Asymptotic behavior and decay rate estimates for a class of semilinear evolution equations of mixed order

In this article we present a unified approach to study the asymptotic behavior and the decay rate to a steady state of bounded weak solutions of nonlinear, gradient-like evolution equations of mixed first and second order. The proof of convergence is based on the Lojasiewicz-Simon inequality, the construction of an appropriate Lyapunov functional, and some differential inequalities. Applications are given to nonautonomous semilinear wave and heat equations with dissipative, dynamical boundary conditions, a nonlinear hyperbolic-parabolic partial differential equation, a damped wave equation and some coupled system.     

Global attractor for a non-autonomous integro-differential equation in materials with memory

The long-time behavior of an integro-differential parabolic equation of diffusion type with memory terms, expressed by convolution integrals involving infinite delays and by a forcing term with bounded delay, is investigated in this paper. The assumptions imposed on the coefficients are weak in the sense that uniqueness of solutions of the corresponding initial value problems cannot be guaranteed. Then, it is proved that the model generates a multivalued non-autonomous dynamical system which possesses a pullback attractor. First, the analysis is carried out with an abstract parabolic equation. Then, the theory is applied to the particular integro-differential equation which is the objective of this paper. The general results obtained in the paper are also valid for other types of parabolic equations with memory.     

Global attractors for doubly nonlinear evolution equations with non-monotone perturbations

This paper addresses the analysis of dynamical systems generated by doubly nonlinear evolution equations governed by subdifferential operators with non-monotone perturbations in a reflexive Banach space setting. In order to construct global attractors, an approach based on the notion of generalized semiflow is employed instead of the usual semigroup approach, since solutions of the Cauchy problem for the equation might not be unique. Moreover, the preceding abstract theory is applied to a generalized Allen-Cahn equation as well as a semilinear parabolic equation with a nonlinear term involving gradients.     

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.     

Uniform attractors for the closed process and applications to the reaction-diffusion equation with dynamical boundary condition

In this paper, we first introduce the concept of a closed process in a Banach space, and we obtain the structure of a uniform attractor of the closed process by constructing a skew product-flow on the extended phase space. Then, the properties of the kernel section of closed process are investigated. Moreover, we prove the existence and structure of the uniform attractor for the reaction-diffusion equation with a dynamical boundary condition in L^p without any restriction on the growth order of the nonlinear term.     

Entire solutions of reaction-advection-diffusion equations with bistable nonlinearity in cylinders

This paper deals with entire solutions and the interaction of traveling wave fronts of bistable reaction-advection-diffusion equation with infinite cylinders. Assume that the equation admits three equilibria: two stable equilibria 0 and 1, and an unstable equilibrium θ. It is well known that there are different wave fronts connecting any two of those three equilibria. By considering a combination of any two of those different traveling wave fronts and constructing appropriate subsolutions and supersolutions, we establish three different types of entire solutions. Finally, we analyze a model for shear flows in cylinders to illustrate our main results.     

Extremal equilibria for monotone semigroups in ordered spaces with application to evolutionary equations

We consider monotone semigroups in ordered spaces and give general results concerning the existence of extremal equilibria and global attractors. We then show some applications of the abstract scheme to various evolutionary problems, from ODEs and retarded functional differential equations to parabolic and hyperbolic PDEs. In particular, we exhibit the dynamical properties of semigroups defined by semilinear parabolic equations in RN with nonlinearities depending on the gradient of the solution. We consider as well systems of reaction-diffusion equations in RN and provide some results concerning extremal equilibria of the semigroups corresponding to damped wave problems in bounded domains or in RN. We further discuss some nonlocal and quasilinear problems, as well as the fourth order Cahn-Hilliard equation.     

