Global energy conservative solutions to a system of variational wave equations

This paper is concerned with a system of variational wave equations which is the Euler–Lagrange equations of a variational principle arising in the theory of nematic liquid crystals and a few other physical contexts. The global existence of an energy-conservative weak solution to its Cauchy problem for initial data of finite energy is established by using the method of energy-dependent coordinates and the Young measure theory.     

关于弹性板弯曲变形的Reissner理论

本文根据不完全广义余能原理重新推导了Reissner方程,使应力函数ψ以拉格朗日乘子的方式从变分中自然引出,同时明确了Reissner方程的解的结构.在此基础上提出了一个简化理论,它只需求解一个类似于经典薄板理论的四阶方程,即可得到计及剪力对弯曲变形影响的令人满意的结果.     

Investigation of the behavior of weak waves in the solution of a vector variational wave equation

We consider nonsmooth solutions of the system of Euler-Lagrange equations corresponding to a variational problem with several unknown functions of several variables and with a quadratic functional. The propagation of weak discontinuities is described by the equations of the method of singular characteristics developed by Melikyan. The onset and interaction of weak discontinuities of the solution caused by nonsmooth initial conditions are studied by numerical-analytic methods. We develop two computer programs for shock-fitting and shock-capturing computations. The approach was earlier applied by the authors to the analysis of a variational wave equation, namely, to the solution of the Euler-Lagrange equation for a variational problem with a single unknown function.     

A Linearization Method for Nondegenerate Variational Conditions

We employ recent results about constraint nondegeneracy in variational conditions to design and justify a linearization algorithm for solving such problems. The algorithm solves a sequence of affine variational inequalities, but the variational condition itself need not be a variational inequality: that is, its underlying set need not be convex. However, that set must be given by systems of differentiable nonlinear equations with additional polyhedral constraints. We show that if the variational condition has a solution satisfying nondegeneracy and a standard regularity condition, and if the linearization algorithm is started sufficiently close to that solution, the algorithm will produce a well defined sequence that converges Q-superlinearly to the solution.     

A self-dual variational approach to stochastic partial differential equations

Unlike many of their deterministic counterparts, stochastic partial differential equations are not amenable to the methods of calculus of variations à la Euler–Lagrange. In this paper, we show how self-dual variational calculus leads to variational solutions of various stochastic partial differential equations driven by monotone vector fields. We construct solutions as minima of suitable non-negative and self-dual energy functionals on Itô spaces of stochastic processes. We show how a stochastic version of Bolza's duality leads to solutions for equations with additive noise. We then use a Hamiltonian formulation to construct solutions for non-linear equations with non-additive noise such as the stochastic Navier–Stokes equations in dimension two.     

Algorithms for solutions of extended general mixed variational inequalities and fixed points

In this paper, we introduce and study a new class of extended general nonlinear mixed variational inequalities and a new class of extended general resolvent equations and establish the equivalence between the extended general nonlinear mixed variational inequalities and implicit fixed point problems as well as the extended general resolvent equations. Then by using this equivalent formulation, we discuss the existence and uniqueness of solution of the problem of extended general nonlinear mixed variational inequalities. Applying the aforesaid equivalent alternative formulation and a nearly uniformly Lipschitzian mapping S, we construct some new resolvent iterative algorithms for finding an element of set of the fixed points of nearly uniformly Lipschitzian mapping S which is the unique solution of the problem of extended general nonlinear mixed variational inequalities. We study convergence analysis of the suggested iterative schemes under some suitable conditions. We also suggest and analyze a class of extended general resolvent dynamical systems associated with the extended general nonlinear mixed variational inequalities and show that the trajectory of the solution of the extended general resolvent dynamical system converges globally exponentially to the unique solution of the extended general nonlinear mixed variational inequalities. The results presented in this paper extend and improve some known results in the literature.     

