Existence of secondary bifurcations or isolas for PDEs

In this paper, we introduce a method to conclude about the existence of secondary bifurcations or isolas of steady state solutions for parameter dependent nonlinear partial differential equations. The technique combines the Global Bifurcation Theorem, knowledge about the non-existence of nontrivial steady state solutions at the zero parameter value and explicit information about the coexistence of multiple nontrivial steady states at a positive parameter value. We apply the method to the two-dimensional Swift-Hohenberg equation.     

Bifurcation of positive solutions to scalar reaction–diffusion equations with nonlinear boundary condition

The bifurcation of non-trivial steady state solutions of a scalar reaction–diffusion equation with nonlinear boundary conditions is considered using several new abstract bifurcation theorems. The existence and stability of positive steady state solutions are proved using a unified approach. The general results are applied to a Laplace equation with nonlinear boundary condition and bistable nonlinearity, and an elliptic equation with superlinear nonlinearity and sublinear boundary conditions.     

Mathematical Study of an Inflammatory Model for Atherosclerosis: A Nonlinear Renewal Equation

In this work we study the coupling of a nonlinear renewal equation to an ordinary differential equation. We start with existence and uniqueness issues for the coupled equations and, in particular cases, we study the long-time behaviour. The novelty here is the nonlinearity in the renewal equation. This model arises in the context of atherosclerosis. The renewal part accounts for the inflammatory process: leucocyte recruitment in the arterial wall, differentiation when internalizing low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and death. The ordinary differential equation describes the LDL dynamics in the arterial wall, leucocyte absorption and release in the blood.

     

A Markov Renewal Approach to M/G/1 Type Queues with Countably Many Background States

We consider the stationary distribution of the M/GI/1 type queue when background states are countable. We are interested in its tail behavior. To this end, we derive a Markov renewal equation for characterizing the stationary distribution using a Markov additive process that describes the number of customers in system when the system is not empty. Variants of this Markov renewal equation are also derived. It is shown that the transition kernels of these renewal equations can be expressed by the ladder height and the associated background state of a dual Markov additive process. Usually, matrix analysis is extensively used for studying the M/G/1 type queue. However, this may not be convenient when the background states are countable. We here rely on stochastic arguments, which not only make computations possible but also reveal new features. Those results are applied to study the tail decay rates of the stationary distributions. This includes refinements of the existence results with extensions.     

Steady state solutions in a model reacting flow problem

This paper examines the existence of steady state solutions in the Fickett-Majda model of detonation-combustion when heat sources are present and the chemical kinetics is governed by a single, reversible reaction. The problem reduces to studying the bifurcations of a nonlinear algebraic equation, and conditions for existence are obtained in terms of the heat release parameter and total energy of the source     

Asymptotic properties of excited states in the Thomas-Fermi limit

Excited states are stationary localized solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with a harmonic potential and a repulsive nonlinear term that have zeros on a real axis. The existence and the asymptotic properties of excited states are considered in the semi-classical (Thomas-Fermi) limit. Using the method of Lyapunov-Schmidt reductions and the known properties of the ground state in the Thomas-Fermi limit, we show that the excited states can be approximated by a product of dark solitons (localized waves of the defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation with nonzero boundary conditions) and the ground state. The dark solitons are centered at the equilibrium points where a balance between the actions of the harmonic potential and the tail-to-tail interaction potential is achieved.     

An efficient approach for the numerical solution of the Monge-Ampère equation

In this paper, we present a new method to compute the numerical solution of the elliptic Monge-Ampère equation. This method is based on solving a parabolic Monge-Ampère equation for the steady state solution. We study the problem of global existence, uniqueness, and convergence of the solution of the fully nonlinear parabolic PDE to the unique solution of the elliptic Monge-Ampère equation. Some numerical experiments are presented to show the convergence and the regularity of the numerical solution.     

A note on parabolic equation with nonlinear dynamical boundary condition

We consider a semilinear parabolic equation subject to a nonlinear dynamical boundary condition that is related to the so-called Wentzell boundary condition. First we prove the existence and uniqueness of global solutions as well as the existence of a global attractor. Then we derive a suitable ?ojasiewicz-Simon type inequality to show the convergence of global solutions to single steady states as time tends to infinity under the assumption that the nonlinear terms f,g are real analytic. Moreover, we provide an estimate for the convergence rate.     

Traveling wave front for the Fisher equation on an infinite band region

Instead of discussing the existence of a one-dimensional traveling wave front solution which connects two constant steady states, the present work deals with the case connecting a constant and a nonhomogeneous steady state on an infinite band region. The corresponding model is the well-known Fisher equation with variational coefficient and Dirichlet boundary condition.     

Long-time behavior for a nonlinear plate equation with thermal memory

We consider a nonlinear plate equation with thermal memory effects due to non-Fourier heat flux laws. First we prove the existence and uniqueness of global solutions as well as the existence of a global attractor. Then we use a suitable ?ojasiewicz-Simon type inequality to show the convergence of global solutions to single steady states as time goes to infinity under the assumption that the nonlinear term f is real analytic. Moreover, we provide an estimate on the convergence rate.     

