A Bahri–Lions theorem revisited

In 1988, A. Bahri and P.L. Lions [A. Bahri, P.L. Lions, Morse-index of some min–max critical points. I. Application to multiplicity results, Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 41 (1988) 1027–1037] studied the following elliptic problem:

where Ω is a bounded smooth domain of , 2<p<(2N−2)/(N−2) and f(x,u) is not assumed to be odd in u. They proved the existence of infinitely many solutions under an appropriate growth restriction on f. In the present paper, we improve this result by showing that under the same growth assumption on f the problem admits in fact infinitely many sign-changing solutions. In addition we derive an estimate on the number of their nodal domains. We also deal with the corresponding fourth order equation Δ²u=|u|^p−2u+f(x,u) with both Dirichlet and Navier boundary conditions, as well as with strongly coupled elliptic systems.     

Solutions with boundary‐layers and spike‐layers to singularly perturbed quasilinear Dirichlet problems

The structure of nontrivial nonnegative solutions to singularly perturbed quasilinear Dirichlet problems of the form –?Δ_pu = f(u) in Ω, u = 0 on ?Ω, Ω ? R ^N a bounded smooth domain, is studied as ? → 0⁺, for a class of nonlinearities f(u) satisfying f(0) = f(z₁) = f(z₂) = 0 with 0 < z₁ < z₂, f < 0 in (0, z₁), f > 0 in (z₁, z₂) and f(u)/u^p–1 = –∞. It is shown that there are many nontrivial nonnegative solutions with spike‐layers. Moreover, the measure of each spike‐layer is estimated as ? → 0⁺. These results are applied to the study of the structure of positive solutions of the same problems with f changing sign many times in (0,∞). Uniqueness of a solution with a boundary‐layer and many positive intermediate solutions with spike‐layers are obtained for ? sufficiently small. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Saddle solutions of the balanced bistable diffusion equation

We prove that Δu + f(u) = 0 has a unique entire solution u(x, y) on ?² which has the same sign as the function xy, where f is a balanced bistable function like f(u) = u ? u³. But we neither assume f is odd nor assume the monotonicity properties of f(u)/u. Our result generalizes a previous result by Dang, Fife, and Peletier [12]. Our approach combines bifurcation methods and recent results on the qualitative properties for elliptic equations in unbounded domains by Berestycki, Caffarelli and Nirenberg [5, 6]. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Radially symmetric solutions of the Poisson–Boltzmann equation

The electrostatic potential u outside of a charged cylinder contained in an infinitely large container of electrolyte satisfies the Poisson–Boltzmann equation Δu = shu and boundary condition ?u/?n = ? σ on the cylinder and u(∞) = 0. We show that there exists a unique radially symmetric solution of the problem and consider its properties.     

Fisher–KPP equation with advection on the half‐line

We consider the Fisher–KPP equation with advection: u_t=u_xx?βu_x+f(u) on the half‐line x∈(0,∞), with no‐flux boundary condition u_x?βu = 0 at x = 0. We study the influence of the advection coefficient ?β on the long time behavior of the solutions. We show that for any compactly supported, nonnegative initial data, (i) when β∈(0,c₀), the solution converges locally uniformly to a strictly increasing positive stationary solution, (ii) when β∈[c₀,∞), the solution converges locally uniformly to 0, here c₀ is the minimal speed of the traveling waves of the classical Fisher–KPP equation. Moreover, (i) when β > 0, the asymptotic positions of the level sets on the right side of the solution are (β + c₀)t + o(t), and (ii) when β≥c₀, the asymptotic positions of the level sets on the left side are (β ? c₀)t + o(t). Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Corrigendum to “Discrepancy principle for the dynamical systems method” [Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 10 (2005) 95–101]

Consider an operator equation B(u) − f = 0 in a real Hilbert space. Let us call this equation ill-posed if the operator B′(u) is not boundedly invertible, and well-posed otherwise. The dynamical systems method (DSM) for solving this equation consists of a construction of a Cauchy problem, which has the following properties: (1) it has a global solution for an arbitrary initial data, (2) this solution tends to a limit as time tends to infinity, (3) the limit is the minimal-norm solution to the equation B(u) = f. A global convergence theorem is proved for DSM for equation B(u) − f = 0 with monotone operators B.     