On an area-preserving crystalline motion

The asymptotic behavior of solutions to an area-preserving crystalline motion is investigated in this paper. In this equation, the area enclosed by the solution polygon is preserved, while its circumference keeps on shrinking. By geometric consideration, establishing several isoperimetric inequalities and using the theory of dynamical systems, we show that the asymptotic shape of a solution polygon is the boundary of the Wulff shape. Received: 23 February 2000 / Accepted: 23 January 2001 / Published online: 23 April 2001     

On the isospectral problem of the dispersionless Camassa–Holm equation

We discuss direct and inverse spectral theory for the isospectral problem of the dispersionless Camassa–Holm equation, where the weight is allowed to be a finite signed measure. In particular, we prove that this weight is uniquely determined by the spectral data and solve the inverse spectral problem for the class of measures which are sign definite. The results are applied to deduce several facts for the dispersionless Camassa–Holm equation. In particular, we show that initial conditions with integrable momentum asymptotically split into a sum of peakons as conjectured by McKean.     

Approximate controllability of evolution systems with nonlocal conditions

We study the approximate controllability for the abstract evolution equations with nonlocal conditions in Hilbert spaces. Assuming the approximate controllability of the corresponding linearized equation we obtain sufficient conditions for the approximate controllability of the semilinear evolution equation. The results we obtained are a generalization and continuation of the recent results on this issue. At the end, an example is given to show the application of our result.     

Periodic solutions of a periodically forced and undamped beam resting on weakly elastic bearings

We study the problem of existence of periodic solutions to a partial differential equation modelling the behavior of an undamped beam subject to an external periodic force. We assume that the ordinary differential equation associated to the first two modes of vibration of the beam has a symmetric homoclinic solution. By using methods borrowed by dynamical systems theory we prove that, if the period is non resonant with the (infinitely many) internal periods of the PDE, the equation has a weak periodic solution of the same period as the external force. In particular we obtain continua of periodic solutions for the undamped beam in absence of external forces. This result may be considered as an infinite dimensional analogue of a result obtained in [16] concerning accumulation of periodic solutions to homoclinic orbits in finite dimensional reversible systems. Matteo Franca: Partially supported by G.N.A.M.P.A. – INdAM (Italy).     

Polynomial decay and control of a 1−d hyperbolic-parabolic coupled system

In this paper we consider a linearized model for fluid-structure interaction in one space dimension. The domain where the system evolves consists in two parts in which the wave and heat equations evolve, respectively, with transmission conditions at the interface. First of all we develop a careful spectral asymptotic analysis on high frequencies for the underlying semigroup. It is shown that the semigroup governed by the system can be split into a parabolic and a hyperbolic projection. The dissipative mechanism of the system in the domain where the heat equation holds produces a slow decay of the hyperbolic component of solutions. According to this analysis we obtain sharp polynomial decay rates for the whole energy of smooth solutions. Next, we discuss the problem of null-controllability of the system when the control acts on the boundary of the domain where the heat equation holds. The key observability inequality of the dual system with observation on the heat component is derived though a new Ingham-type inequality, which in turn, thanks to our spectral analysis, is a consequence of a known observability inequality of the same system but with observation on the wave component.     

Heteroclinic orbits between rotating waves of semilinear parabolic equations on the circle

We investigate heteroclinic orbits between equilibria and rotating waves for scalar semilinear parabolic reaction-advection-diffusion equations with periodic boundary conditions. Using zero number properties of the solutions and the phase shift equivariance of the equation, we establish a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a heteroclinic connection between any pair of hyperbolic equilibria or rotating waves.     

