An Arbitrary-Order Discrete de Rham Complex on Polyhedral Meshes: Exactness,Poincaré Inequalities,and Consistency

In this paper, we present a novel arbitrary-order discrete de Rham (DDR) complex on general polyhedral meshes based on the decomposition of polynomial spaces into ranges of vector calculus operators and complements linked to the spaces in the Koszul complex. The DDR complex is fully discrete, meaning that both the spaces and discrete calculus operators are replaced by discrete counterparts, and satisfies suitable exactness properties depending on the topology of the domain. In conjunction with bespoke discrete counterparts of \(\text {L}^2\)-products, it can be used to design schemes for partial differential equations that benefit from the exactness of the sequence but, unlike classical (e.g., Raviart–Thomas–Nédélec) finite elements, are nonconforming. We prove a complete panel of results for the analysis of such schemes: exactness properties, uniform Poincaré inequalities, as well as primal and adjoint consistency. We also show how this DDR complex enables the design of a numerical scheme for a magnetostatics problem, and use the aforementioned results to prove stability and optimal error estimates for this scheme.

     

A Trotter-Lie formula for compactly generated semigroups of nonlinear operators

A Trotter-Lie type formula for semigroups of nonlinear operators on a Banach space X into itself, which are generated by compact operators, is proved.     

Operator-theoretic solution of stochastic systems

A (stochastic) operator-theoretic approach leads to expresssions for inverses of linear and nonlinear stochastic operators—useful for the solution of linear or nonlinear stochastic differential equations. Operator equations are developed for inverses of linear or nonlinear stochastic operators. Series expressions are obtained which allow writing the solution y=$\text{F}$^?1x of the operator equation $\text{F}$y=x. Special cases are studied in which $\text{F}$ may be linear or nonlinear, deterministic or stochastic in various combinations.     

Existence and boundary behavior for singular nonlinear differential equations with arbitrary boundary conditions

Existence theory is developed for the equation ?(u)=F(u), where ? is a formally self-adjoint singular second-order differential expression and F is nonlinear. The problem is treated in a Hilbert space and we do not require the operators induced by ? to have completely continuous resolvents. Nonlinear boundary conditions are allowed. Also, F is assumed to be weakly continuous and monotone at one point. Boundary behavior of functions associated with the domains of definitions of the operators associated with ? in the singular case is investigated. A special class of self-adjoint operators associated with ? is obtained.     

Some Remarks on Krein's Extension Theory

The extension problem of semibounded symmetric operators and symmetric operators with a gap is studied in detail. Using a suitable representation (Krein model) for the inverses of those operators a parameterization of their symmetric and self-adjoint extensions is introduced which improves Krein's famous extension theory. In particular, the parameterization clearly shows which self-adjoint extensions in the gap case correspond to Friedrichs and v. Neumann or Krein extensions in the semibounded case. Moreover, special properties of the extensions as the exactness of the gap are characterized in terms of the parameters.     

Conformally flat Riemannian metrics,Schrödinger operators,and semiclassical approximation

A relationship between Laplace-Beltrami and Schrödinger operators on Euclidean domains is analyzed and exploited for several purposes: We use the Schrödinger equation to analyze the spectra of Laplace-Beltrami operators with periodic metrics on R^v, and use geometric notions and nonlinear differential equations to bound spectra and Green functions of Schrödinger operators in various ways. We also have a new, more operator-theoretic analysis of the semiclassical limit and the Liouville-Green (or JWKB) approximation in one dimension.     

Functional differential equations and nonlinear semigroups in Lp-spaces

The autonomous nonlinear functional differential equation x(t) = F(x_t), t ? 0, x₀ = φ is studied as a semigroup of nonlinear operators in L_p function spaces. The method employed is to construct a semigroup of nonlinear operators which may be associated with the solutions of this equation. New existence and stability results are obtained for this equation by means of the semigroup approach.     

