Elliptic Regularity and Quantitative Homogenization on Percolation Clusters

We establish quantitative homogenization, large‐scale regularity, and Liouville results for the random conductance model on a supercritical (Bernoulli bond) percolation cluster. The results are also new in the case that the conductivity is constant on the cluster. The argument passes through a series of renormalization steps: first, we use standard percolation results to find a large scale above which the geometry of the percolation cluster behaves (in a sense, made precise) like that of euclidean space. Then, following the work of Barlow [8], we find a succession of larger scales on which certain functional and elliptic estimates hold. This gives us the analytic tools to adapt the quantitative homogenization program of Armstrong and Smart [7] to estimate the yet larger scale on which solutions on the cluster can be well‐approximated by harmonic functions on ℝ^d. This is the first quantitative homogenization result in a porous medium, and the harmonic approximation allows us to estimate the scale on which a higher‐order regularity theory holds. The size of each of these random scales is shown to have at least a stretched exponential moment. As a consequence of this regularity theory, we obtain a Liouville‐type result that states that, for each k ∊ ℕ, the vector space of solutions growing at most like o(|x|^k+1) as |x| → ∞ has the same dimension as the set of harmonic polynomials of degree at most k, generalizing a result of Benjamini, Duminil‐Copin, Kozma, and Yadin from k ≤ 1 to k ∊ ℕ. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A higher-order large-scale regularity theory for random elliptic operators

We develop a large-scale regularity theory of higher order for divergence-form elliptic equations with heterogeneous coefficient fields a in the context of stochastic homogenization. The large-scale regularity of a-harmonic functions is encoded by Liouville principles: The space of a-harmonic functions that grow at most like a polynomial of degree k has the same dimension as in the constant-coefficient case. This result can be seen as the qualitative side of a large-scale C^k,α-regularity theory, which in the present work is developed in the form of a corresponding C^k,α-“excess decay” estimate: For a given a-harmonic function u on a ball B_R, its energy distance on some ball B_r to the above space of a-harmonic functions that grow at most like a polynomial of degree k has the natural decay in the radius r above some minimal radius r₀.

Though motivated by stochastic homogenization, the contribution of this paper is of purely deterministic nature: We work under the assumption that for the given realization a of the coefficient field, the couple (φ, σ) of scalar and vector potentials of the harmonic coordinates, where φ is the usual corrector, grows sublinearly in a mildly quantified way. We then construct “kth-order correctors” and thereby the space of a-harmonic functions that grow at most like a polynomial of degree k, establish the above excess decay, and then the corresponding Liouville principle.     

On the limit cycles available from polynomial perturbations of the Bogdanov-Takens Hamiltonian

The displacement map related to small polynomial perturbations of the planar Hamiltonian systemdH=0 is studied in the elliptic caseH=1/2y ²+1/2x ²−1/3x ³. An estimate of the number of isolated zeros for each of the successive Melnikov functionsM _k(h),k=1, 2,…is given in terms of the orderk and the maximal degreen of the perturbation. This sets up an upper bound to the number of limit cycles emerging from the periodic orbits of the Hamiltonian system under polynomial perturbations. Research partially supported by grant MM810/98 from the NSF of Bulgaria and MURST, Italy.     

On additive Schwarz preconditioners for sparse grid discretizations

Summary Based on the framework of subspace splitting and the additive Schwarz scheme, we give bounds for the condition number of multilevel preconditioners for sparse grid discretizations of elliptic model problems. For a BXP-like preconditioner we derive an estimate of the optimal orderO(1) and for a HB-like variant we obtain an estimate of the orderO(k ² ·2 ^k/2 ), wherek denotes the number of levels employed. Furthermore, we confirm these results by numerically computed condition numbers.     

Estimates for weighted eigenvalues of a fourth-order elliptic operator with variable coefficients

We investigate the Dirichlet weighted eigenvalue problem for a fourth-order elliptic operator with variable coefficients in a bounded domain in \mathbbRⁿ {\mathbb{R}^n} . We establish a sharp inequality for its eigenvalues. It yields an estimate for the upper bound of the (k + 1)th eigenvalue in terms of the first k eigenvalues. Moreover, we also obtain estimates for some special cases of this problem. In particular, our results generalize the Wang–Xia inequality (J. Funct. Anal., 245, No. 1, 334–352 (2007)) for the clamped-plate problem to a fourth-order elliptic operator with variable coefficients.     

