Interactions of nonlinear ion-acoustic waves in a collisionless plasma

In the present work, based on a one-dimensional model, the interaction of two solitary waves propagating in opposite directions in a collisionless plasma is investigated by use of the extended Poincaré–Lighthill–Kuo (PLK) method. It is shown that bi-directional solitary waves are propagated and the head-on collision of these two solitons occur. The phase shifts and the trajectories of these two solitons after the collision are obtained.     

Dense Minors In Graphs Of Large Girth

We show that a graph of girth greater than 6 log k+3 and minimum degree at least 3 has a minor of minimum degree greater than k. This is best possible up to a factor of at most 9/4. As a corollary, every graph of girth at least 6 log r+3 log log r+c and minimum degree at least 3 has a K _r minor.     

A variational framework for nonlinear viscoelastic models in finite deformation regime

This work presents a general framework for constitutive viscoelastic models in the finite deformation regime. The approach is qualified as variational since the constitutive updates consist of a minimization problem within each load increment. The set of internal variables is strain-based and uses a multiplicative decomposition of strain in elastic and viscous components. Spectral decomposition is explored in order to accommodate, into analytically tractable expressions, a wide set of specific models. Moreover, it is shown that, through appropriate choices of the constitutive potentials, the proposed formulation is able to reproduce results obtained elsewhere in the literature. Finally, numerical examples are included to illustrate the characteristics of the present formulation.     

Unprovability threshold for the planar graph minor theorem

This note is part of the implementation of a programme in foundations of mathematics to find exact threshold versions of all mathematical unprovability results known so far, a programme initiated by Weiermann. Here we find the exact versions of unprovability of the finite graph minor theorem with growth rate condition restricted to planar graphs, connected planar graphs and graphs embeddable into a given surface, assuming an unproved conjecture (*): ‘there is a number a>0 such that for all k≥3, and all n≥1, the proportion of connected graphs among unlabelled planar graphs of size n omitting the k-element circle as minor is greater than a’. Let γ be the unlabelled planar growth constant (27.2269≤γ<30.061). Let P(c) be the following first-order arithmetical statement with real parameter c: “for every K there is N such that whenever G₁,G₂,…,G_N are unlabelled planar graphs with |G_i|<K+c⋅log₂i then for some i<j≤N, G_i is isomorphic to a minor of G_j”. Then

1.

for every , P(c) is provable in IΔ₀+exp;

2.

for every , P(c) is unprovable in .

We also give proofs of some upper and lower bounds for unprovability thresholds in the general case of the finite graph minor theorem.     

Stability of post-fertilization traveling waves

This paper studies the stability of a family of traveling wave solutions to the system proposed by Lane et al. [D.C. Lane, J.D. Murray, V.S. Manoranjan, Analysis of wave phenomena in a morphogenetic mechanochemical model and an application to post-fertilization waves on eggs, IMA J. Math. Appl. Med. Biol. 4 (4) (1987) 309-331], to model a pair of mechanochemical phenomena known as post-fertilization waves on eggs. The waves consist of an elastic deformation pulse on the egg's surface, and a free calcium concentration front. The family is indexed by a coupling parameter measuring contraction stress effects on the calcium concentration. This work establishes the spectral, linear and nonlinear orbital stability of these post-fertilization waves for small values of the coupling parameter. The usual methods for the spectral and evolution equations cannot be applied because of the presence of mixed partial derivatives in the elastic equation. Nonetheless, exponential decay of the directly constructed semigroup on the complement of the zero eigenspace is established. We show that small perturbations of the waves yield solutions to the nonlinear equations decaying exponentially to a phase-modulated traveling wave.     

Solitary waves in a tapered prestressed fluid-filled elastic tube

In the present work, treating the arteries as a tapered, thin walled, long and circularly conical prestressed elastic tube and using the longwave approximation, we have studied the propagation of weakly nonlinear waves in such a fluid-filled elastic tube by employing the reductive perturbation method. By considering the blood as an incompressible inviscid fluid the evolution equation is obtained as the Korteweg-de Vries equation with a variable coefficient. It is shown that this type of equations admit a solitary wave type of solution with variable wave speed. It is observed that, the wave speed increases with distance for positive tapering while it decreases for negative tapering.     

