On the existence of three solutions for the Dirichlet problem on the Sierpinski gasket

We apply a recently obtained three-critical-point theorem of B. Ricceri to prove the existence of at least three solutions of certain two-parameter Dirichlet problems defined on the Sierpinski gasket. We also show the existence of at least three nonzero solutions of certain perturbed two-parameter Dirichlet problems on the Sierpinski gasket, using both the mountain pass theorem of Ambrosetti and Rabinowitz and that of Pucci and Serrin.     

Backward problems for stochastic differential equations on the Sierpinski gasket

In this paper, we study the non-linear backward problems (with deterministic or stochastic durations) of stochastic differential equations on the Sierpinski gasket. We prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions of backward stochastic differential equations driven by Brownian martingale (defined in Section 2) on the Sierpinski gasket constructed by S. Goldstein and S. Kusuoka. The exponential integrability of quadratic processes for martingale additive functionals is obtained, and as an application, a Feynman–Kac representation formula for weak solutions of semi-linear parabolic PDEs on the gasket is also established.     

Symbolic calculus for boundary value problems on manifolds with edges

Boundary value problems for (pseudo-) differential operators on a manifold with edges can be characterised by a hierarchy of symbols. The symbolic structure is responsible for ellipticity and for the nature of parametrices within an algebra of “edge-degenerate” pseudo-differential operators. The edge symbolic component of that hierarchy takes values in boundary value problems on an infinite model cone, with edge variables and covariables as parameters. Edge symbols play a crucial role in this theory, in particular, the contribution with holomorphic operator-valued Mellin symbols. We establish a calculus in a framework of “twisted homogeneity” that refers to strongly continuous groups of isomorphisms on weighted cone Sobolev spaces. We then derive an equivalent representation with a particularly transparent composition behaviour.     

Dirac operators and spectral triples for some fractal sets built on curves

We construct spectral triples and, in particular, Dirac operators, for the algebra of continuous functions on certain compact metric spaces. The triples are countable sums of triples where each summand is based on a curve in the space. Several fractals, like a finitely summable infinite tree and the Sierpinski gasket, fit naturally within our framework. In these cases, we show that our spectral triples do describe the geodesic distance and the Minkowski dimension as well as, more generally, the complex fractal dimensions of the space. Furthermore, in the case of the Sierpinski gasket, the associated Dixmier-type trace coincides with the normalized Hausdorff measure of dimension log3/log2.     

Morse Index and Critical Groups for p-Laplace Equations with Critical Exponents

In this work we consider a class of Euler functionals defined in Banach spaces, associated to quasilinear elliptic problems involving the critical Sobolev exponent. We perform critical groups estimates via the Morse index. Dedicated to the memory of Professor Aldo Cossu The research of the authors was supported by the MIUR project “Variational and topological methods in the study of nonlinear phenomena” (PRIN 2005).     

The Laplacian on the level 3 Sierpinski gasket via the method of averages

In this paper, we show how the symmetric Laplacian on the level 3 Sierpinski gasket, together with its associated Dirichlet form and harmonic functions, can be defined entirely in terms of average values of a function over basic sets. The approach combined the constructive limit-of-difference-quotients method of Kigami and the method of averages introduced by Kusuoka and Zhou for the Sierpinski carpet.     

On the convergence to equilibrium of Brownian motion on compact simple Lie groups

Let M =G/H be an irreducible homogeneous compact manifold of dimension n equipped with its canonical Riemannian metric. Let γ be the lowest nonzero eigenvalue of the Laplace operator. Let μ be the normalized Haar measure and μ _t be the heat diffusion measure, i.e., the law of Brownian motion started at a fixed origin in M. We show that the total variation distance between μ_t and μ is not small for t ≪λ ⁻¹ logn.This is sharp, up to a factor of two, in the case of compact irreducible simply connected symmetric spaces.     

Nonlinear elliptic equations with natural growth in general domains

We prove the existence of solutions of nonlinear elliptic equations with first-order terms having “natural growth” with respect to the gradient. The assumptions on the source terms lead to the existence of possibly unbounded solutions (though with exponential integrability). The domain Ω is allowed to have infinite Lebesgue measure. Received: April 13, 2001; in final form: September 29, 2001?Published online: July 9, 2002     

Lowest Landau level approach in superconductivity for the Abrikosov lattice close to $$H_{{c}_{2}}$$

We study the Ginzburg–Landau energy for a superconductor submitted to a magnetic field just below the “second critical field” . When the Ginzburg–Landau parameter ε is small, we show that the mean energy per unit volume can be approximated by a reduced energy on a torus. Moreover, we expand this reduced energy in terms of : when this quantity gets small, the problem amounts to a minimization problem on a finite-dimensional space, equivalent to the “lowest Landau level” in other approaches. The functions in this finite-dimensional space can themselves be expressed via the Jacobi Theta function of a lattice. This connects the Ginzburg–Landau energy to the “Abrikosov problem” of locating vortices optimally on a lattice.      

