Pattern formation in a nonlinear model for animal coats

Several models have been proposed for describing the formation of animal coat patterns. We consider reaction-diffusion models due to Murray, which rely on a Turing instability for the pattern selection. In this paper, we describe the early stages of the pattern formation process for large domain sizes. This includes the selection mechanism and the geometry of the patterns generated by the nonlinear system on one-, two-, and three-dimensional base domains. These results are obtained by an adaptation of results explaining the occurrence of spinodal decomposition in materials science as modeled by the Cahn-Hilliard equation. We use techniques of dynamical systems, viewing solutions of the reaction-diffusion model in terms of nonlinear semiflows. Our results are applicable to any parabolic system exhibiting a Turing instability.     

Bifurcation of stable equilibria and nonlinear flux boundary condition with indefinite weight

We study bifurcation and stability of positive equilibria of a parabolic problem under a nonlinear Neumann boundary condition having a parameter and an indefinite weight. The main motivation is the selection migration problem involving two alleles and no gene flux acrossing the boundary, introduced by Fisher and Fleming, and Henry?s approach to the problem.Local and global structures of the set of equilibria are given. While the stability of constant equilibria is analyzed, the exponential stability of the unique bifurcating nonconstant equilibrium solution is established. Diagrams exhibiting the bifurcation and stability structures are also furnished. Moreover the asymptotic behavior of such solutions on the boundary of the domain, as the positive parameter goes to infinity, is also provided.The results are obtained via classical tools like the Implicit Function Theorem, bifurcation from a simple eigenvalue theorem and the exchange of stability principle, in a combination with variational and dynamical arguments.     

Bifurcation curves of a logistic equation when the linear growth rate crosses a second eigenvalue

We construct the global bifurcation curves, solutions versus level of harvesting, for the steady states of a diffusive logistic equation on a bounded domain, under Dirichlet boundary conditions and other appropriate hypotheses, when a, the linear growth rate of the population, is below λ₂+δ. Here λ₂ is the second eigenvalue of the Dirichlet Laplacian on the domain and δ>0. Such curves have been obtained before, but only for a in a right neighborhood of the first eigenvalue. Our analysis provides the exact number of solutions of the equation for a≤λ₂ and new information on the number of solutions for a>λ₂.     

A diffusive predator-prey model with a protection zone

In this paper we study the effects of a protection zone Ω₀ for the prey on a diffusive predator-prey model with Holling type II response and no-flux boundary condition. We show the existence of a critical patch size described by the principal eigenvalue of the Laplacian operator over Ω₀ with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. If the protection zone is over the critical patch size, i.e., if is less than the prey growth rate, then the dynamics of the model is fundamentally changed from the usual predator-prey dynamics; in such a case, the prey population persists regardless of the growth rate of its predator, and if the predator is strong, then the two populations stabilize at a unique coexistence state. If the protection zone is below the critical patch size, then the dynamics of the model is qualitatively similar to the case without protection zone, but the chances of survival of the prey species increase with the size of the protection zone, as generally expected. Our mathematical approach is based on bifurcation theory, topological degree theory, the comparison principles for elliptic and parabolic equations, and various elliptic estimates.     

Constant-sign and sign-changing solutions for nonlinear eigenvalue problems

We prove the existence of multiple constant-sign and sign-changing solutions for a nonlinear elliptic eigenvalue problem under Dirichlet boundary condition involving the p$p$-Laplacian. More precisely, we establish the existence of a positive solution, of a negative solution, and of a nontrivial sign-changing solution when the eigenvalue parameter λ$\lambda$ is greater than the second eigenvalue _λ2${\lambda }_2$ of the negative p$p$-Laplacian, extending results by Ambrosetti–Lupo, Ambrosetti–Mancini, and Struwe. Our approach relies on a combined use of variational and topological tools (such as, e.g., critical points, Mountain-Pass theorem, second deformation lemma, variational characterization of the first and second eigenvalue of the p$p$-Laplacian) and comparison arguments for nonlinear differential inequalities. In particular, the existence of extremal nontrivial constant-sign solutions plays an important role in the proof of sign-changing solutions.     

Multiple positive solutions for nonlinear eigenvalue problems with the p-Laplacian

In this paper we consider a nonlinear eigenvalue problem driven by the p$p$-Laplacian differential operator and with a nonsmooth potential. Using degree theoretic arguments based on the degree map for certain operators of monotone type, we show that the problem has at least two nontrivial positive solutions as the parameter λ>0$\lambda >0$ varies in a half-line.     

