On an Isoperimetric Problem with a Competing Nonlocal Term I: The Planar Case

This paper is concerned with a study of the classical isoperimetric problem modified by an addition of a nonlocal repulsive term. We characterize existence, nonexistence, and radial symmetry of the minimizers as a function of mass in the situation where the nonlocal term is generated by a kernel given by an inverse power of the distance. We prove that minimizers of this problem exist for sufficiently small masses and are given by disks with prescribed mass below a certain threshold when the interfacial term in the energy is dominant. At the same time, we prove that minimizers fail to exist for sufficiently large masses due to the tendency of the low‐energy configuration to split into smaller pieces when the nonlocal term in the energy is dominant. In the latter regime, we also establish linear scaling of energy with mass, suggesting that for large masses low‐energy configurations consist of many roughly equal‐size pieces far apart. In the case of slowly decaying kernels, we give a complete characterization of the minimizers. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Local minimizers in micromagnetics and related problems

Let be a smooth bounded domain and consider the energy functional Here is a small parameter and the admissible function m lies in the Sobolev space of vector-valued functions and satisfies the pointwise constraint for a.e. . The induced magnetic field is related to m via Maxwell's equations and the function is assumed to be a sufficiently smooth, non-negative energy density with a multi-well structure. Finally is a constant vector. The energy functional arises from the continuum model for ferromagnetic materials known as micromagnetics developed by W.F. Brown [9]. In this paper we aim to construct local energy minimizers for this functional. Our approach is based on studying the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation and proving a local existence result for this equation around a fixed constant solution. Our main device for doing so is a suitable version of the implicit function theorem. We then show that these solutions are local minimizers of in appropriate topologies by use of certain sufficiency theorems for local minimizers. Our analysis is applicable to a much broader class of functionals than the ones introduced above and on the way to proving our main results we reflect on some related problems. Received: 20 November 2000 / Accepted: 4 December 2000 / Published online: 4 May 2001     

Γ-Convergence of 2D Ginzburg-Landau functionals with vortex concentration along curves

We study the variational convergence of a family of twodimensional Ginzburg-Landau functionals arising in the study of superfluidity or thin-film superconductivity as the Ginzburg-Landau parameter ε tends to 0. In this regime and for large enough applied rotations (for superfluids) or magnetic fields (for superconductors), the minimizers acquire quantized point singularities (vortices). We focus on situations in which an unbounded number of vortices accumulate along a prescribed Jordan curve or a simple arc in the domain. This is known to occur in a circular annulus under uniform rotation, or in a simply connected domain with an appropriately chosen rotational vector field. We prove that if suitably normalized, the energy functionals Γ-converge to a classical energy from potential theory. Applied to global minimizers, our results describe the limiting distribution of vortices along the curve in terms of Green equilibrium measures.     

Linear bounds for Calderón–Zygmund operators with even kernel on UMD spaces

It is well-known that several classical results about Calderón–Zygmund singular integral operators can be extended to X-valued functions if and only if the Banach space X has the UMD property. The dependence of the norm of an X-valued Calderón–Zygmund operator on the UMD constant of the space X is conjectured to be linear. We prove that this is indeed the case for sufficiently smooth Calderón–Zygmund operators with cancellation, associated to an even kernel. Our method uses the Bellman function technique to obtain the right estimates for the norm of dyadic Haar shift operators. We then apply the representation theorem of T. Hytönen to extend the result to general Calderón–Zygmund operators.     

Boundary regularity for minimizers of the micromagnetic energy functional

Motivated by the construction of time-periodic solutions for the three-dimensional Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation in the case of soft and small ferromagnetic particles, we investigate the regularity properties of minimizers of the micromagnetic energy functional at the boundary. In particular, we show that minimizers are regular provided the volume of the particle is sufficiently small. The approach uses a reflection construction at the boundary and an adaption of the well-known regularity theory for minimizing harmonic maps into spheres.     

Variational Problems with a p-Homogeneous Energy

We investigate existence, uniqueness and positivity of minimizers or critical points for an energy functional which contains only p-homogeneous and linear terms, 1p-homogeneous part of the energy functional is that it be given by the p-th power of an equivalent, uniformly convex norm on the underlying Sobolev space. Finally, continuous dependence of minimizers on the energy functional is established.     

