On an Isoperimetric Problem with a Competing Nonlocal Term II: The General Case

This paper is the continuation of a previous paper (H. Knüpfer and C. B. Muratov, Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 66 (2013), 1129–1162). We investigate the classical isoperimetric problem modified by an addition of a nonlocal repulsive term generated by a kernel given by an inverse power of the distance. In this work, we treat the case of a general space dimension. We obtain basic existence results for minimizers with sufficiently small masses. For certain ranges of the exponent in the kernel, we also obtain nonexistence results for sufficiently large masses, as well as a characterization of minimizers as balls for sufficiently small masses and low spatial dimensionality. The physically important special case of three space dimensions and Coulombic repulsion is included in all the results mentioned above. In particular, our work yields a negative answer to the question if stable atomic nuclei at arbitrarily high atomic numbers can exist in the framework of the classical liquid drop model of nuclear matter. In all cases the minimal energy scales linearly with mass for large masses, even if the infimum of energy cannot be attained. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

On Equilibrium Shape of Charged Flat Drops

The equilibrium shapes of two‐dimensional charged, perfectly conducting liquid drops are governed by a geometric variational problem that involves a perimeter term modeling line tension and a capacitary term modeling Coulombic repulsion. Here we give a complete explicit solution to this variational problem. Namely, we show that at fixed total charge a ball of a particular radius is the unique global minimizer among all sufficiently regular sets in the plane. For sets whose area is also fixed, we show that balls are the only minimizers if the charge is less than or equal to a critical charge, while for larger charge minimizers do not exist. Analogous results hold for drops whose potential, rather than charge, is fixed. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

On critical points of the relative fractional perimeter

We study the localization of sets with constant nonlocal mean curvature and prescribed small volume in a bounded open set, proving that they are sufficiently close to critical points of a suitable nonlocal potential. We then consider the fractional perimeter in half-spaces. We prove existence of minimizers under fixed volume constraint, and we show some properties such as smoothness and rotational symmetry.     

Existence and multiplicity of solutions for nonlocal systems with Kirchhoff type

Firstly, we use Nehari manifold and Mountain Pass Lemma to prove an existence result of positive solutions for a class of nonlocal elliptic system with Kirchhoff type. Then a multiplicity result is established by cohomological index of Fadell and Rabinowitz. We also consider the critical case and prove existence of positive least energy solution when the parameter β is sufficiently large.     

Primal Dual Methods for Wasserstein Gradient Flows

Combining the classical theory of optimal transport with modern operator splitting techniques, we develop a new numerical method for nonlinear, nonlocal partial differential equations, arising in models of porous media, materials science, and biological swarming. Our method proceeds as follows: first, we discretize in time, either via the classical JKO scheme or via a novel Crank–Nicolson-type method we introduce. Next, we use the Benamou–Brenier dynamical characterization of the Wasserstein distance to reduce computing the solution of the discrete time equations to solving fully discrete minimization problems, with strictly convex objective functions and linear constraints. Third, we compute the minimizers by applying a recently introduced, provably convergent primal dual splitting scheme for three operators (Yan in J Sci Comput 1–20, 2018). By leveraging the PDEs’ underlying variational structure, our method overcomes stability issues present in previous numerical work built on explicit time discretizations, which suffer due to the equations’ strong nonlinearities and degeneracies. Our method is also naturally positivity and mass preserving and, in the case of the JKO scheme, energy decreasing. We prove that minimizers of the fully discrete problem converge to minimizers of the spatially continuous, discrete time problem as the spatial discretization is refined. We conclude with simulations of nonlinear PDEs and Wasserstein geodesics in one and two dimensions that illustrate the key properties of our approach, including higher-order convergence our novel Crank–Nicolson-type method, when compared to the classical JKO method.

     

Nonlocal regularization of L. C. Young's tacking problem

L. C. Young's tacking problem is a prototype of a nonconvex variational problem for which minimizing sequences for the energy do not attain a minimum. The minimizer of the energy is usually described as a Young-measure or generalized curve. In many studies, the tacking problem is regularized by adding a higher-order viscosity term to the energy. This regularized energy has classical minimizers. In this paper we regularize instead with a spatially nonlocal term. This weakly regularized problem still has measure-valued minimizers, but as the nonlocal term becomes stronger, the measure-valued solutions organize, coalesce, and eventually turn into classical solutions. The information on the measure-valued solutions is obtained by studying equivalent variational problems involving moments of the measures.The research of D. Brandon has been partially supported by the Office of Naval Research under Grant Number N00014-88-K-0417 and by DARPA Grant F4920-87-C-0116, and that of R. C. Rogers has been partially supported by the Office of Naval Research under Grant Number N00014-88-K-0417 and by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number DMS-8801412.     