Pullback permanence in a non-autonomous competitive Lotka-Volterra model

The goal of this work is to study in some detail the asymptotic behaviour of a non-autonomous Lotka-Volterra model, both in the conventional sense (as t→∞) and in the “pullback” sense (starting a fixed initial condition further and further back in time). The non-autonomous terms in our model are chosen such that one species will eventually die out, ruling out any conventional type of permanence. In contrast, we introduce the notion of “pullback permanence” and show that this property is enjoyed by our model. This is not just a mathematical artifice, but rather shows that if we come across an ecology that has been evolving for a very long time we still expect that both species are represented (and their numbers are bounded below), even if the final fate of one of them is less happy. The main tools in the paper are the theory of attractors for non-autonomous differential equations, the sub-supersolution method and the spectral theory for linear elliptic equations.     

Wasserstein kernels for one-dimensional diffusion problems

We treat the evolution as a gradient flow with respect to the Wasserstein distance on a special manifold and construct the weak solution for the initial-value problem by using a time-discretized implicit scheme. The concept of Wasserstein kernel associated with one-dimensional diffusion problems with Neumann boundary conditions is introduced. On the basis of this, features of the initial data are shown to propagate to the weak solution at almost all time levels, whereas, in a case of interest, these features even help with obtaining the weak solution. Numerical simulations support our theoretical results.     

Limit theorems for strongly and intermediately supercritical branching processes in random environment with linear fractional offspring distributions

In the present paper, we characterize the behavior of supercritical branching processes in random environment with linear fractional offspring distributions, conditioned on having small, but positive values at some large generation. As it has been noticed in previous works, there is a phase transition in the behavior of the process. Here, we examine the strongly and intermediately supercritical regimes The main result is a conditional limit theorem for the rescaled associated random walk in the intermediately case.     

Large solution to nonlinear elliptic equation with nonlinear gradient terms

The aim of this paper is to study the qualitative behavior of large solutions to the following problem

     

Perturbation of Transition Functions and a Feynman-Kac Formula for the Incorporation of Mortality

Markov transition kernels are perturbed by output kernels with a special emphasis on building mortality into structured population models. A Feynman-Kac formula is derived which illustrates the interplay of mortality with a Markov process associated with the unperturbed kernel. partially supported by NSF grants DMS-0314529 and SES-0345945 partially supported by NSF grants DMS-9706787 and DMS-0314529     

Stress concentration for closely located inclusions in nonlinear perfect conductivity problems

We study the stress concentration, which is the gradient of the solution, when two smooth inclusions are closely located in a possibly anisotropic medium $\mathrm{\Omega }?{\mathbb{R}}^N$, $N\ge 2$. The governing equation may be degenerate of p-Laplace type, with $1<p\le N$. We prove optimal $L^{\infty }$ estimates for the blow-up of the gradient of the solution as the distance between the inclusions tends to zero.     

On the mixing property and the ergodic principle for nonhomogeneous Markov chains

We study different types of limit behavior of infinite dimension discrete time nonhomogeneous Markov chains. We show that the geometric structure of the set of those Markov chains which have asymptotically stationary density depends on the considered topologies. We generalize and correct some results from Ganikhodjaev et al. (2006) [3].     

Lyapunov exponents and asymptotic dynamics in random Kolmogorov models

The current paper is devoted to the investigation of asymptotic dynamics in random Kolmogorov models. Applying the theory of principal Lyapunov exponents and the principal spectrum developed in the authors previous papers together with the concept of part metric it provides conditions for the existence of a globally attracting positive random equilibrium, the existence of a globally attracting uniformly positive random equilibrium, and the extinction in random Kolmogorov models. These results are an important complement to the existing ones.     

Characterization of Lyapunov pairs in the nonlinear case and applications

The paper presents a characterization of the Lyapunov pairs for a general initial value problem with a possibly multivalued m$m$-accretive operator on an arbitrary Banach space by means of the contingent derivative related to the operator. The proof is based on tangency and flow-invariance arguments combined with a priori estimates and approximation. The abstract results are applied to obtain precise a priori estimates for the mild solutions. They readily lead to the existence of global solutions and various controllability properties. Important Lyapunov pairs are pointed out in connection with specific problems.     

Positive solutions to logistic type equations with harvesting

We use comparison principles, variational arguments and a truncation method to obtain positive solutions to logistic type equations with harvesting both in RN and in a bounded domain Ω⊂RN, with N?3, when the carrying capacity of the environment is not constant. By relaxing the growth assumption on the coefficients of the differential equation we derive a new equation which is easily solved. The solution of this new equation is then used to produce a positive solution of our original problem.