On a biharmonic equation involving nearly critical exponent

This paper is concerned with a biharmonic equation under the Navier boundary condition , u > 0 in Ω and u = Δu = 0 on ∂Ω, where Ω is a smooth bounded domain in , n ≥ 5, and ε > 0. We study the asymptotic behavior of solutions of (P _−ε) which are minimizing for the Sobolev quotient as ε goes to zero. We show that such solutions concentrate around a point x ₀ ∈Ω as ε → 0, moreover x ₀ is a critical point of the Robin’s function. Conversely, we show that for any nondegenerate critical point x ₀ of the Robin’s function, there exist solutions of (P _−ε) concentrating around x ₀ as ε → 0. Finally we prove that, in contrast with what happened in the subcritical equation (P _−ε), the supercritical problem (P _+ε) has no solutions which concentrate around a point of Ω as ε → 0. Work finished when the authors were visiting Mathematics Department of the University of Roma “La Sapienza”. They would like to thank the Mathematics Department for its warm hospitality. The authors also thank Professors Massimo Grossi and Filomena Pacella for their constant support.     

Evolution equations for shapes and geometries

The first object of this paper is to introduce a new evolution equation for the characteristic function of the boundary Γ of a Lipschitzian domain Ω in the N-dimensional Euclidean space under the influence of a smooth time-dependent velocity field. The originality of this equation is that the evolution takes place in an L^p-space with respect to the (N − 1)-Hausdorff measure. A second more speculative objective is to discuss how that equation can be relaxed to rougher velocity fields via some weak formulation. A candidate is presented and some of the technical difficulties and open issues are discussed. Continuity results in several metric topologies are also presented. The paper also specializes the results on the evolution of the oriented distance function to initial sets with zero N-dimensional Lebesgue measure.     

Weyl laws on open manifolds

Under suitable invertibility hypothesis, the spectrum of the Dirac operator on certain open spin Riemannian manifolds is purely discrete, and obeys a growth law depending qualitatively on the (in)finiteness of the volume. The author has been partially supported by the Research and Training Network HPRN-CT-1999-00118 “Geometric Analysis” funded by the European Commission.     

On the interaction of δ-shocks and contact vacuum states

We study the pressureless gas equations, with piecewise constant initial data. In the immediate solution, δ-shocks and contact vacuum states arise and even meet (interact) eventually. A solution beyond the “interaction” is constructed. It shows that the δ-shock will continue with the velocity it attained instantaneously before the time of interaction, and similarly, the contact vacuum state will move past the δ-shock with a velocity value prior to the interaction. We call this the “no-effect-from-interaction” solution. We prove that this solution satisfies a family of convex entropies (in the Lax’s sense). Next, we construct an infinitely large family of weak solutions to the “interaction”. Suppose further that any of these solutions satisfy a convex entropy, it is necessary and suffcient that these solutions reduce to only the “no-effect-from-interaction” solution. In [1], Bouchut constructed another entropy satisfying solution. As with other previous papers, it is obvious that it will not be sufficient that a “correct” solution satisfies a convex entropy, in a non-strictly hyperbolic conservation laws system. Research done in the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, submission from Temasek Laboratories, National University of Singapore.     

Anti-selfdual Lagrangians II: unbounded non self-adjoint operators and evolution equations

New variational principles based on the concept of anti-selfdual (ASD) Lagrangians were recently introduced in “AIHP-Analyse non linéaire, 2006”. We continue here the program of using such Lagrangians to provide variational formulations and resolutions to various basic equations and evolutions which do not normally fit in the Euler-Lagrange framework. In particular, we consider stationary boundary value problems of the form as well ass dissipative initial value evolutions of the form where is a convex potential on an infinite dimensional space, A is a linear operator and is any scalar. The framework developed in the above mentioned paper reformulates these problems as and respectively, where is an “ASD” vector field derived from a suitable Lagrangian L. In this paper, we extend the domain of application of this approach by establishing existence and regularity results under much less restrictive boundedness conditions on the anti-selfdual Lagrangian L so as to cover equations involving unbounded operators. Our main applications deal with various nonlinear boundary value problems and parabolic initial value equations governed by transport operators with or without a diffusion term. Nassif Ghoussoub research was partially supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The author gratefully acknowledges the hospitality and support of the Centre de Recherches Mathématiques in Montréal where this work was initiated. Leo Tzou’s research was partially supported by a doctoral postgraduate scholarship from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.     