Triblock Copolymer Theory: Ordered ABC Lamellar Phase

Summary. The ABC lamellar phase of a triblock copolymer in the strong segregation region is studied on periodic and bounded intervals. In the periodic case we find a family of local minimizers of the free energy functional all with a fine lamellar structure. Among these local minimizers we identify the one most favored by the free energy, and hence determine the thickness of lamellar microdomains. In the bounded interval case we show that perfect lamellar structure does not exist due to the boundary effect. We view the strong segregation limit as a Γ -limit of the free energy by a proper choice of the material sample size. The key step is the spectral analysis of a large matrix resulting from the second derivative of the Γ -limit.     

Nonlinear Markov operators associated with symmetric Markov kernels and energy minimizing maps between singular spaces

We present a theory of harmonic maps where the target is a complete geodesic space (N,d) of nonpositive curvature in the sense of A. D. Alexandrov and the domain is a measure space with a symmetric Markov kernel p on it. Our theory is a nonlinear generalization of the theory of symmetric Markov kernels and reversible Markov chains on M. It can also be regarded as a particular case of the theory of generalized (= nonlinear) Dirichlet forms and energy minimizing maps between singular spaces, initiated by Jost (1994) and Korevaar, Schoen (1993) and developed further by Jost (1997a), (1998) and Sturm (1997). We investigate the discrete and continuous time heat flow generated by p and show that various properties of the linear heat flow carry over to this nonlinear heat flow. In particular, we study harmonic maps, i.e. maps which are invariant under the heat flow. These maps are identified with the minimizers of the energy. Received April 2, 2000 / Accepted May 9, 2000 /Published online November 9, 2000     

A priori error estimates for optimal control problems with pointwise constraints on the gradient of the state

We analyze a finite element approximation of an elliptic optimal control problem with pointwise bounds on the gradient of the state variable. We derive convergence rates if the control space is discretized implicitly by the state equation. In contrast to prior work we obtain these results directly from classical results for the W ^1,∞-error of the finite element projection, without using adjoint information. If the control space is discretized directly, we first prove a regularity result for the optimal control to control the approximation error, based on which we then obtain analogous convergence rates.     

Higher-order optimality conditions for strict local minima

In this work, we study a nonsmooth optimization problem with generalized inequality constraints and an arbitrary set constraint. We present necessary conditions for a point to be a strict local minimizer of order k in terms of higher-order (upper and lower) Studniarski derivatives and the contingent cone to the constraint set. In the same line, when the initial space is finite dimensional, we develop sufficient optimality conditions. We also provide sufficient conditions for minimizers of order k using the lower Studniarski derivative of the Lagrangian function. Particular interest is put for minimizers of order two, using now a special second order derivative which leads to the Fréchet derivative in the differentiable case.     

Multivariate approximation in the worst case setting over reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces

We study the worst case setting for approximation of d variate functions from a general reproducing kernel Hilbert space with the error measured in the L_∞ norm. We mainly consider algorithms that use n arbitrary continuous linear functionals. We look for algorithms with the minimal worst case errors and for their rates of convergence as n goes to infinity. Algorithms using n function values will be analyzed in a forthcoming paper.We show that the L_∞ approximation problem in the worst case setting is related to the weighted L₂ approximation problem in the average case setting with respect to a zero-mean Gaussian stochastic process whose covariance function is the same as the reproducing kernel of the Hilbert space. This relation enables us to find optimal algorithms and their rates of convergence for the weighted Korobov space with an arbitrary smoothness parameter α>1, and for the weighted Sobolev space whose reproducing kernel corresponds to the Wiener sheet measure. The optimal convergence rates are n^-(α-1)/2 and n^-1/2, respectively.We also study tractability of L_∞ approximation for the absolute and normalized error criteria, i.e., how the minimal worst case errors depend on the number of variables, d, especially when d is arbitrarily large. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions on tractability of L_∞ approximation in terms of tractability conditions of the weighted L₂ approximation in the average case setting. In particular, tractability holds in weighted Korobov and Sobolev spaces only for weights tending sufficiently fast to zero and does not hold for the classical unweighted spaces.     

Stable Ground States for the Relativistic Gravitational Vlasov–Poisson System

We consider the three dimensional gravitational Vlasov–Poisson (GVP) system in both classical and relativistic cases. The classical problem is subcritical in the natural energy space and the stability of a large class of ground states has been derived by various authors. The relativistic problem is critical and displays finite time blow up solutions. Using standard concentration compactness techniques, we however show that the breaking of the scaling symmetry allows the existence of stable relativistic ground states. A new feature in our analysis which applies both to the classical and relativistic problem is that the orbital stability of the ground states does not rely as usual on an argument of uniqueness of suitable minimizers—which is mostly unknown—but on strong rigidity properties of the transport flow, and this extends the class of minimizers for which orbital stability is now proved.     