Solution smoothness of ill-posed equations in Hilbert spaces: four concepts and their cross connections

Numerical solution of ill-posed operator equations requires regularization techniques. The convergence of regularized solutions to the exact solution can be usually guaranteed, but to also obtain estimates for the speed of convergence one has to exploit some kind of smoothness of the exact solution. We consider four such smoothness concepts in a Hilbert space setting: source conditions, approximate source conditions, variational inequalities, and approximate variational inequalities. Besides some new auxiliary results on variational inequalities the equivalence of the last three concepts is shown. In addition, it turns out that the classical concept of source conditions and the modern concept of variational inequalities are connected via Fenchel duality.     

Energy Conservative Solutions to a One‐Dimensional Full Variational Wave System

We establish the existence of a conservative weak solution to the initial value problem for a complete system of variational wave equations modeling liquid crystals in one space dimension, in which the director has two degrees of freedom. The solutions exist globally in time and singularities may develop in finite time, but the energy of the solutions is conserved across singular times. The method for existence also yields continuous dependence of solutions on the initial data. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Nonlinear models of suspension bridges

Nonlinear variational equations describing one type of suspension bridges are proposed and studied. The variational equations describe the behaviour of road bed, main cables and cable stays. The road bed is described by two functions connected with vertical and horizontal deformation of any cross section. The main cable is considered to be perfectly flexible and inextensible. The cable stays only resist tensile forces. The variational equations are derived from the principle of minimum potential energy. The existence of solution is based on the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem. The local uniqueness and continuous dependence on the data represented by gravitational forces acting on the road bed are studied. The local results are based on the Implicit Function Theorem for Banach spaces. A certain stability criterion for suspension bridges is formulated and this criterion indicates how to influence the stability of suspension bridges.     

Diffractive nonlinear geometrical optics for variational wave equations and the Einstein equations

We derive an asymptotic solution of the vacuum Einstein equations that describe the propagation and diffraction of a localized, large‐amplitude, rapidly varying gravitational wave. We compare and contrast the resulting theory of strongly nonlinear geometrical optics for the Einstein equations with nonlinear geometrical optics theories for variational wave equations. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Variational Properties of the Solutions for Second-Order Differential Equations and Systems on Semi-Line

In this article, an abstract theory regarding variational properties of the fixed points of contractions and Perov contractions is applied to boundary value problems on semi-line for second-order differential equations and systems. The main result states that under suitable conditions the unique solution of such a system is a Nash-type equilibrium of the corresponding energy functionals.     

Some problems for nonlinear pseudoparabolic equations in nontube domains

We prove existence and uniqueness of a weak solution to the first initial-boundary value problem for some class of quasilinear pseudoparabolic equations in nontube domains. Also, we study unique solvability in these domains for the variational inequality connected with the above class of equations.     

Numerical methods for computing sensitivities for ODEs and DDEs

We investigate the performance of the adjoint approach and the variational approach for computing the sensitivities of the least squares objective function commonly used when fitting models to observations. We note that the discrete nature of the objective function makes the cost of the adjoint approach for computing the sensitivities dependent on the number of observations. In the case of ordinary differential equations (ODEs), this dependence is due to having to interrupt the computation at each observation point during numerical solution of the adjoint equations. Each observation introduces a jump discontinuity in the solution of the adjoint differential equations. These discontinuities are propagated in the case of delay differential equations (DDEs), making the performance of the adjoint approach even more sensitive to the number of observations for DDEs. We quantify this cost and suggest ways to make the adjoint approach scale better with the number of observations. In numerical experiments, we compare the adjoint approach with the variational approach for computing the sensitivities.     

Stability for steady states of Navier-Stokes-Poisson equations

In this paper, we study the stationary solution and nonlinear stability of Navier-Stokes-Poisson equations. Using variational method, we construct steady states of the N-S-P system as minimizers of a suitably defined energy functional, then show their dynamical stability against general, i.e. not necessarily spherically symmetric perturbation.     