Global C2‐Estimates for Convex Solutions of Curvature Equations

We establish a C² a priori estimate for convex hypersurfaces whose principal curvatures κ=(κ₁,…, κ_n) satisfy σ_k(κ(X))=f(X,ν(X)), the Weingarten curvature equation. We also obtain such an estimate for admissible 2‐convex hypersurfaces in the case k=2. Our estimates resolve a longstanding problem in geometric fully nonlinear elliptic equations.© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Distribution of exponential functions with k-full exponent modulo a prime

For a real x -1 we denote by S_k[X] the set of k-full integers n x, that is, the set of positive integers n x such that ℓ^k|n for any prime divisor ℓ|n. We estimate exponential sums of the form where is a fixed integer with gcd (, p) = 1, and apply them to studying the distribution of the powers ⁿ, n S_k[x], in the residue ring modulo p 1.     

Uniform Elliptic Estimate for an Infinite Plate in Linear Elasticity

Abstract

We present a new study of linear elasticity for an infinite three-dimensional plate of finite thickness Ω = ?² × (?1, 1). We first characterize the kernel of the operator of elasticity as polynomials which can be build from the kernel of the classical Kirchhoff–Love model of plate. Using this characterization, we get optimal uniform elliptic estimates W ^{k, p} , C ^{k, α} on the solution as a function of the exterior forces. We also give an interior estimate.     

Schauder estimates for a class of second order elliptic operators on a cube

We consider a class of second order elliptic operators on a d-dimensional cube S_d. We prove that if the coefficients are of class C^k+δ(S_d), with k=0,1 and δ∈(0,1), then the corresponding elliptic problem admits a unique solution u belonging to C^k+2+δ(S_d) and satisfying non-standard boundary conditions involving only second order derivatives.     

A finite element method for surface PDEs: matrix properties

We consider a recently introduced new finite element approach for the discretization of elliptic partial differential equations on surfaces. The main idea of this method is to use finite element spaces that are induced by triangulations of an “outer” domain to discretize the partial differential equation on the surface. The method is particularly suitable for problems in which there is a coupling with a problem in an outer domain that contains the surface, for example, two-phase flow problems. It has been proved that the method has optimal order of convergence both in the H ¹ and in the L ²-norm. In this paper, we address linear algebra aspects of this new finite element method. In particular the conditioning of the mass and stiffness matrix is investigated. For the two-dimensional case we present an analysis which proves that the (effective) spectral condition number of the diagonally scaled mass matrix and the diagonally scaled stiffness matrix behaves like h ⁻³| ln h| and h ⁻²| ln h|, respectively, where h is the mesh size of the outer triangulation.     

Compactness methods in the theory of homogenization II: Equations in non-divergence form

We prove C^{0, α}, C^{1, α} and C^{1, 1} a priori estimates for solutions of boundary value problems for elliptic operators with periodic coefficients of the form Σ,^j=1a^{i j}(x/?)δ²/δx_iδx_j. The constants in these estimates are independent of the small parameter ?, and hence our results imply strengthened versions of the classical averaging theorems. These results generalize to a wide class of linear operators in non-divergence form, including equations with lower-order terms and nonuniformly oscillating coefficients, as well as to certain nonlinear problems, which we discuss in the last section.     

On the Existence of Solutions for Fully Nonlinear Elliptic Equations Under Relaxed Convexity Assumptions

We establish the existence and uniqueness of solutions of fully nonlinear elliptic second-order equations like H(v, Dv, D ² v, x) = 0 in smooth domains without requiring H to be convex or concave with respect to the second-order derivatives. Apart from ellipticity nothing is required of H at points at which |D ² v| ≤K, where K is any given constant. For large |D ² v| some kind of relaxed convexity assumption with respect to D ² v mixed with a VMO condition with respect to x are still imposed. The solutions are sought in Sobolev classes.     

Higher Mahler measure for cyclotomic polynomials and Lehmer’s question

The k-higher Mahler measure of a non-zero polynomial P is the integral of log  ^k |P| on the unit circle. In this note, we consider Lehmer’s question (which is a long-standing open problem for k=1) for k>1 and find some interesting formulas for 2- and 3-higher Mahler measure of cyclotomic polynomials.     