Weighted norm inequalities,off-diagonal estimates and elliptic operators Part II: Off-diagonal estimates on spaces of homogeneous type

This is the second part of a series of four articles on weighted norm inequalities, off-diagonal estimates and elliptic operators. We consider a substitute to the notion of pointwise bounds for kernels of operators which usually is a measure of decay. This substitute is that of off-diagonal estimates expressed in terms of local and scale invariant L^p − L^q estimates. We propose a definition in spaces of homogeneous type that is stable under composition. It is particularly well suited to semigroups. We study the case of semigroups generated by elliptic operators. This work was partially supported by the European Union (IHP Network “Harmonic Analysis and Related Problems” 2002-2006, Contract HPRN-CT-2001-00273-HARP). The second author was also supported by MEC “Programa Ramón y Cajal, 2005” and by MEC Grant MTM2004-00678.     

Lebesgue numbers and Atsuji spaces in subsystems of second-order arithmetic

We study Lebesgue and Atsuji spaces within subsystems of second order arithmetic. The former spaces are those such that every open covering has a Lebesgue number, while the latter are those such that every continuous function defined on them is uniformly continuous. The main results we obtain are the following: the statement “every compact space is Lebesgue” is equivalent to ; the statements “every perfect Lebesgue space is compact” and “every perfect Atsuji space is compact” are equivalent to ; the statement “every Lebesgue space is Atsuji” is provable in ; the statement “every Atsuji space is Lebesgue” is provable in . We also prove that the statement “the distance from a closed set is a continuous function” is equivalent to . Received: February 2, 1996     

Estimates of transition densities for Brownian motion on nested fractals

Summary We obtain upper and lower bounds for the transition densities of Brownian motion on nested fractals. Compared with the estimate on the Sierpinski gasket, the results require the introduction of a new exponent,d _J, related to the shortest path metric and chemical exponent on nested fractals. Further, Hölder order of the resolvent densities, sample paths and local times are obtained. The results are obtained using the theory of multi-type branching processes.     

Heat Kernel Asymptotics for the Measurable Riemannian Structure on the Sierpinski Gasket

For the measurable Riemannian structure on the Sierpinski gasket introduced by Kigami, various short time asymptotics of the associated heat kernel are established, including Varadhan’s asymptotic relation, some sharp one-dimensional asymptotics at vertices, and a non-integer-dimensional on-diagonal behavior at almost every point. Moreover, it is also proved that the asymptotic order of the eigenvalues of the corresponding Laplacian is given by the Hausdorff and box-counting dimensions of the space.     

Hyperbolic balance laws: Riemann invariants and the generalized Riemann problem

The Generalized Riemann Problem (GRP) for a nonlinear hyperbolic system of m balance laws (or alternatively “quasi-conservative” laws) in one space dimension is now well-known and can be formulated as follows: Given initial-data which are analytic on two sides of a discontinuity, determine the time evolution of the solution at the discontinuity. In particular, the GRP numerical scheme (second-order high resolution) is based on an analytical evaluation of the first time derivative. It turns out that this derivative depends only on the first-order spatial derivatives, hence the initial data can be taken as piecewise linear. The analytical solution is readily obtained for a single equation (m = 1) and, more generally, if the system is endowed with a complete (coordinate) set of Riemann invariants. In this case it can be “diagonalized” and reduced to the scalar case. However, most systems with m > 2 do not admit such a set of Riemann invariants. This paper introduces a generalization of this concept: weakly coupled systems (WCS). Such systems have only “partial set” of Riemann invariants, but these sets are weakly coupled in a way which enables a “diagonalized” treatment of the GRP. An important example of a WCS is the Euler system of compressible, nonisentropic fluid flow (m = 3). The solution of the GRP discussed here is based on a careful analysis of rarefaction waves. A “propagation of singularities” argument is applied to appropriate Riemann invariants across the rarefaction fan. It serves to “rotate” initial spatial slopes into “time derivative”. In particular, the case of a “sonic point” is incorporated easily into the general treatment. A GRP scheme based on this solution is derived, and several numerical examples are presented. Special attention is given to the “acoustic approximation” of the analytical solution. It can be viewed as a proper linearization (different from the approach of Roe) of the nonlinear system. The resulting numerical scheme is the simplest (second-order, high-resolution) generalization of the Godunov scheme.