Action functional and quasi‐potential for the burgers equation in a bounded interval

Consider the viscous Burgers equation u_t + f(u)_x = εu_xx on the interval [0,1] with the inhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions u(t,0) = ρ₀, u(t,1) = ρ₁. The flux f is the function f(u) = u(1 − u), ε > 0 is the viscosity, and the boundary data satisfy 0 < ρ₀ < ρ₁ < 1. We examine the quasi‐potential corresponding to an action functional arising from nonequilibrium statistical mechanical models associated with the above equation. We provide a static variational formula for the quasi‐potential and characterize the optimal paths for the dynamical problem. In contrast with previous cases, for small enough viscosity, the variational problem defining the quasi‐potential admits more than one minimizer. This phenomenon is interpreted as a nonequilibrium phase transition and corresponds to points where the superdifferential of the quasi‐potential is not a singleton. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

An artificial boundary condition for an advection–diffusion equation

Consider the advection–diffusion equation: u₁ + au_x1 ? vδu = 0 in ?ⁿ × ?⁺ with initial data u⁰; the Support of u⁰ is contained in ?(x₁ < 0) and a: ?ⁿ → ? is positive. In order to approximate the full space solution by the solution of a problem in ? × ?⁺, we propose the artificial boundary condition: u₁ + au_x1 = 0 on ∑. We study this by means of a transmission problem: the error is an O(v²) for small values of the viscosity v.     

A Palais–Smale approach to Lane–Emden equations

We consider the unbounded domain problems −Δu+u=|u|^p−2u in Ω, u>0 in Ω, and u=0 on ∂Ω, where Ω is an unbounded domain in , 2<p<2^*, for N>2, and 2^*=∞ for N=2. The existence of a ground state solution to the problems is greatly affected by the shape of the domain. To determine the existence of the solutions in a general domain remains a challenge task. For the flat interior flask domain that consists a strip and a ball attached to the bottom of the strip, previous results have asserted the existence of a ground state solution when the diameter of the ball is greater than a positive constant. However, the existence of the solutions when the diameter of the ball equals to the width of the strip is still an important open question. This article resolves the open question partially by considering a variation of the flat interior flask domain, which is formed by attaching a stretched ball to the bottom of the strip.     

Long‐time dynamics of KdV solitary waves over a variable bottom

We study the variable‐bottom, generalized Korteweg—de Vries (bKdV) equation ?_tu = ??_x(?u + f(u) ? b(t,x)u), where f is a nonlinearity and b is a small, bounded, and slowly varying function related to the varying depth of a channel of water. Many variable‐coefficient KdV‐type equations, including the variable‐coefficient, variable‐bottom KdV equation, can be rescaled into the bKdV. We study the long‐time behavior of solutions with initial conditions close to a stable, b = 0 solitary wave. We prove that for long time intervals, such solutions have the form of the solitary wave whose center and scale evolve according to a certain dynamical law involving the function b(t,x) plus an H¹(?)‐small fluctuation. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Comparison results for nonlinear elliptic equations with lower–order terms

We consider a solution u of the homogeneous Dirichlet problem for a class of nonlinear elliptic equations in the form A(u) + g(x, u) = f, where the principal term is a Leray–Lions operator defined on and g(x, u) is a term having the same sign as u and satisfying suitable growth assumptions. We prove that the rearrangement of u can be estimated by the solution of a problem whose data are radially symmetric.     

Zur Asymptotik der wellengleichung und der wärmeleitungsgleichung in zweidimensionalen außenräumen

We study initial and boundary value problems for the wave equation and the heat equation with a time-independent right-hand term f in two space dimensions in the exterior of a closed curve C. In the case of Neumann's boundary condition ?u/?n = 0 on C, the solutions increase with a logarithmic rate as t → ∞ if ∫ fdx ≠ 0. In contrast to this, the solutions of the corresponding Dirichlet problems converge to the solution of the related static problem as t → ∞. In the case of the wave equation, these results have already been obtained by L: A. Muravei under the additional assumption that the curvature of C is positive, by using high frequency estimates for the reduced wave equation Δ U + ?² U = 0. The analysis presented here is based on different methods, which can be applied to arbitrary smooth curves.     

Infinitely many solutions for p‐Kirchhoff equation with concave–convex nonlinearities in

In this paper, we study the existence of infinitely many solutions to p‐Kirchhoff‐type equation (0.1) where f(x,u) = λh₁(x)|u|^{m ? 2}u + h₂(x)|u|^{q ? 2}u,a≥0,μ > 0,τ > 0,λ≥0 and . The potential function verifies , and h₁(x),h₂(x) satisfy suitable conditions. Using variational methods and some special techniques, we prove that there exists λ₀>0 such that problem 0.1 admits infinitely many nonnegative high‐energy solutions provided that λ∈[0,λ₀) and . Also, we prove that problem 0.1 has at least a nontrivial solution under the assumption f(x,u) = h₂|u|^{q ? 2}u,p < q< min{p*,p(τ + 1)} and has infinitely many nonnegative solutions for f(x,u) = h₁|u|^{m ? 2}u,1 < m < p. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiple solutions of sublinear Lane-Emden elliptic equations

We study the sublinear elliptic equation, −Δ u = |u|^psgn u + f(x,u) in the bounded domain Ω under the zero Dirichlet boundary condition. We suppose that 0 < p < 1 and |f(x,u)| is small enough near u = 0 and do not suppose that f(x,u) is odd on u. Then we prove that this problem has infinitely many solutions. Supported in part by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (No. 16540179), Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.     