Nonresonant smoothing in Sobolev spaces for coupled wave+transport equations

Consider a system consisting of a linear wave equation coupled to a transport equation:

     

Asymptotic behavior of a nonisothermal viscous Cahn-Hilliard equation with inertial term

We consider a differential model describing nonisothermal fast phase separation processes taking place in a three-dimensional bounded domain. This model consists of a viscous Cahn-Hilliard equation characterized by the presence of an inertial term χtt, χ being the order parameter, which is linearly coupled with an evolution equation for the (relative) temperature ?. The latter can be of hyperbolic type if the Cattaneo-Maxwell heat conduction law is assumed. The state variables and the chemical potential are subject to the homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions. We first provide conditions which ensure the well-posedness of the initial and boundary value problem. Then, we prove that the corresponding dynamical system is dissipative and possesses a global attractor. Moreover, assuming that the nonlinear potential is real analytic, we establish that each trajectory converges to a single steady state by using a suitable version of the ?ojasiewicz-Simon inequality. We also obtain an estimate of the decay rate to equilibrium.     

Random attractors for stochastic reaction-diffusion equations on unbounded domains

The existence of a pullback attractor is established for a stochastic reaction-diffusion equation on all n-dimensional space. The nonlinearity is dissipative for large values of the state and the stochastic nature of the equation appears as spatially distributed temporal white noise. The reaction-diffusion equation is recast as a random dynamical system and asymptotic compactness for this is demonstrated by using uniform a priori estimates for far-field values of solutions.     

On uniqueness for nonlinear elliptic equation involving the Pucci's extremal operator

In this article we study uniqueness of positive solutions for the nonlinear uniformly elliptic equation in RN, limr→∞u(r)=0, where denotes the Pucci's extremal operator with parameters 0<λ?Λ and p>1. It is known that all positive solutions of this equation are radially symmetric with respect to a point in RN, so the problem reduces to the study of a radial version of this equation. However, this is still a nontrivial question even in the case of the Laplacian (λ=Λ). The Pucci's operator is a prototype of a nonlinear operator in no-divergence form. This feature makes the uniqueness question specially challenging, since two standard tools like Pohozaev identity and global integration by parts are no longer available. The corresponding equation involving is also considered.     

Pullback attractors for asymptotically compact non-autonomous dynamical systems

First, we introduce the concept of pullback asymptotically compact non-autonomous dynamical system as an extension of the similar concept in the autonomous framework. Our definition is different from that of asymptotic compactness already used in the theory of random and non-autonomous dynamical systems (as developed by Crauel, Flandoli, Kloeden, Schmalfuss, amongst others) which means the existence of a (random or time-dependent) family of compact attracting sets. Next, we prove a result ensuring the existence of a pullback attractor for a non-autonomous dynamical system under the general assumptions of pullback asymptotic compactness and the existence of a pullback absorbing family of sets. This attractor is minimal and, in most practical applications, it is unique. Finally, we illustrate the theory with a 2D Navier–Stokes model in an unbounded domain.     

Pattern formation in a nonlinear model for animal coats

Several models have been proposed for describing the formation of animal coat patterns. We consider reaction-diffusion models due to Murray, which rely on a Turing instability for the pattern selection. In this paper, we describe the early stages of the pattern formation process for large domain sizes. This includes the selection mechanism and the geometry of the patterns generated by the nonlinear system on one-, two-, and three-dimensional base domains. These results are obtained by an adaptation of results explaining the occurrence of spinodal decomposition in materials science as modeled by the Cahn-Hilliard equation. We use techniques of dynamical systems, viewing solutions of the reaction-diffusion model in terms of nonlinear semiflows. Our results are applicable to any parabolic system exhibiting a Turing instability.     

Propagation and its failure in a lattice delayed differential equation with global interaction

We study the existence, uniqueness, global asymptotic stability and propagation failure of traveling wave fronts in a lattice delayed differential equation with global interaction for a single species population with two age classes and a fixed maturation period living in a spatially unbounded environment. In the bistable case, under realistic assumptions on the birth function, we prove that the equation admits a strictly monotone increasing traveling wave front. Moreover, if the wave speed does not vanish, then the wave front is unique (up to a translation) and globally asymptotic stable with phase shift. Of particular interest is the phenomenon of “propagation failure” or “pinning” (that is, wave speed c = 0), we also give some criteria for pinning in this paper.