Global attractor for a nonlinear thermoviscoelastic model with a non-convex free energy density

This paper is concerned with the existence of a global attractor for a semiflow governed by the weak solutions to a nonlinear one-dimensional thermoviscoelasticity with a non-convex free energy density. The constitutive assumptions for the Helmholtz free energy include the model for the study of martensitic phase transitions in shape memory alloys. To describe physically phase transitions between different configurations of crystal lattices, we work in a framework in which the strain u$u$ belongs to L^∞$L^{\infty }$. New approaches are introduced and more delicate estimates are derived to establish the crucial L^∞$L^{\infty }$-estimate of strain u$u$ in deriving the compactness of the orbit of the semiflow and the existence of an absorbing set.     

Error analysis of finite element approximations of the inverse mean curvature flow arising from the general relativity

This paper proposes and analyzes a finite element method for a nonlinear singular elliptic equation arising from the black hole theory in the general relativity. The nonlinear equation, which was derived and analyzed by Huisken and Ilmanen in (J Diff Geom 59:353–437), represents a level set formulation for the inverse mean curvature flow describing the evolution of a hypersurface whose normal velocity equals the reciprocal of its mean curvature. We first propose a finite element method for a regularized flow which involves a small parameter ɛ; a rigorous analysis is presented to study well-posedness and convergence of the scheme under certain mesh-constraints, and optimal rates of convergence are verified. We then prove uniform convergence of the finite element solution to the unique weak solution of the nonlinear singular elliptic equation as the mesh size h and the regularization parameter ɛ both tend to zero. Computational results are provided to show the efficiency of the proposed finite element method and to numerically validate the “jumping out” phenomenon of the weak solution of the inverse mean curvature flow. Numerical studies are presented to evidence the existence of a polynomial scaling law between the mesh size h and the regularization parameter ɛ for optimal convergence of the proposed scheme. Finally, a numerical convergence study for another approach recently proposed by R. Moser (The inverse mean curvature flow and p-harmonic functions. preprint U Bath, 2005) for approximating the inverse mean curvature flow via p-harmonic functions is also included.     

High-resolution numerical simulation of 2D nonlinear wave structures in electromagnetic fluids with absorbing boundary conditions

Here we show how the full set of governing equations for the dynamics of charged-particle fluids in an electromagnetic field may be solved numerically in order to model nonlinear wave structures propagating in two dimensions. We employ a source-term adaptation and two-fluid extension of the second-order high-resolution central scheme of Balbas et al. (2004) [1]. The model employed is a 2D extension of that used by Baboolal and Bharuthram (2007) [5] in studies of 1D shocks and solitons in a two-fluid plasma under 3D electromagnetic fields. Further, we outline the use of free-flow boundary conditions to obtain stable wave structures over sufficiently long modelling times. As illustrative results, we examine the formation and evolution of shock-like and soliton structures of the magnetosonic mode.     

Boundary value problems in spaces of distributions on smooth and polygonal domains

We study boundary value problems of the form -Δu=f$-\mathrm{\Delta }u=f$ on Ω$\Omega$ and Bu=g$\mathit{Bu}=g$ on the boundary ∂Ω$\mathrm{\partial }\Omega$, with either Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions, where Ω$\Omega$ is a smooth bounded domain in Rⁿ${\mathbb{R}}^n$ and the data f,g$f,g$ are distributions  . This problem has to be first properly reformulated and, for practical applications, it is of crucial importance to obtain the continuity of the solution u$u$ in terms of f and g  . For f=0$f=0$, taking advantage of the fact that u$u$ is harmonic on Ω$\Omega$, we provide four formulations of this boundary value problem (one using nontangential limits of harmonic functions, one using Green functions, one using the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map, and a variational one); we show that these four formulations are equivalent. We provide a similar analysis for f≠0$f\ne 0$ and discuss the roles of f and g, which turn to be somewhat interchangeable in the low regularity case. The weak formulation is more convenient for numerical approximation, whereas the nontangential limits definition is closer to the intuition and easier to check in concrete situations. We extend the weak formulation to polygonal domains using weighted Sobolev spaces. We also point out some new phenomena for the “concentrated loads” at the vertices in the polygonal case.     