Solutions of fractional gas dynamics equation by a new technique

In this paper, a novel technique is formed to obtain the solution of a fractional gas dynamics equation. Some reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces are defined. Reproducing kernel functions of these spaces have been found. Some numerical examples are shown to confirm the efficiency of the reproducing kernel Hilbert space method. The accurate pulchritude of the paper is arisen in its strong implementation of Caputo fractional order time derivative on the classical equations with the success of the highly accurate solutions by the series solutions. Reproducing kernel Hilbert space method is actually capable of reducing the size of the numerical work. Numerical results for different particular cases of the equations are given in the numerical section.     

A commuting-vector-field approach to some dispersive estimates

We prove the pointwise decay of solutions to three linear equations: (1) the transport equation in phase space generalizing the classical Vlasov equation, (2) the linear Schrödinger equation, (3) the Airy (linear KdV) equation. The usual proofs use explicit representation formulae, and either obtain \(L^1\)—\(L^\infty \) decay through directly estimating the fundamental solution in physical space or by studying oscillatory integrals coming from the representation in Fourier space. Our proof instead combines “vector field” commutators that capture the inherent symmetries of the relevant equations with conservation laws for mass and energy to get space–time weighted energy estimates. Combined with a simple version of Sobolev’s inequality this gives pointwise decay as desired. In the case of the Vlasov and Schrödinger equations, we can recover sharp pointwise decay; in the Schrödinger case we also show how to obtain local energy decay as well as Strichartz-type estimates. For the Airy equation we obtain a local energy decay that is almost sharp from the scaling point of view, but nonetheless misses the classical estimates by a gap. This work is inspired by the work of Klainerman on \(L^2\)—\(L^\infty \) decay of wave equations, as well as the recent work of Fajman, Joudioux, and Smulevici on decay of mass distributions for the relativistic Vlasov equation.     

Uniform Distribution,Discrepancy, and Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces

In this paper we define a notion of uniform distribution and discrepancy of sequences in an abstract set E through reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces of functions on E. In the case of the finite-dimensional unit cube these discrepancies are very closely related to the worst case error obtained for numerical integration of functions in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. In the compact case we show that the discrepancy tends to zero if and only if the sequence is uniformly distributed in our sense. Next we prove an existence theorem for such uniformly distributed sequences and investigate the relation to the classical notion of uniform distribution. Some examples conclude this paper.     

Double convolution integral equations involving a general class of multivariable polynomials and the multivariableH-functions

In this paper we have solved a double convolution integral equation whose kernel involves the product of theH-functions of several variables and a general class of multivariable polynomials. Due to general nature of the kernel, we can obtain from it, solutions of a large number of double and single convolution integral equations involving products of several classical orthogonal polynomials and simpler functions. We have also obtained here solutions of two double convolution integral equations as special cases of our main result. Exact reference of three known results, which are obtainable as particular cases of one of these special cases, have also been included.     

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.     

On inverse problems in electromagnetic field in classical mechanics at fixed energy

In this article, we consider inverse scattering and inverse boundary value problems at sufficiently large and fixed energy for the multidimensional relativistic and nonrelativistic Newton equations in a static external electromagnetic field (V, B), V∈C², B∈C¹ in classical mechanics. Developing the approach going back to Gerver-Nadinashvili 1983's work on an inverse problem of mechanics, we obtain, in particular, theorems of uniqueness.     

Self-adaptive inexact proximal point methods

We propose a class of self-adaptive proximal point methods suitable for degenerate optimization problems where multiple minimizers may exist, or where the Hessian may be singular at a local minimizer. If the proximal regularization parameter has the form where η∈[0,2) and β>0 is a constant, we obtain convergence to the set of minimizers that is linear for η=0 and β sufficiently small, superlinear for η∈(0,1), and at least quadratic for η∈[1,2). Two different acceptance criteria for an approximate solution to the proximal problem are analyzed. These criteria are expressed in terms of the gradient of the proximal function, the gradient of the original function, and the iteration difference. With either acceptance criterion, the convergence results are analogous to those of the exact iterates. Preliminary numerical results are presented using some ill-conditioned CUTE test problems. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 0203270, 0619080, and 0620286.