Positive solutions of quasilinear parabolic systems with Dirichlet boundary condition

Coupled systems for a class of quasilinear parabolic equations and the corresponding elliptic systems, including systems of parabolic and ordinary differential equations are investigated. The aim of this paper is to show the existence, uniqueness, and asymptotic behavior of time-dependent solutions. Also investigated is the existence of positive maximal and minimal solutions of the corresponding quasilinear elliptic system. The elliptic operators in both systems are allowed to be degenerate in the sense that the density-dependent diffusion coefficients Di(ui) may have the property Di(0)=0 for some or all i=1,…,N, and the boundary condition is ui=0. Using the method of upper and lower solutions, we show that a unique global classical time-dependent solution exists and converges to the maximal solution for one class of initial functions and it converges to the minimal solution for another class of initial functions; and if the maximal and minimal solutions coincide then the steady-state solution is unique and the time-dependent solution converges to the unique solution. Applications of these results are given to three model problems, including a scalar polynomial growth problem, a coupled system of polynomial growth problem, and a two component competition model in ecology.     

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.     

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.     

Uniqueness of positive radial solutions for quasilinear elliptic equations in an annulus

Extending a previous result of Tang [1] we prove the uniqueness of positive radial solutions of Δ_pu+f(u)=0, subject to Dirichlet boundary conditions on an annulus in Rⁿ with 2<p≤n, under suitable hypotheses on the nonlinearity f. This argument also provides an alternative proof for the uniqueness of positive solutions of the same problem in a finite ball (see [9]), in the complement of a ball or in the whole space Rⁿ (see [10], [3] and [11]).     

Boundary behavior of large solutions to semilinear elliptic equations with nonlinear gradient terms

In this paper, we study the boundary behavior of solutions to boundary blow-up elliptic problems , where Ω is a bounded domain with smooth boundary in R^N, q>0, , which is positive in Ω and may be vanishing on the boundary and rapidly varying near the boundary, and f is rapidly varying or normalized regularly varying at infinity.     

One-sided exact boundary null controllability of entropy solutions to a class of hyperbolic systems of conservation laws

In this paper, the one-sided exact boundary null controllability of entropy solutions is studied for a class of general strictly hyperbolic systems of conservation laws, whose negative (or positive) characteristic families are all linearly degenerate. The authors first prove the well-posedness of semi-global solutions constructed as the limit of ε-approximate front tracking solutions to the mixed initial-boundary value problem with general nonlinear boundary conditions and they establish various properties of both the ε-approximate front tracking solutions and such solutions. By means of essential modifications of the strategy suggested by the first author in [17] originally for the local exact boundary controllability in the framework of classical solutions, the one-sided local exact boundary null controllability of entropy solutions can then be realized via boundary controls acting on one side of the boundary, where the incoming characteristics are all linearly degenerate.     

The effects of indefinite nonlinear boundary conditions on the structure of the positive solutions set of a logistic equation

We investigate a semilinear elliptic equation with a logistic nonlinearity and an indefinite nonlinear boundary condition, both depending on a parameter λ. Overall, we analyze the effect of the indefinite nonlinear boundary condition on the structure of the positive solutions set. Based on variational and bifurcation techniques, our main results establish the existence of three nontrivial non-negative solutions for some values of λ, as well as their asymptotic behavior. These results suggest that the positive solutions set contains an S-shaped component in some case, as well as a combination of a C-shaped and an S-shaped components in another case.     

Multiple constant sign and nodal solutions for nonlinear elliptic equations with the p-Laplacian

We consider a nonlinear elliptic equation driven by the p-Laplacian with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Using variational techniques combined with the method of upper-lower solutions and suitable truncation arguments, we establish the existence of at least five nontrivial solutions. Two positive, two negative and a nodal (sign-changing) solution. Our framework of analysis incorporates both coercive and p-superlinear problems. Also the result on multiple constant sign solutions incorporates the case of concave-convex nonlinearities.     

Blow-up properties for a degenerate parabolic system with nonlinear localized sources

In this paper, we investigate the initial-boundary problem of a degenerate parabolic system with nonlinear localized sources. We classify the blow-up solutions into global blow-up cases and single-point blow-up cases according to the values of m,n,p_i,q_i. Furthermore, we obtain the uniform blow-up profiles of solutions for the global blow-up case. Finally, we give some numerical examples to verify the results. These extend and generalize a recent work of one of the authors [L. Du, Blow-up for a degenerate reaction-diffusion systems with nonlinear localized sources, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 324 (2006) 304-320], which only considered uniform blow-up profiles under the special case p₁=p₂=0.     

Supremum principles for the higher-order derivatives of solutions to the Dirichlet problem for parabolic equations without compatibility conditions between the data

The Dirichlet problem is considered for the heat equation ut=auxx, a>0 a constant, for (x,t)∈[0,1]×[0,T], without assuming any compatibility condition between initial and boundary data at the corner points (0,0) and (1,0). Under some smoothness restrictions on the data (stricter than those required by the classical maximum principle), weak and strong supremum and infimum principles are established for the higher-order derivatives, ut and uxx, of the bounded classical solutions. When compatibility conditions of zero order are satisfied (i.e., initial and boundary data coincide at the corner points), these principles allow to estimate the higher-order derivatives of classical solutions uniformly from below and above on the entire domain, except that at the two corner points. When compatibility conditions of the second order are satisfied (i.e., classical solutions belong to on the closed domain), the results of the paper are a direct consequence of the classical maximum and minimum principles applied to the higher-order derivatives. The classical principles for the solutions to the Dirichlet problem with compatibility conditions are generalized to the case of the same problem without any compatibility condition. The Dirichlet problem without compatibility conditions is then considered for general linear one-dimensional parabolic equations. The previous results as well as some new properties of the corresponding Green functions derived here allow to establish uniformL¹-estimates for the higher-order derivatives of the bounded classical solutions to the general problem.     

