-independent. This seems natural for boundary blow-up solutions that the spatial profiles mainly rely on the exponent of the boundary singularity.     

Best constant in critical Sobolev inequalities of second-order in the presence of symmetries

Let (M,g) be a smooth compact Riemannian manifold. We first give the value of the best first constant for the critical embedding H²(M)?L^2?(M) for second-order Sobolev spaces of functions invariant by some subgroup of the isometry group of (M,g). We also prove that we can take ?=0 in the corresponding inequality under some geometric assumptions. As an application we give a sufficient condition for the existence of a smooth positive symmetric solution to a critical equation with a symmetric Paneitz-Branson-type operator. A sufficient condition for the existence of a nodal solution to such an equation is also derived. We eventually prove a multiplicity result for such an equation.