Ground State Solutions for a Semilinear Elliptic Equation Involving Concave-convex Nonlinearities

This work is devoted to the existence and multiplicity properties of the ground state solutions of the semilinear boundary value problem $-Δu=λa(x)u|u|^{q-2}+ b(x)u|u|^{2^∗-2}$ in a bounded domain coupled with Dirichlet boundary condition. Here $2^∗$ is the critical Sobolev exponent, and the term ground state refers to minimizers of the corresponding energy within the set of nontrivial positive solutions. Using the Nehari manifold method we prove that one can find an interval L such that there exist at least two positive solutions of the problem for $λ∈Λ$.     

Characterization of energy minimizers in micromagnetics

We present a new characterization of minimizing sequences and possible minimizers (all called the minimizing magnetizations) for a nonlocal micromagnetic-like energy (without the exchange energy). Our method is to replace the nonlocal energy functional and its relaxation with certain local integral functionals on divergence-free fields obtained by a two-step minimization of some auxiliary augmented functionals. Through this procedure, the minimization problem becomes equivalent to the minimization of a new local variational functional, called the dual variational functional, which has a unique minimizer. We then precisely characterize the minimizing magnetizations of original nonlocal functionals in terms of the unique minimizer of the dual variational functional. Finally, we give some remarks and ideas on solving the dual minimization problem.     

On a singular nonlocal time fractional order mixed problem with a memory term

We use the priori estimate method to prove the existence and uniqueness of a solution as well as its dependence on the given data of a singular time fractional mixed problem having a memory term. The considered fractional equation is associated with a nonlocal condition of integral type and a Neuman condition. Our results develop and show the efficiency and effectiveness of the energy inequalities method for the time fractional order differential equations with a nonlocal condition.     

Global existence and blowup of a nonlocal problem in space with free boundary

This paper concerns a double fronts free boundary problem for the reaction–diffusion equation with a nonlocal nonlinear reaction term in space. For such a problem, we mainly study the blowup property and global existence of the solutions. Our results show that if the initial value is sufficiently large, then the blowup occurs, while the global fast solution exists for a sufficiently small initial data, and the intermediate case with a suitably large initial data gives the existence of the global slow solution.     

Symmetry of minimizers for some nonlocal variational problems

We present a new approach to study the symmetry of minimizers for a large class of nonlocal variational problems. This approach which generalizes the Reflection method is based on the existence of some integral identities. We study the identities that lead to symmetry results, the functionals that can be considered and the function spaces that can be used. Then we use our method to prove the symmetry of minimizers for a class of variational problems involving the fractional powers of Laplacian, for the generalized Choquard functional and for the standing waves of the Davey-Stewartson equation.     

Heteroclinic solutions of a van der Waals model with indefinite nonlocal interactions

We construct heteroclinic the global minimizers of a nonlocal free energy functional that van der Waals derived in 1893. We study the case where the nonlocality satisfies only a weakened type of ellipticity, which precludes the use of comparison methods. In the interesting case when the local part of the energy is nonconvex, we construct a classical the global minimizer by studying a relaxed functional corresponding to the convexification of the local part and exclude the possibility of minimizers of the relaxed functional having rapid oscillations. We also construct examples where the global minimizer is not monotonic.     

Symmetry and uniqueness of minimizers of Hartree type equations with external Coulomb potential

In the present article we study the radial symmetry and uniqueness of minimizers of the energy functional, corresponding to the repulsive Hartree equation in external Coulomb potential. To overcome the difficulties, resulting from the “bad” sign of the nonlocal term, we modify the reflection method and obtain symmetry and uniqueness results.     

