Critical exponents for non-simultaneous blow-up in a localized parabolic system

The paper deals with the radially symmetric solutions of _ut=Δu+u^m(x,t)vⁿ(0,t)$u_t=\Delta u+u^m(x,t)v^n(0,t)$, _vt=Δv+u^p(0,t)v^q(x,t)$v_t=\Delta v+u^p(0,t)v^q(x,t)$, subject to null Dirichlet boundary conditions. For the blow-up classical solutions, we propose the critical exponents for non-simultaneous blow-up by determining the complete and optimal classification for all the non-negative exponents: (i) There exist initial data such that u$u$ (v$v$) blows up alone if and only if m>p+1$m>p+1$ (q>n+1$q>n+1$), which means that any blow-up is simultaneous if and only if m≤p+1$m\le p+1$, q≤n+1$q\le n+1$. (ii) Any blow-up is u$u$ (v$v$) blowing up with v$v$ (u$u$) remaining bounded if and only if m>p+1$m>p+1$, q≤n+1$q\le n+1$ (m≤p+1$m\le p+1$, q>n+1$q>n+1$). (iii) Both non-simultaneous and simultaneous blow-up may occur if and only if m>p+1$m>p+1$, q>n+1$q>n+1$. Moreover, we consider the blow-up rate and set estimates which were not obtained in the previously known work for the same model.     

A boundary blow-up elliptic problem with an inhomogeneous term

By a perturbation method and constructing comparison functions, we reveal how the inhomogeneous term h$h$ affects the exact asymptotic behaviour of solutions near the boundary to the problem △u=b(x)g(u)+λh(x)$△u=b\left(x\right)g\left(u\right)+\lambda h\left(x\right)$, u>0$u>0$ in Ω$\Omega$, u_|∂Ω=∞$u{|}_{\partial \Omega }=\infty$, where Ω$\Omega$ is a bounded domain with smooth boundary in R^N${\mathbb{R}}^N$, λ>0$\lambda >0$, g∈C¹[0,∞)$g\in C^1[0,\infty )$ is increasing on [0,∞)$[0,\infty )$, g(0)=0$g\left(0\right)=0$, g^′$g^{\prime }$ is regularly varying at infinity with positive index ρ$\rho$, the weight b$b$, which is non-trivial and non-negative in Ω$\Omega$, may be vanishing on the boundary, and the inhomogeneous term h$h$ is non-negative in Ω$\Omega$ and may be singular on the boundary.     

Best constants in a borderline case of second-order Moser type inequalities

We study optimal embeddings for the space of functions whose Laplacian Δu   belongs to L¹(Ω)$L^1(\Omega )$, where Ω⊂RN$\Omega \subset {\mathbb{R}}^N$ is a bounded domain. This function space turns out to be strictly larger than the Sobolev space W2,1(Ω)$W^{2,1}(\Omega )$ in which the whole set of second-order derivatives is considered. In particular, in the limiting Sobolev case, when N=2$N=2$, we establish a sharp embedding inequality into the Zygmund space Lexp(Ω)$L_{\mathit{exp}}(\Omega )$. On one hand, this result enables us to improve the Brezis–Merle (Brezis and Merle (1991) [13]) regularity estimate for the Dirichlet problem Δu=f(x)∈L¹(Ω)$\mathrm{\Delta }u=f(x)\in L^1(\Omega )$, u=0$u=0$ on ∂Ω; on the other hand, it represents a borderline case of D.R. Adams' (1988) [1] generalization of Trudinger–Moser type inequalities to the case of higher-order derivatives. Extensions to dimension N?3$N?3$ are also given. Besides, we show how the best constants in the embedding inequalities change under different boundary conditions.     

Convergence of invariant measures for singular stochastic diffusion equations

It is proved that the solutions to the singular stochastic p$p$-Laplace equation, p∈(1,2)$p\in (1,2)$ and the solutions to the stochastic fast diffusion equation with nonlinearity parameter r∈(0,1)$r\in (0,1)$ on a bounded open domain Λ⊂R^d$\Lambda \subset {\mathbb{R}}^d$ with Dirichlet boundary conditions are continuous in mean, uniformly in time, with respect to the parameters p$p$ and r$r$ respectively (in the Hilbert spaces L²(Λ)$L^2\left(\Lambda \right)$, H⁻¹(Λ)$H^{-1}\left(\Lambda \right)$ respectively). The highly singular limit case p=1$p=1$ is treated with the help of stochastic evolution variational inequalities, where P$\mathbb{P}$-a.s. convergence, uniformly in time, is established.     