Multiplicative perturbation of nonlinear m-accretive operators

Criteria are obtained for when an accretive product (i.e., composition) BA of nonlinear m-accretive operators A and B in a Banach space X will be itself m-accretive; and, in particular, when a monotone product of two maximal monotone operators in a Hilbert space will be maximal monotone. This extends the theory of multiplicative perturbation of infinitesimal generators of contraction semigroups to the nonlinear case. Also obtained as a biproduct are existence theorems for certain Hammerstein integral equations.     

Integration theory for Hammerstein operators

We develop in this article a strong nonlinear integral and obtain a Riesz-type theorem (utilizing this integral) for the class of (nonlinear) Hammerstein operators. The integral is extended to the class $\text{M}$_E($\text{B}$) of E-valued totally $\text{B}$-measurable functions and convergence theorems are studied. Then an exchange of information is carried out between the operators and the corresponding set functions; for example, the implication of the operator being compact or unconditionally summing is drawn. In the latter case it is shown that the representing set function is analogous to strongly bounded set functions. A vast body of literature exists for both of these concepts.     

Gaussian upper bounds for heat kernels of second order complex elliptic operators with unbounded diffusion coefficients on arbitrary domains

In this paper we obtain Gaussian upper bounds for the integral kernel of the semigroup associated with second order elliptic differential operators with complex unbounded measurable coefficients defined in a domain Ω of ? ^N and subject to various boundary conditions. In contrast to the previous literature the diffusions coefficients are not required to be bounded or regular. A new approach based on Davies-Gaffney estimates is used. It is applied to a number of examples, including degenerate elliptic operators arising in Financial Mathematics and generalized Ornstein-Uhlenbeck operators with potentials.     

Product formulas,nonlinear semigroups,and accretive operators

A special case of our main theorem, when combined with a known result of Brezis and Pazy, shows that in reflexive Banach spaces with a uniformly Gâteaux differentiable norm, resolvent consistency is equivalent to convergence for nonlinear contractive algorithms. (The linear case is due to Chernoff.) The proof uses ideas of Crandall, Liggett, and Baillon. Other applications of our theorem include results concerning the generation of nonlinear semigroups (e.g., a nonlinear Hille-Yosida theorem for “nice” Banach spaces that includes the familiar Hilbert space result), the geometry of Banach spaces, extensions of accretive operators, invariance criteria, and the asymptotic behavior of nonlinear semigroups and resolvents. The equivalence between resolvent consistency and convergence for nonlinear contractive algorithms seems to be new even in Hilbert space. Our nonlinear Hille-Yosida theorem is the first of its kind outside Hilbert space. It establishes a biunique correspondence between m-accretive operators and semigroups on nonexpansive retracts of “nice” Banach spaces and provides affirmative answers to two questions of Kato.     

On nonlinear translation-varying operators

In this work nonlinear translation-varying operators are analyzed and represented by means of a generalized impulse response. This is the response of the transpose operator to the family of shifted impulse functionals. Continuous operators from a topological vector space into the space of functions on Rⁿ, as well as $\text{A}$-bounded operators, are investigated.     

On the exactness of the ε-constraint method for biobjective nonlinear integer programming

The ε-constraint method is a well-known scalarization technique used for multiobjective optimization. We explore how to properly define the step size parameter of the method in order to guarantee its exactness when dealing with biobjective nonlinear integer problems. Under specific assumptions, we prove that the number of subproblems that the method needs to address to detect the complete Pareto front is finite. We report numerical results on portfolio optimization instances built on real-world data and show a comparison with an existing criterion space algorithm.     

Symmetry properties for solutions of nonlocal equations involving nonlinear operators

We pursue the study of one-dimensional symmetry of solutions to nonlinear equations involving nonlocal operators. We consider a vast class of nonlinear operators and in a particular case it covers the fractional p-Laplacian operator. Just like the classical De Giorgi's conjecture, we establish a Poincaré inequality and a linear Liouville theorem to provide two different proofs of the one-dimensional symmetry results in two dimensions. Both approaches are of independent interests. In addition, we provide certain energy estimates for layer solutions and Liouville theorems for stable solutions. Most of the methods and ideas applied in the current article are applicable to nonlocal operators with general kernels where the famous extension problem, given by Caffarelli and Silvestre, is not necessarily known.     