Asymptotic behavior for a class of the renewal nonlinear equation with diffusion

In this paper, we consider nonlinear age‐structured equation with diffusion under nonlocal boundary condition and non‐negative initial data. More precisely, we prove that under some assumptions on the nonlinear term in a model of McKendrick–Von Foerster with diffusion in age, solutions exist and converge (long‐time convergence) towards a stationary solution. In the first part, we use classical analysis tools to prove the existence, uniqueness, and the positivity of the solution. In the second part, using comparison principle, we prove the convergence of this solution towards the stationary solution. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semi‐linear wave models with power non‐linearity and scale‐invariant time‐dependent mass and dissipation

In this paper we will consider the semi‐linear Cauchy problem for wave models with scale‐invariant time‐dependent mass and dissipation and power non‐linearity. The goal is to study the interplay between the coefficients of the mass and the dissipation term to prove blow‐up results or global existence (in time) of small data energy solutions.     

Some Regularity Results In Ferromagnetism

The magnetism of a rigid ferromagnet occupying a spatial region Ωis described by a unit vectorfield m on Ω. The total energy of m involves several terms: the anisotropy energy imposed by the lattice structure of the material, the exchange energy discouraging very rapid local changes in m , the applied energy due to external magnetic sources, and the induced magnetic field energy. Here, while incorporating all energy terms, we show that minimizers have at most isolated singularities, usually in the interior of Ω, and that there is nice asymptotic behavior at such singularities. In contrast to related harmonic map problems, the field energy is a nonlocal term, involving a solution of Maxwell's equations with coefficients depending on m     

Existence and regularity for generalised harmonic maps associated to a nonlocal polyconvex energy of Skyrme type

We prove existence and regularity of critical points of arbitrary degree for a generalised harmonic map problem, in which there is an additional nonlocal polyconvex term in the energy, heuristically of the same order as the Dirichlet term. The proof of regularity hinges upon a special nonlinear structure in the Euler–Lagrange equation similar to that possessed by the harmonic map equation. The functional is of a type appearing in certain models of the quantum Hall effect describing nonlocal Skyrmions.     

A functional partial differential equation arising in a cell growth model with dispersion

In this paper we solve an initial‐boundary value problem that involves a pde with a nonlocal term. The problem comes from a cell division model where the growth is assumed to be stochastic. The deterministic version of this problem yields a first‐order pde; the stochastic version yields a second‐order parabolic pde. There are no general methods for solving such problems even for the simplest cases owing to the nonlocal term. Although a solution method was devised for the simplest version of the first‐order case, the analysis does not readily extend to the second‐order case. We develop a method for solving the second‐order case and obtain the exact solution in a form that allows us to study the long time asymptotic behaviour of solutions and the impact of the dispersion term. We establish the existence of a large time attracting solution towards which solutions converge exponentially in time. The dispersion term does not appear in the exponential rate of convergence.     

Minimizers for nonlocal perimeters of Minkowski type

We study a nonlocal perimeter functional inspired by the Minkowski content, whose main feature is that it interpolates between the classical perimeter and the volume functional. This nonlocal functionals arise in concrete applications, since the nonlocal character of the problems and the different behaviors of the energy at different scales allow the preservation of details and irregularities of the image in the process of removing white noises, thus improving the quality of the image without losing relevant features. In this paper, we provide a series of results concerning existence, rigidity and classification of minimizers, compactness results, isoperimetric inequalities, Poincaré–Wirtinger inequalities and density estimates. Furthermore, we provide the construction of planelike minimizers for this generalized perimeter under a small and periodic volume perturbation.     

Nonlocal patches based Gaussian mixture model for image inpainting

We consider the inpainting problem for noisy images. It is very challenge to suppress noise when image inpainting is processed. An image patches based nonlocal variational method is proposed to simultaneously inpainting and denoising in this paper. Our approach is developed on an assumption that the small image patches should be obeyed a distribution which can be described by a high dimension Gaussian Mixture Model. By a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation, we formulate a new regularization term according to the log-likelihood function of the mixture model. To optimize this regularization term efficiently, we adopt the idea of the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm. In which, the expectation step can give an adaptive weighting function which can be regarded as a nonlocal connections among pixels. Using this fact, we built a framework for non-local image inpainting under noise. Moreover, we mathematically prove the existence of minimizer for the proposed inpainting model. By using a splitting algorithm, the proposed model are able to realize image inpainting and denoising simultaneously. Numerical results show that the proposed method can produce impressive reconstructed results when the inpainting region is rather large.