The Helmholtz–Weyl decomposition in weighted Sobolev spaces

Let f∈L_{2, ? µ}(?³), where where x = (x₁, x₂, x₃) is the Cartesian system in ?³, x′ = (x₁, x₂), , µ∈?₊\?. We prove the decomposition f = ? ?u + g, with g divergence free and u is a solution to the problem in ?³ Given f∈L_{2, ? µ}(?³) we show the existence of u∈H(?³) such that where Since f, u, g are defined in ?³ we need a sufficiently fast decay of these functions as |x|→∞. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Steady compressible Navier–Stokes equations with large potential forces via a method of decomposition

We investigate the steady compressible Navier–Stokes equations near the equilibrium state v = 0, ρ = ρ₀ (v the velocity, ρ the density) corresponding to a large potential force. We introduce a method of decomposition for such equations: the velocity field v is split into a non-homogeneous incompressible part u (div (ρ₀u) = (0) and a compressible (irrotational) part ∇ϕ. In such a way, the original complicated mixed elliptic–hyperbolic system is split into several ‘standard’ equations: a Stokes-type system for u, a Poisson-type equation for ϕ and a transport equation for the perturbation of the density σ = ρ − ρ₀. For ρ₀ = const. (zero potential forces), the method coincides with the decomposition of Novotny and Padula [21]. To underline the advantages of the present approach, we give, as an example, a ‘simple’ proof of the existence of isothermal flows in bounded domains with no-slip boundary conditions. The approach is applicable, with some modifications, to more complicated geometries and to more complicated boundary conditions as we will show in forthcoming papers. © 1998 B.G. Teubner Stuttgart–John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Free boundary problems for the laplace equation: A priori estimates,existence theorems,asymptotic behaviours

This work is devoted to Free Boundary Problems with Laplace equation Δu = f in the domain and the two conditions on the Free Boundary u = 1 and |grad u| = λ = const. In the model problems which we study, three cases arise: 1) f = 0, λ is given, 2) f = 0, λ is unknown and the length of the Free Boundary is given, 3) f ≠ 0, λ = 0 (Obstacle Problem).     

On a parabolic‐elliptic chemotaxis system with periodic asymptotic behavior

We study a parabolic‐elliptic chemotactic PDEs system, which describes the evolution of a biological population “u” and a chemical substance “v” in a bounded domain . We consider a growth term of logistic type in the equation of “u” in the form μu(1 ? u + f(t,x)). The function “f,” describing the resources of the systems, presents a periodic asymptotic behavior in the sense where f ^? is independent of x and periodic in time. We study the global existence of solutions and its asymptotic behavior. Under suitable assumptions on the initial data and f ^?, if the constant chemotactic sensitivity χ satisfies we obtain that the solution of the system converges to a homogeneous in space and periodic in time function.     

Explicit formula for scalar non-linear conservation laws with boundary condition

We prove an uniqueness and existence theorem for the entropy weak solution of non-linear hyperbolic conservation laws of the form , with initial data and boundary condition. The scalar function u = u(x, t), x > 0, t > 0, is the unknown; the function f = f(u) is assumed to be strictly convex. We also study the weighted Burgers' equation: α ? ? . We give an explicit formula, which generalizes a result of Lax. In particular, a free boundary problem for the flux f(u(.,.)) at the boundary is solved by introducing a variational inequality. The uniqueness result is obtained by extending a semigroup property due to Keyfitz.     

Beyond quenching for singular reaction-diffusion problems

Let f(u) be twice continuously differentiable on [0, c]) for some constant c such that f(0) > 0,f′ ? 0,f″ ? 0, and lim_u→cf(u) = ∞. Also, let χ(S) be the characteristic function of the set S. This article studies all solutions u with non-negative u_t, in the region where u < c and with continuous u_x for the problem: u_xx – u_t = ? f(u)χ({u < c}), 0 < x < a, 0 < t < ∞, subject to zero initial and first boundary conditions. For any length a larger than the critical length, it is shown that if ∫f(u) du < ∞, then as t tends to infinity, all solutions tend to the unique steady-state profile U(x), which can be computed by a derived formula; furthermore, increasing the length a increases the interval where U(x) ? c by the same amount. For illustration, examples are given.