On certain classes of functional inclusions with causal operators in Banach spaces

We introduce the notion of a multivalued causal operator and consider an abstract Cauchy problem in a Banach space for various classes of functional inclusions with causal operators. The methods of the topological degree theory for condensing maps are applied to obtain local and global existence results for this problem and to study the continuous dependence of a solution set on initial data. As application we generalize some existence results for semilinear functional differential inclusions and Volterra integro-differential inclusions with delay.     

Asymptotic behavior of bounded solutions to a nonhomogeneous second-order evolution equation of monotone type

By using previous results of Djafari Rouhani [B. Djafari Rouhani, Ergodic theorems for nonexpansive sequences in Hilbert spaces and related problems, Ph.D. Thesis, Yale university, 1981, part I, pp. 1-76; B. Djafari Rouhani, Asymptotic behaviour of quasi-autonomous dissipative systems in Hilbert spaces, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 147 (1990) 465-476; B. Djafari Rouhani, Asymptotic behaviour of almost nonexpansive sequences in a Hilbert space, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 151 (1990) 226-235] for dissipative systems, we study the asymptotic behavior of solutions to the following system of second-order nonhomogeneous evolution equations:

     

Fluctuations of interacting Markov chain Monte Carlo methods

We present a multivariate central limit theorem for a general class of interacting Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms used to solve nonlinear measure-valued equations. These algorithms generate stochastic processes which belong to the class of nonlinear Markov chains interacting with their empirical occupation measures. We develop an original theoretical analysis based on resolvent operators and semigroup techniques to analyze the fluctuations of their occupation measures around their limiting values.     

Controllability for systems governed by semilinear differential inclusions in a Banach space with a noncompact semigroup

We study the controllability problem for a system governed by a semilinear differential inclusion in a Banach space not assuming that the semigroup generated by the linear part of inclusion is compact. Instead we suppose that the multivalued nonlinearity satisfies the regularity condition expressed in terms of the Hausdorff measure of noncompactness. It allows us to apply the topological degree theory for condensing operators and to obtain the controllability results for both upper Carathéodory and almost lower semicontinuous types of nonlinearity. As application we consider the controllability for a system governed by a perturbed wave equation.     

Existence of solutions of non-autonomous second order functional differential equations with infinite delay

In this paper the existence of solutions of a non-autonomous abstract retarded functional differential equation of second order with infinite delay is considered. Assuming the existence of an evolution operator corresponding to the associate abstract Cauchy problem of second order, we establish the existence of mild solutions of the functional equation. Furthermore, we study the existence of classical solutions of the abstract Cauchy problem of second order and we apply these results to establish the existence of classical solutions of the functional equation. Finally, we apply our results to study the existence of solutions of the non-autonomous wave equation with delay.     

Global attractors for von Karman evolutions with a nonlinear boundary dissipation

Dynamic von Karman equations with a nonlinear boundary dissipation are considered. Questions related to long time behaviour, existence and structure of global attractors are studied. It is shown that a nonlinear boundary dissipation with a large damping parameter leads to an existence of global (compact) attractor for all weak (finite energy) solutions. This result has been known in the case of full interior dissipation, but it is new in the case when the boundary damping is the main dissipative mechanism in the system. In addition, we prove that fractal dimension of the attractor is finite. The proofs depend critically on the infinite speed of propagation associated with the von Karman model considered.     

Long-time dynamics of von Karman semi-flows with non-linear boundary/interior damping

We study von Karman evolution equations with non-linear dissipation and with partially clamped and partially free boundary conditions. Two distinctive mechanisms of dissipation are considered: (i) internal dissipation generated by non-linear operator, and (ii) boundary dissipation generated by shear forces friction acting on a free part of the boundary. The main emphasis is given to the effects of boundary dissipation. Under suitable hypotheses we prove existence of a compact global attractor and finiteness of its fractal dimension. We also show that any solution is stabilized to an equilibrium and estimate the rate of the convergence which, in turn, depends on the behaviour at the origin of the functions describing the dissipation.     

A unified approach to the asymptotic almost-equivalence of evolution systems without Lipschitz conditions

We study the asymptotic behavior of almost-orbits of evolution systems in Banach spaces without any continuity assumptions on either the space or the time dependence. We establish, in a unified framework, standard convergence, ergodic convergence and almost-convergence of almost-orbits for both the weak and the strong topologies on the basis of the analogue behavior of orbits.     

A variational inequality index for condensing maps in Hilbert spaces and applications to semilinear elliptic inequalities

A variational inequality index for γ-condensing maps is established in Hilbert spaces. New results on existence of nonzero positive solutions of variational inequalities for such maps are proved by using the theory of variational inequality index. Applications of such a theory are given to existence of nonzero positive weak solutions for semilinear second order elliptic inequalities, where previous results of variational inequalities for S-contractive maps cannot be applied.     

The contraction rate in Thompson's part metric of order-preserving flows on a cone – Application to generalized Riccati equations

We give a formula for the Lipschitz constant in Thompson's part metric of any order-preserving flow on the interior of a (possibly infinite dimensional) closed convex pointed cone. This shows that in the special case of order-preserving flows, a general characterization of the contraction rate in Thompson's part metric, given by Nussbaum, leads to an explicit formula. As an application, we show that the flow of the generalized Riccati equation arising in stochastic linear quadratic control is a local contraction on the cone of positive definite matrices and characterize its Lipschitz constant by a matrix inequality. We also show that the same flow is no longer a contraction in other invariant Finsler metrics on this cone, including the standard invariant Riemannian metric. This is motivated by a series of contraction properties concerning the standard Riccati equation, established by Bougerol, Liverani, Wojtkowski, Lawson, Lee and Lim: we show that some of these properties do, and that some other do not, carry over to the generalized Riccati equation.     