Global asymptotic stability for an age-structured model of hematopoietic stem cell dynamics

We investigate a system of two nonlinear age-structured partial differential equations describing the dynamics of proliferating and quiescent hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) populations. The method of characteristics reduces the age-structured model to a system of coupled delay differential and renewal difference equations with continuous time and distributed delay. By constructing a Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the global asymptotic stability of the trivial steady state, which describes the population dying out. We also give sufficient conditions for the existence of unbounded solutions, which describe the uncontrolled proliferation of HSC population. This study may be helpful in understanding the behavior of hematopoietic cells in some hematological disorders.     

Nonlinear problems arising in electrostatic actuation in MEMS

In this paper we study the nonlinear problem arising in electrostatic actuation of MEMS. We show that the existence and non-existence of the solution of this problem depend on the value of the physical parameters of the equation. In addition we consider the corresponding initial value problem and we derived the existence of periodic solution, stability of steady states and the ω-limit set.     

On the Existence and Uniqueness of Solution of MRE and Applications

In this paper, we study the existence and uniqueness of the solution for Markov renewal equation (MRE) of a semi-Markov process with countable state space. This method and its proof are based on an iterative scheme. A numerical solution is also given as well as a case study on system reliability assessment.     

A competition un-stirred chemostat model with virus in an aquatic system

A reaction–diffusion system of two bacteria species competing a single limiting nutrient with the consideration of virus infection is derived and analysed. Firstly, the well-posedness of the system, the existence of the trivial and semi-trivial steady states, and some prior estimations of the steady states are given. Secondly, a single species subsystem with virus is studied. The stability of the trivial and semi-trivial steady states and the uniform persistence of the subsystem are obtained. Further, taking the infective ability of virus as a bifurcation parameter, the global structure of the positive steady states and the effect of virus on the positive steady states are established via bifurcation theory and limiting arguments. It shows that the backward bifurcation may occur. Some sufficient conditions for the existence, uniqueness and stability of the positive steady state are also obtained. Finally, some sufficient conditions on the existence of the positive steady states for the full system are derived by using the fixed point index theory. Some results on persistence or extinction for the full system are also obtained.     

The Interaction of Shocks with Dispersive Waves I. Weak Coupling Limit

We introduce and analyze a model for the interaction of shocks with a dispersive wave envelope. The model mimicks the Zakharov system from weak plasma turbulence theory but replaces the linear wave equation in that system by a nonlinear wave equation allowing the formation of shocks. This paper considers a weak coupling in which the nonlinear wave evolves independently but appears as the potential in the time-dependent Schrodinger equation governing the dispersive wave. We first solve the Riemann problem for the system by constructing solutions to the Schrodinger equation that are steady in a frame of reference moving with the shock. Then we add a viscous diffusion term to the shock equation and by explicitly constructing asymptotic expansions in the (small) diffusion coefficient, we show that these solutions are zero diffusion limits of the regularized problem. The expansions are unusual in that it is necessary to keep track of exponentially small terms to obtain algebraically small terms. The expansions are compared to numerical solutions. We then construct a family of time-dependent solutions in the case that the initial data for the nonlinear wave equation evolves to a shock as t → t* < ∞. We prove that the shock formation drives a finite time blow-up in the phase gradient of the dispersive wave. While the shock develops algebraically in time, the phase gradient blows up logarithmically in time. We construct several explicit time-dependent solutions to the system, including ones that: (a) evolve to the steady states previously constructed, (b) evolve to steady states with phase discontinuities (which we call phase kinked steady states), (c) do not evolve to steady states.     

Stability in the almost everywhere sense: A linear transfer operator approach

The problem of almost everywhere stability of a nonlinear autonomous ordinary differential equation is studied using a linear transfer operator framework. The infinitesimal generator of a linear transfer operator (Perron-Frobenius) is used to provide stability conditions of an autonomous ordinary differential equation. It is shown that almost everywhere uniform stability of a nonlinear differential equation, is equivalent to the existence of a non-negative solution for a steady state advection type linear partial differential equation. We refer to this non-negative solution, verifying almost everywhere global stability, as Lyapunov density. A numerical method using finite element techniques is used for the computation of Lyapunov density.     

Qualitative analysis for a ratio-dependent predator-prey model with disease and diffusion

This paper is purported to study a reaction diffusion system arising from a ratio-dependent predator-prey model with disease. We study the dynamical behavior of the predator-prey system. The conditions for the permanent and existence of steady states and their stability are established. We can obtain the bounds for positive steady state of the corresponding elliptic system. The non-existence results of non-constant positive solutions are derived.     

Sharp criteria of global existence and blow-up for a type of nonlinear parabolic equations

We study a type of nonlinear parabolic equations. In terms of the variational characterization of the corresponding nonlinear elliptic equations and the invariant flow arguments, we establish the sharp criteria for global existence and blow-up. Furthermore, we also get the instability of the steady states and the global existence with small initial data.     

On the uniqueness and structure of solutions to a coupled elliptic system

In this paper, we consider a nonlinear elliptic system which is an extension of the single equation derived by investigating the stationary states of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. We establish the existence and uniqueness of solutions to the Dirichlet problem on the ball. In addition, the nonexistence of the ground state solutions under certain conditions on the nonlinearities and the complete structure of different types of solutions to the shooting problem are proved.