The Brezis-Nirenberg problem near criticality in dimension 3

We consider the problem of finding positive solutions of Δu+λu+u^q=0 in a bounded, smooth domain Ω in , under zero Dirichlet boundary conditions. Here q is a number close to the critical exponent 5 and 0<λ<λ₁. We analyze the role of Green's function of Δ+λ in the presence of solutions exhibiting single and multiple bubbling behavior at one point of the domain when either q or λ are regarded as parameters. As a special case of our results, we find that if , where λ∗ is the Brezis-Nirenberg number, i.e., the smallest value of λ for which least energy solutions for q=5 exist, then this problem is solvable if q>5 and q−5 is sufficiently small.     

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.     

Existence of positive solutions for the singular fractional differential equations

In this paper, we consider the following two-point fractional boundary value problem. We provide sufficient conditions for the existence of multiple positive solutions for the following boundary value problems that the nonlinear terms contain i-order derivative where n?1<α≤n is a real number, n is natural number and n≥2, α?i>1, i∈N and 0≤i≤n?1. ${}^{c}D_{0^{+}}^{\alpha}$ is the standard Caputo derivative. f(t,x ₀,x ₁,…,x _i ) may be singular at t=0.     

The Fujita exponent for the Cauchy problem in the hyperbolic space

It is well known that the heat kernel in the hyperbolic space has a different behavior for large times than the one in the Euclidean space. The main purpose of this paper is to study its effect on the positive solutions of Cauchy problems with power nonlinearities. Existence and non-existence results for local solutions are derived. Emphasis is put on their long time behavior and on Fujita?s phenomenon. To have the same situation as for the Cauchy problem in RN, namely finite time blow up for all solutions if the exponent is smaller than a critical value and existence of global solutions only for powers above the critical exponent, we must introduce a weight depending exponentially on the time. In this respect the situation is similar to problems in bounded domains with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Important tools are estimates for the heat kernel in the hyperbolic space and comparison principles.     

A note on the implicit function theorem for quasi-linear eigenvalue problems

We consider the quasi-linear eigenvalue problem −Δ_pu=λg(u) subject to Dirichlet boundary conditions on a bounded open set Ω, where g is a locally Lipschitz continuous function. Imposing no further conditions on Ω or g, we show that for λ near zero the problem has a bounded solution which is unique in the class of all small solutions. Moreover, this curve of solutions parameterized by λ depends continuously on the parameter.     

Blowing up boundary conditions for a nonlocal nonlinear diffusion equation in several space dimensions

We analyze boundary value problems prescribing Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions for a nonlocal nonlinear diffusion operator which is analogous to the porous medium equation in a bounded smooth domain Ω∈R^N with N≥1. First, we prove existence and uniqueness of solutions and the validity of a comparison principle for these problems. Next, we impose boundary data that blow up in finite time and study the behavior of the solutions.     

Spherically symmetric internal layers for activator-inhibitor systems II. Stability and symmetry breaking bifurcations

A reaction-diffusion system of activator-inhibitor type is studied on an N-dimensional ball with the homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions. We analyze the stability property of the spherically symmetric solutions and their symmetry-breaking bifurcations into layer solutions which are not spherically symmetric.     

Structure of boundary blow-up solutions for quasi-linear elliptic problems II: small and intermediate solutions

The structure of positive boundary blow-up solutions to quasi-linear elliptic problems of the form −Δ_pu=λf(u), u=∞ on ∂Ω, 1<p<∞, is studied in a bounded smooth domain , for a class of nonlinearities f∈C¹((0,∞)?{z₂})∩C⁰[0,∞) satisfying f(0)=f(z₁)=f(z₂)=0 with 0<z₁<z₂, f<0 in (0,z₁)∪(z₂,∞), f>0 in (z₁,z₂). Large, small and intermediate solutions are obtained for λ sufficiently large. It is known from Part I (see Structure of boundary blow-up solutions for quasilinear elliptic problems, part (I): large and small solutions, preprint), that the large solution is the unique large solution to the problem. We will see that the small solution is also the unique small solution to the problem while there are infinitely many intermediate solutions. Our results are new even for the case p=2.     

Existence of positive solutions for 2nth-order singular sublinear boundary value problems

This paper investigates the existence of positive solutions for 2nth-order (n>1) singular sub-linear boundary value problems. A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of C2n−2[0,1] as well as C2n−1[0,1] positive solutions is given by constructing lower and upper solutions and with the maximal theorem. Our nonlinearity f(t,x₁,x₂,…,xn) may be singular at xi=0, i=1,2,…,n, t=0 and/or t=1.     

Strong full bounded solutions of nonlinear parabolic equations with nonlinear boundary conditions

We study the existence of (generalized) bounded solutions existing for all times for nonlinear parabolic equations with nonlinear boundary conditions on a domain that is bounded in space and unbounded in time (the entire real line). We give a counterexample which shows that a (weak) maximum principle does not hold in general for linear problems defined on the entire real line in time. We consider a boundedness condition at minus infinity to establish (one-sided) L^∞-a priori estimates for solutions to linear boundary value problems and derive a weak maximum principle which is valid on the entire real line in time. We then take up the case of nonlinear problems with (possibly) nonlinear boundary conditions. By using comparison techniques, some (delicate) a priori estimates obtained herein, and nonlinear approximation methods, we prove the existence and, in some instances, positivity and uniqueness of strong full bounded solutions existing for all times.