Stationary Solutions of Fokker-Planck Equations with Nonlinear Reaction Terms in Bounded Domains

Using an operator approach, we discuss stationary solutions to Fokker-Planck equations and systems with nonlinear reaction terms. The existence of solutions is obtained by using Banach, Schauder and Schaefer fixed point theorems, and for systems by means of Perov’s fixed point theorem. Using the Ekeland variational principle, it is proved that the unique solution of the problem minimizes the energy functional, and in case of a system that it is the Nash equilibrium of the energy functionals associated to the component equations.

     

A Dynamic Frictional Contact Problem with Normal Damped Response

We consider a mathematical model which describes the frictional contact between a viscoelastic body and a reactive foundation. The process is assumed to be dynamic and the contact is modeled with a general normal damped response condition and a local friction law. We present a variational formulation of the problem and prove the existence and uniqueness of the weak solution, using results on evolution equations with monotone operators and a fixed point argument. We then introduce and study a fully discrete numerical approximation scheme of the variational problem, in terms of the velocity variable. The numerical scheme has a unique solution. We derive error estimates under additional regularity assumptions on the data and the solution.     

Geometric Integrators for Higher-Order Variational Systems and Their Application to Optimal Control

Numerical methods that preserve geometric invariants of the system, such as energy, momentum or the symplectic form, are called geometric integrators. In this paper we present a method to construct symplectic-momentum integrators for higher-order Lagrangian systems. Given a regular higher-order Lagrangian \(L:T^{(k)}Q\rightarrow {\mathbb {R}}\) with \(k\ge 1\), the resulting discrete equations define a generally implicit numerical integrator algorithm on \(T^{(k-1)}Q\times T^{(k-1)}Q\) that approximates the flow of the higher-order Euler–Lagrange equations for L. The algorithm equations are called higher-order discrete Euler–Lagrange equations and constitute a variational integrator for higher-order mechanical systems. The general idea for those variational integrators is to directly discretize Hamilton’s principle rather than the equations of motion in a way that preserves the invariants of the original system, notably the symplectic form and, via a discrete version of Noether’s theorem, the momentum map. We construct an exact discrete Lagrangian \(L_d^e\) using the locally unique solution of the higher-order Euler–Lagrange equations for L with boundary conditions. By taking the discrete Lagrangian as an approximation of \(L_d^e\), we obtain variational integrators for higher-order mechanical systems. We apply our techniques to optimal control problems since, given a cost function, the optimal control problem is understood as a second-order variational problem.     

A variational approach to complex Monge-Ampère equations

We show that degenerate complex Monge-Ampère equations in a big cohomology class of a compact Kähler manifold can be solved using a variational method, without relying on Yau’s theorem. Our formulation yields in particular a natural pluricomplex analogue of the classical logarithmic energy of a measure. We also investigate Kähler-Einstein equations on Fano manifolds. Using continuous geodesics in the closure of the space of Kähler metrics and Berndtsson’s positivity of direct images, we extend Ding-Tian’s variational characterization and Bando-Mabuchi’s uniqueness result to singular Kähler-Einstein metrics. Finally, using our variational characterization we prove the existence, uniqueness and convergence as k→∞ of k-balanced metrics in the sense of Donaldson both in the (anti)canonical case and with respect to a measure of finite pluricomplex energy.     

A Cahn–Hilliard model in bounded domains with permeable walls

In this article, we propose a model of phase separation in a binary mixture confined to a bounded region which may be contained within porous walls. The boundary conditions are derived from a mass conservation law and variational methods. Employing classical methods, that is, fixed point theorems and standard energy methods, we obtain the existence and uniqueness of a global solution to our problem. We then also compare our model of phase separation with other previous Cahn–Hilliard equations with homogeneous Neumann and dynamic boundary conditions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sharp Threshold for Blowup and Global Existence in Nonlinear Schrödinger Equations Under a Harmonic Potential

ABSTRACT

We present a variational approach to study the nonlinear Schrödinger equations under a harmonic potential. By constructing a type of cross constrained variational problem and establishing so-called cross-invariant manifolds of the evolution flow, we derive a sharp threshold for global existence and blowup of the solution. The stability of the standing waves is also discussed.