Harness processes and harmonic crystals

In the Hammersley harness processes the R$\mathbb{R}$-valued height at each site i∈Z^d$i\in {\mathbb{Z}}^d$ is updated at rate 1 to an average of the neighboring heights plus a centered random variable (the noise). We construct the process “a la Harris” simultaneously for all times and boxes contained in Z^d${\mathbb{Z}}^d$. With this representation we compute covariances and show L²$L^2$ and almost sure time and space convergence of the process. In particular, the process started from the flat configuration and viewed from the height at the origin converges to an invariant measure. In dimension three and higher, the process itself converges to an invariant measure in L²$L^2$ at speed t^1−d/2$t^{1-d/2}$ (this extends the convergence established by Hsiao). When the noise is Gaussian the limiting measures are Gaussian fields (harmonic crystals) and are also reversible for the process.     

The cutoff phenomenon for Ehrenfest chains

We consider families of Ehrenfest chains and provide a simple criterion on the L^p$L^p$-cutoff and the L^p$L^p$-precutoff with specified initial states for 1≤p<∞$1\le p<\infty$. For the family with an L^p$L^p$-cutoff, a cutoff time is described and a possible window is given. For the family without an L^p$L^p$-precutoff, the exact order of the L^p$L^p$-mixing time is determined. The result is consistent with the well-known conjecture on cutoffs of Markov chains proposed by Peres in 2004, which says that a cutoff exists if and only if the multiplication of the spectral gap and the mixing time tends to infinity.     

Finite element approximation to nonlinear coupled thermal problem

A nonlinear coupled elliptic system modelling a large class of engineering problems was discussed in [A.F.D. Loula, J. Zhu, Finite element analysis of a coupled nonlinear system, Comp. Appl. Math. 20 (3) (2001) 321–339; J. Zhu, A.F.D. Loula, Mixed finite element analysis of a thermally nonlinear coupled problem, Numer. Methods Partial Differential Equations 22 (1) (2006) 180–196]. The convergence analysis of iterative finite element approximation to the solution was done under an assumption of ‘small’ solution or source data which guarantees the uniqueness of the nonlinear coupled system. Generally, a nonlinear system may have multiple solutions. In this work, the regularity of the weak solutions is further studied. The nonlinear finite element approximations to the nonsingular solutions are then proposed and analyzed. Finally, the optimal order error estimates in H¹$H^1$-norm and L²$L^2$-norm as well as in W^1,p$W^{1,p}$-norm and L^p$L^p$-norm are obtained.     

Monotonicity of the reflected Bessel transition density on the diagonal

For α∈R$\alpha \in \mathbb{R}$, let p^R(t,x,x)$p^R(t,x,x)$ denote the diagonal of the transition density of the α$\alpha$-Bessel process in (0,1]$(0,1]$, killed at 0 and reflected at 1. As a function of x$x$, if either α≥3$\alpha \ge 3$ or α=1$\alpha =1$, then for t>0$t>0$, the diagonal is nondecreasing. This monotonicity property fails if 1≠α<3$1\ne \alpha <3$.     

Analysis of one-dimensional Helmholtz equation with PML boundary

In this paper, the linear conforming finite element method for the one-dimensional Bérenger's PML boundary is investigated and well-posedness of the given equation is discussed. Furthermore, optimal error estimates and stability in the L²$L^2$ or H¹$H^1$-norm are derived under the assumption that h$h$, h²ω²$h^2{\omega }^2$ and h²ω³$h^2{\omega }^3$ are sufficiently small, where h$h$ is the mesh size and ω$\omega$ denotes a fixed frequency. Numerical examples are presented to validate the theoretical error bounds.     

Korn type inequalities in Orlicz spaces

We exhibit balance conditions between a Young function A and a Young function B   for a Korn type inequality to hold between the L^B$L^B$ norm of the gradient of vector-valued functions and the L^A$L^A$ norm of its symmetric part. In particular, we extend a standard form of the Korn inequality in L^p$L^p$, with 1<p<∞$1<p<\infty$, and an Orlicz version involving a Young function A   satisfying both the _Δ2${\mathrm{\Delta }}_2$ and the _∇2${\mathrm{\nabla }}_2$ condition.     

Hölder continuity of solutions of supercritical dissipative hydrodynamic transport equations

We examine the regularity of weak solutions of quasi-geostrophic (QG) type equations with supercritical (α<1/2$\alpha <1/2$) dissipation α(−Δ)${(-\mathrm{\Delta })}^{\alpha }$. This study is motivated by a recent work of Caffarelli and Vasseur, in which they study the global regularity issue for the critical (α=1/2$\alpha =1/2$) QG equation [L. Caffarelli, A. Vasseur, Drift diffusion equations with fractional diffusion and the quasi-geostrophic equation, arXiv: math.AP/0608447, 2006]. Their approach successively increases the regularity levels of Leray–Hopf weak solutions: from L²$L^2$ to L^∞$L^{\infty }$, from L^∞$L^{\infty }$ to Hölder (Cδ$C^{\delta }$, δ>0$\delta >0$), and from Hölder to classical solutions. In the supercritical case, Leray–Hopf weak solutions can still be shown to be L^∞$L^{\infty }$, but it does not appear that their approach can be easily extended to establish the Hölder continuity of L^∞$L^{\infty }$ solutions. In order for their approach to work, we require the velocity to be in the Hölder space C1−2α$C^{1-2\alpha }$. Higher regularity starting from Cδ$C^{\delta }$ with δ>1−2α$\delta >1-2\alpha$ can be established through Besov space techniques and will be presented elsewhere [P. Constantin, J. Wu, Regularity of Hölder continuous solutions of the supercritical quasi-geostrophic equation, Ann. Inst. H. Poincaré Anal. Non Linéaire, in press].     