Fixed point theorems for nonexpansive maps in Banach spaces

In this work, we present some new versions of fixed point theorems for nonexpansive maps and 1-set contractions defined on closed, convex, not necessarily bounded subsets of Banach spaces. Our proofs rely on a compactness result for an approximate fixed point set. The Kuratowski measure of noncompactness is used throughout. To illustrate the results obtained, some applications to Banach algebras and Hammerstein integral equations are provided.     

Conditionally specified models and dimension reduction in the exponential families

We consider informative dimension reduction for regression problems with random predictors. Based on the conditional specification of the model, we develop a methodology for replacing the predictors with a smaller number of functions of the predictors. We apply the method to the case where the inverse conditional model is in the linear exponential family. For such an inverse model and the usual Normal forward regression model it is shown that, for any number of predictors, the sufficient summary has dimension two or less. In addition, we develop a test of dimensionality. The relationship of our method with the existing dimension reduction theory based on the marginal distribution of the predictors is discussed.     

Convex hypersurfaces and L estimates for Schrödinger equations

This paper is concerned with Schrödinger equations whose principal operators are homogeneous elliptic. When the corresponding level hypersurface is convex, we show the L^p-L^q estimate of the solution operator in the free case. This estimate, combined with the results of fractionally integrated groups, allows us to further obtain the L^p estimate of solutions for the initial data belonging to a dense subset of L^p in the case of integrable potentials.     

Continuity, compactness, and degree theory for operators in systems involving p-Laplacians and inclusions

The study of weak solutions for systems of nonlinear partial differential equations of elliptic type with inclusions leads to a multivalued operator of superposition type in Sobolev spaces. We show that, under natural assumptions, this operator has the properties which allow to apply degree theory (fixed point index) for multivalued maps. More precisely, this operator is upper semicontinuous and compact with nonempty convex compact values. For the particular case of systems involving p-Laplacians, we show that there is a homeomorphism transforming the whole system to a situation for which a fixed point index is available.     

A variational inequality theory for demicontinuous S-contractive maps with applications to semilinear elliptic inequalities

A variational inequality theory for demicontinuous S-contractive maps in Hilbert spaces is established by employing the ideas of Granas' topological transversality. Such a variational inequality theory has many properties similar to those of fixed point theory for demicontinuous weakly inward S-contractive maps and to those of fixed point index for condensing maps. The variational inequality theory will be applied to study the existence of positive weak solutions and eigenvalue problems for semilinear second-order elliptic inequalities with nonlinearities which satisfy suitable lower bound conditions involving the critical Sobolev exponent. There has been little discussion for such elliptic inequalities involving the critical Sobolev exponent in the literature.     

Nonparametric inference for extrinsic means on size-and-(reflection)-shape manifolds with applications in medical imaging

For all p>2,k>p, a size-and-reflection-shape space of k-ads in general position in R^p, invariant under translation, rotation and reflection, is shown to be a smooth manifold and is equivariantly embedded in a space of symmetric matrices, allowing a nonparametric statistical analysis based on extrinsic means. Equivariant embeddings are also given for the reflection-shape-manifold , a space of orbits of scaled k-ads in general position under the group of isometries of R^p, providing a methodology for statistical analysis of three-dimensional images and a resolution of the mathematical problems inherent in the use of the Kendall shape spaces in p-dimensions, p>2. The Veronese embedding of the planar Kendall shape manifold is extended to an equivariant embedding of the size-and-shape manifold , which is useful in the analysis of size-and-shape. Four medical imaging applications are provided to illustrate the theory.     

Asymptotically regular problems I: Higher integrability

We consider weak solutions u of non-linear systems of partial differential equations. Assuming that the system exhibits a certain kind of elliptic behavior near infinity we prove higher integrability results for the gradient Du. In particular, we establish Hölder continuity of u in low dimensions. Moreover, we obtain analogous results for vectorial minimizers of multi-dimensional variational integrals. Finally, we discuss an extension to minimizing sequences and applications to generalized minimizers.     

Approximate controllability of second-order distributed implicit functional systems

In this paper we study the approximate controllability of control systems with states and controls in Hilbert spaces, and described by a second-order semilinear abstract functional differential equation with infinite delay. Initially we establish a characterization for the approximate controllability of a second-order abstract linear system and, in the last section, we compare the approximate controllability of a semilinear abstract functional system with the approximate controllability of the associated linear system.     

Fixed point results for a generalized nonexpansive map in uniformly convex metric spaces

In this paper, the existence of a unique fixed point of a map satisfying a very general contractive condition on a suitable subset of a uniformly convex metric space is proved. This fixed point is approximated by averaging Krasnosel’skii iterations of a generalized nonexpansive map. Our results substantially improve and extend several known results existing in the literature.     

Compositions and averages of two resolvents: Relative geometry of fixed points sets and a partial answer to a question by C. Byrne

We show that the set of fixed points of the average of two resolvents can be found from the set of fixed points for compositions of two resolvents associated with scaled monotone operators. Recently, the proximal average has attracted considerable attention in convex analysis. Our results imply that the minimizers of proximal-average functions can be found from the set of fixed points for compositions of two proximal mappings associated with scaled convex functions. When both convex functions in the proximal average are indicator functions of convex sets, least squares solutions can be completely recovered from the limiting cycles given by compositions of two projection mappings. This provides a partial answer to a question posed by C. Byrne. A novelty of our approach is to use the notion of resolvent average and proximal average.