Bounds on nonlinear operators in finite-dimensional banach spaces

Summary We consider Lipschitz-continuous nonlinear maps in finite-dimensional Banach and Hilbert spaces. Boundedness and monotonicity of the operator are characterized quantitatively in terms of certain functionals. These functionals are used to assess qualitative properties such as invertibility, and also enable a generalization of some well-known matrix results directly to nonlinear operators. Closely related to the numerical range of a matrix, the Gerschgorin domain is introduced for nonlinear operators. This point set in the complex plane is always convex and contains the spectrum of the operator's Jacobian matrices. Finally, we focus on nonlinear operators in Hilbert space and hint at some generalizations of the von Neumann spectral theory.     

Fixed-point theorems of φ concave-(−ψ) convex mixed monotone operators and applications

In this paper, φ concave-(−ψ) convex operators are introduced and some new existence and uniqueness theorems of fixed points of mixed monotone operators with such concavity and convexity are obtained. Moreover, some applications to nonlinear integral equations on bounded or unbounded regions are given.     

A Unified Approach to the Global Exactness of Penalty and Augmented Lagrangian Functions I: Parametric Exactness

In this two-part study, we develop a unified approach to the analysis of the global exactness of various penalty and augmented Lagrangian functions for constrained optimization problems in finite-dimensional spaces. This approach allows one to verify in a simple and straightforward manner whether a given penalty/augmented Lagrangian function is exact, i.e., whether the problem of unconstrained minimization of this function is equivalent (in some sense) to the original constrained problem, provided the penalty parameter is sufficiently large. Our approach is based on the so-called localization principle that reduces the study of global exactness to a local analysis of a chosen merit function near globally optimal solutions. In turn, such local analysis can be performed with the use of optimality conditions and constraint qualifications. In the first paper, we introduce the concept of global parametric exactness and derive the localization principle in the parametric form. With the use of this version of the localization principle, we recover existing simple, necessary, and sufficient conditions for the global exactness of linear penalty functions and for the existence of augmented Lagrange multipliers of Rockafellar–Wets’ augmented Lagrangian. We also present completely new necessary and sufficient conditions for the global exactness of general nonlinear penalty functions and for the global exactness of a continuously differentiable penalty function for nonlinear second-order cone programming problems. We briefly discuss how one can construct a continuously differentiable exact penalty function for nonlinear semidefinite programming problems as well.     

On the asymptotic exactness of error estimators for linear triangular finite elements

Summary This paper deals with a-posteriori error estimates for piecewise linear finite element approximations of elliptic problems. We analyze two estimators based on recovery operators for the gradient of the approximate solution. By using superconvergence results we prove their asymptotic exactness under regularity assumptions on the mesh and the solution.One of the estimators can be easily computed in terms of the jumps of the gradient of the finite element approximation. This estimator is equivalent to the error in the energy norm under rather general conditions. However, we show that for the asymptotic exactness, the regularity assumption on the mesh is not merely technical. While doing this, we analyze the relation between superconvergence and asymptotic exactness for some particular examples.     

On the bivariate Shepard-Lidstone operators

We propose a new combination of the bivariate Shepard operators (Coman and Trîmbi?a?, 2001 [2]) by the three point Lidstone polynomials introduced in Costabile and Dell’Accio (2005) [7]. The new combination inherits both degree of exactness and Lidstone interpolation conditions at each node, which characterize the interpolation polynomial. These new operators find application to the scattered data interpolation problem when supplementary second order derivative data are given (Kraaijpoel and van Leeuwen, 2010 [13]). Numerical comparison with other well known combinations is presented.