Global existence of weak solutions for two-dimensional semilinear wave equations with strong damping in an exterior domain

We consider two-dimensional mixed problems in an exterior domain for a semilinear strongly damped wave equation with a power-type nonlinearity |u|^p${\left|u\right|}^p$. If the initial data have a small weighted energy, we shall derive a global existence and energy decay results in the case when the power p$p$ of the nonlinear term satisfies p>6$p>6$.     

Concentration and multiplicity of solutions for a fourth-order equation with critical nonlinearity

In this paper, we consider the problem (_Pε)$(P_{\epsilon })$ : Δ²u=u^n+4/n-4+εu,u>0${\mathrm{\Delta }}^{2}u=u^{n+4/n-4}+\epsilon u,u>0$ in Ω,u=Δu=0$\Omega ,u=\mathrm{\Delta }u=0$ on ∂Ω$\mathrm{\partial }\Omega$, where Ω$\Omega$ is a bounded and smooth domain in Rⁿ,n>8${\mathbb{R}}^n,n>8$ and ε>0$\epsilon >0$. We analyze the asymptotic behavior of solutions of (_Pε)$(P_{\epsilon })$ which are minimizing for the Sobolev inequality as ε→0$\epsilon \to 0$ and we prove existence of solutions to (_Pε)$(P_{\epsilon })$ which blow up and concentrate around a critical point of the Robin's function. Finally, we show that for ε$\epsilon$ small, (_Pε)$(P_{\epsilon })$ has at least as many solutions as the Ljusternik–Schnirelman category of Ω$\Omega$.     

Newton’s method and high-order algorithms for the nth root computation

Two modifications of Newton’s method to accelerate the convergence of the n$n$th root computation of a strictly positive real number are revisited. Both modifications lead to methods with prefixed order of convergence p∈N,p≥2$p\in \mathbb{N},p\ge 2$. We consider affine combinations of the two modified p$p$th-order methods which lead to a family of methods of order p$p$ with arbitrarily small asymptotic constants. Moreover the methods are of order p+1$p+1$ for some specific values of a parameter. Then we consider affine combinations of the three methods of order p+1$p+1$ to get methods of order p+1$p+1$ again with arbitrarily small asymptotic constants. The methods can be of order p+2$p+2$ with arbitrarily small asymptotic constants, and also of order p+3$p+3$ for some specific values of the parameters of the affine combination. It is shown that infinitely many p$p$th-order methods exist for the n$n$th root computation of a strictly positive real number for any p≥3$p\ge 3$.     

Renormalized solutions for nonlinear elliptic equations with variable exponents and L data

We prove existence and uniqueness of a renormalized solution to nonlinear elliptic equations with variable exponents and L¹$L^1$ data. The functional setting involves Lebesgue–Sobolev space with variable exponents W^1,p(⋅)(Ω)$W^{1,p(\cdot )}\left(\Omega \right)$.     

An extension of Draghicescu’s fast tree-code algorithm to the vortex method on a sphere

A fast and accurate algorithm to compute interactions between N$N$ point vortices and between N$N$ vortex blobs on a sphere is proposed. It is an extension of the fast tree-code algorithm developed by Draghicescu for the vortex method in the plane. When we choose numerical parameters in the fast algorithm suitably, the computational cost of O(N²)$O\left(N^2\right)$ is reduced to O(N(logN)⁴)$O\left(N{(logN)}^4\right)$ and the approximation error decreases like O(1/N)$O(1/N)$ when N→∞$N\to \infty$, as demonstrated in the present article. We also apply the fast method to long-time evolution of two vortex sheets on the sphere to see the efficiency. A key point is to describe the equation of motion for the N$N$ points in the three-dimensional Cartesian coordinates.     

Compact imbeddings between variable exponent spaces with unbounded underlying domain

In this paper, we have established some compact imbedding theorems for some subspaces of W^1,p(x)(U)$W^{1,p\left(x\right)}\left(U\right)$ when the underlying domain U$U$ is unbounded. The domain we consider is mainly of type R^N(N≥2)$R^N(N\ge 2)$ or R^L×Ω(L≥2)$R^L\times \Omega (L\ge 2)$, where Ω⊂R^M$\Omega \subset R^M$ is a bounded domain with smooth boundary.