On the birational anabelian program initiated by Bogomolov I

Recall that a program initiated by Bogomolov in 1990 aims at reconstructing function fields K|k with td(K|k)>1 and k algebraically closed from the maximal pro-ℓ abelian-by-central Galois group P^c  _K\Pi ^{\hbox to1pt{}{\rm c}_{\phantom {g}}}_{K} of K, where ℓ is any prime number ≠char(k). In this paper we complete that program in the case k is an algebraic closure of a finite field.     

Additive Latin transversals and group rings

LetA={a ₁, …,a _k} and {b ₁, …,b _k} be two subsets of an abelian groupG, k≤|G|. Snevily conjectured that, when |G| is odd, there is a numbering of the elements ofB such thata _i+b _i,1≤i≤k are pairwise distinct. By using a polynomial method, Alon affirmed this conjecture for |G| prime, even whenA is a sequence ofk<|G| elements. With a new application of the polynomial method, Dasgupta, Károlyi, Serra and Szegedy extended Alon’s result to the groupsZ _p ^r andZ _p ^rin the casek<p and verified Snevily’s conjecture for every cyclic group. In this paper, by employing group rings as a tool, we prove that Alon’s result is true for any finite abelianp-group withk<√2p, and verify Snevily’s conjecture for every abelian group of odd order in the casek<√p, wherep is the smallest prime divisor of |G|. This work has been supported partly by NSFC grant number 19971058 and 10271080.     

Correction of finite element eigenvalues for problems with natural or periodic boundary conditions

Recent results of Andrew and Paine for a regular Sturm-Liouville problem with essential boundary conditions are extended to problems with natural or periodic boundary conditions. These results show that a simple asymptotic correction technique of Paine, de Hoog and Anderssen reduces the error in the estimate of thekth eigenvalue obtained by the finite element method, with linear hat functions and mesh lengthh, fromO(k ⁴ h ²) toO(kh ²). Numerical results show the correction to be useful even for low values ofk.     

Approximation in the finite element method

Summary The rate of convergence of the finite element method depends on the order to which the solutionu can be approximated by the trial space of piecewise polynomials. We attempt to unify the many published estimates, by proving that if the trial space is complete through polynomials of degreek–1, then it contains a functionv ^h such that |u–v ^h | _s ch ^k–s|u| _k . The derivatives of orders andk are measured either in the maximum norm or in the mean-square norm, and the estimate can be made local: the error in a given element depends on the diameterh _i of that element. The proof applies to domains in any number of dimensions, and employs a uniformity assumption which avoids degenerate element shapes.This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (GP-13778).     

Functions of bounded boundary rotation

Classes of functionsU _k, which generalize starlike functions in the same manner that the classV _k of functions with boundary rotation bounded bykπ generalizes convex functions, are defined. The radius of univalence and starlikeness is determined. The behavior off _α(z) = ∫ ₀ ^z [f'(t)]^α dt is determined for various classes of functions. It is shown that the image of |z|<1 underV _kfunctions contains the disc of radius 1/k centered at the origin, andV _k functions are continuous in |z|≦1 with the exception of at most [k/2+1] points on |z|=1.     

The G-Ellipticity for the Sub-Laplacian on Two Step Stratified Lie Groups

This paper reveals that the sub-Laplacian L₀ on two step stratified Lie groups has a similar behavior like elliptic operators on the Euclidean space, that is, the sub - Laplacian satisfies a group-elliptic estimate, called the G- elliptic estimate (or the L^p regularity), and the general left Invariant operator L_λ has such a behavior if and only if λ is admissible.     

Superconvergence of H 1-Galerkin Mixed Finite Element Methods for Second-Order Elliptic Equations

We derive superconvergence result for H ¹-Galerkin mixed finite element method for second-order elliptic equations over rectangular partitions. Compared to standard mixed finite element procedure, the method is not subject to the Ladyzhenskaya–Bab?ska–Brezzi (LBB) condition and the approximating finite element spaces are allowed to be of different polynomial degrees. Superconvergence estimate of order 𝒪(h ^k+3), where k ≥ 1 is the order of the approximating polynomials employed in the Raviart–Thomas elements, is established for the flux via a postprocessing technique.