Trace estimates and invariance of the essential spectrum

We provide sufficient conditions under which the difference of the resolvents of two higher-order operators acting in belongs to trace classes . We provide explicit estimates on the norm of the resolvent difference in terms of L^p norms of the difference of the coefficients. Such inequalities are useful in estimating the effect of localized perturbations of the coefficients. Received: 5 September 2005; revised: 15 December 2005     

Boussinesq–Cerruti problems for the hexagonally symmetric system of elasticity in n–dimensional half-space

The Poisson matrices of the analoga to the Boussinesq–Cerruti boundary value problems for the operator of transversely isotropic elastostatics in n–dimensional half-space are computed by Fourier transformation and given in explicit form. (Received: May 4, 2004; revised: January 30, 2006)     

An Excluded-Minor Problem in Matroids

Consider the class of matroids M with the property that M is not isomorphic to a wheel graph, but has an element e such that both M\e and M/e are isomorphic to a series-parallel extension of a wheel graph. We give a constructive characterization of such matroids by determining explicitly the 3-connected members of the class. We also relate this problem with excluded minor problems.Received May 30, 2003     

Decay estimates for a thermoelastic system in waveguides

We investigate the linear system of thermoelasticity, consisting of an elasticity equation and a heat conduction equation, in a waveguide Ω=(0,1)×Rn−1, with certain boundary conditions. We consider the cases of homogeneous and inhomogeneous systems and prove decay estimates of the solutions, which are a key ingredient to showing the global existence of solutions to non-linear thermoelasticity, after having decomposed the solutions into various parts. We also give a simplified proof to the representation of the solutions to the Cauchy problem of thermoelasticity.     

A multiwave range test for obstacle reconstructions with unknown physical properties

We develop a new multiwave version of the range test for shape reconstruction in inverse scattering theory. The range test [R. Potthast, et al., A ‘range test’ for determining scatterers with unknown physical properties, Inverse Problems 19(3) (2003) 533–547] has originally been proposed to obtain knowledge about an unknown scatterer when the far field pattern for only one plane wave is given. Here, we extend the method to the case of multiple waves and show that the full shape of the unknown scatterer can be reconstructed. We further will clarify the relation between the range test methods, the potential method [A. Kirsch, R. Kress, On an integral equation of the first kind in inverse acoustic scattering, in: Inverse Problems (Oberwolfach, 1986), Internationale Schriftenreihe zur Numerischen Mathematik, vol. 77, Birkhäuser, Basel, 1986, pp. 93–102] and the singular sources method [R. Potthast, Point sources and multipoles in inverse scattering theory, Habilitation Thesis, Göttingen, 1999]. In particular, we propose a new version of the Kirsch–Kress method using the range test and a new approach to the singular sources method based on the range test and potential method. Numerical examples of reconstructions for all four methods are provided.     

A reduction principle for coupled nonlinear parabolic-hyperbolic PDE

We consider an abstract system of coupled nonlinear parabolic-hyperbolic partial differential equations. This system may describe thermoelastic phenomena in a continuum medium. Under some condition we prove the existence of an exponentially attracting invariant manifold for the coupled system and show that this system can be reduce to a single hyperbolic equation with modified nonlinearity.     

Travelling wave solutions for the discrete sine-Gordon equation with nonlinear pair interaction

The focus of study is the nonlinear discrete sine-Gordon equation, where the nonlinearity refers to a nonlinear interaction of neighbouring atoms. The existence of travelling heteroclinic, homoclinic and periodic waves is shown. The asymptotic states are chosen such that the action functional is finite. The proofs employ variational methods, in particular a suitable concentration-compactness lemma combined with direct minimisation and mountain pass arguments.