The sign of the Green function of an n-th order linear boundary value problem

[EN] This paper provides results on the sign of the Green function (and its partial derivatives) of ann-th order boundary value problem subject to a wide set of homogeneous two-point boundary conditions. The dependence of the absolute value of the Green function and some of its partial derivatives with respect to the extremes where the boundary conditions are set is also assessed.This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO), the Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER UE) grant MTM2017-89664-P.Almenar, P.; Jódar Sánchez, LA. (2020). The sign of the Green function of an n-th order linear boundary value problem. Mathematics. 8(5):1-22. https://doi.org/10.3390/math8050673S12285Butler, G. ., & Erbe, L. . (1983). Integral comparison theorems and extremal points for linear differential equations. Journal of Differential Equations, 47(2), 214-226. doi:10.1016/0022-0396(83)90034-7Peterson, A. C. (1979). Green’s functions for focal type boundary value problems. Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics, 9(4). doi:10.1216/rmj-1979-9-4-721Peterson, A. C. (1980). Focal Green’s functions for fourth-order differential equations. Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, 75(2), 602-610. doi:10.1016/0022-247x(80)90104-3Elias, U. (1980). Green’s functions for a non-disconjugate differential operator. Journal of Differential Equations, 37(3), 318-350. doi:10.1016/0022-0396(80)90103-5Nehari, Z. (1967). Disconjugate linear differential operators. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 129(3), 500-500. doi:10.1090/s0002-9947-1967-0219781-0Keener, M. S., & Travis, C. C. (1978). Positive Cones and Focal Points for a Class of nth Order Differential Equations. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 237, 331. doi:10.2307/1997625Schmitt, K., & Smith, H. L. (1978). Positive solutions and conjugate points for systems of differential equations. Nonlinear Analysis: Theory, Methods & Applications, 2(1), 93-105. doi:10.1016/0362-546x(78)90045-7Eloe, P. W., Hankerson, D., & Henderson, J. (1992). Positive solutions and conjugate points for multipoint boundary value problems. Journal of Differential Equations, 95(1), 20-32. doi:10.1016/0022-0396(92)90041-kEloe, P. W., & Henderson, J. (1994). Focal Point Characterizations and Comparisons for Right Focal Differential Operators. Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, 181(1), 22-34. doi:10.1006/jmaa.1994.1003Almenar, P., & Jódar, L. (2015). Solvability ofNth Order Linear Boundary Value Problems. International Journal of Differential Equations, 2015, 1-19. doi:10.1155/2015/230405Almenar, P., & Jódar, L. (2016). Improving Results on Solvability of a Class ofnth-Order Linear Boundary Value Problems. International Journal of Differential Equations, 2016, 1-10. doi:10.1155/2016/3750530Almenar, P., & Jodar, L. (2017). SOLVABILITY OF A CLASS OF N -TH ORDER LINEAR FOCAL PROBLEMS. Mathematical Modelling and Analysis, 22(4), 528-547. doi:10.3846/13926292.2017.1329757Sun, Y., Sun, Q., & Zhang, X. (2014). Existence and Nonexistence of Positive Solutions for a Higher-Order Three-Point Boundary Value Problem. Abstract and Applied Analysis, 2014, 1-7. doi:10.1155/2014/513051Hao, X., Liu, L., & Wu, Y. (2015). Iterative solution to singular nth-order nonlocal boundary value problems. Boundary Value Problems, 2015(1). doi:10.1186/s13661-015-0393-6Webb, J. R. L. (2017). New fixed point index results and nonlinear boundary value problems. Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society, 49(3), 534-547. doi:10.1112/blms.12055Jiang, D., & Yuan, C. (2010). The positive properties of the Green function for Dirichlet-type boundary value problems of nonlinear fractional differential equations and its application. Nonlinear Analysis: Theory, Methods & Applications, 72(2), 710-719. doi:10.1016/j.na.2009.07.012Wang, Y., & Liu, L. (2017). Positive properties of the Green function for two-term fractional differential equations and its application. The Journal of Nonlinear Sciences and Applications, 10(04), 2094-2102. doi:10.22436/jnsa.010.04.63Zhang, L., & Tian, H. (2017). Existence and uniqueness of positive solutions for a class of nonlinear fractional differential equations. Advances in Difference Equations, 2017(1). doi:10.1186/s13662-017-1157-7Wang, Y. (2020). The Green’s function of a class of two-term fractional differential equation boundary value problem and its applications. Advances in Difference Equations, 2020(1). doi:10.1186/s13662-020-02549-

Symmetry of Nodal Solutions for Singularly Perturbed Elliptic Problems on a Ball

In [40], it was shown that the following singularly perturbed Dirichlet problem \ep^2 \Delta u - u+ |u|^{p-1} u=0, \ \mbox{in} \ \Om,\] \[ u=0 \ \mbox{on} \ \partial \Om has a nodal solution u_\ep which has the least energy among all nodal solutions. Moreover, it is shown that u_\ep has exactly one local maximum point P_1^\ep with a positive value and one local minimum point P_2^\ep with a negative value and, as \ep \to 0, \varphi (P_1^\ep, P_2^\ep) \to \max_{ (P_1, P_2) \in \Om \times \Om } \varphi (P_1, P_2), where \varphi (P_1, P_2)= \min (\frac{|P_1-P_2}{2}, d(P_1, \partial \Om), d(P_2, \partial \Om)). The following question naturally arises: where is the {\bf nodal surface} \{ u_\ep (x)=0 \}? In this paper, we give an answer in the case of the unit ball \Om=B_1 (0). In particular, we show that for \epsilon sufficiently small, P_1^\ep, P_2^\ep and the origin must lie on a line. Without loss of generality, we may assume that this line is the x_1-axis. Then u_\ep must be even in x_j, j=2, ..., N, and odd in x_1. As a consequence, we show that \{ u_\ep (x)=0 \} = \{ x \in B_1 (0) | x_1=0 \}. Our proof is divided into two steps: first, by using the method of moving planes, we show that P_1^\ep, P_2^\ep and the origin must lie on the x_1-axis and u_\ep must be even in x_j, j=2, ..., N. Then, using the Liapunov-Schmidt reduction method, we prove the uniqueness of u_\ep (which implies the odd symmetry of u_\ep in x_1). Similar results are also proved for the problem with Neumann boundary conditions

Self-similarity and long-time behavior of solutions of the diffusion equation with nonlinear absorption and a boundary source

This paper deals with the long-time behavior of solutions of nonlinear reaction-diffusion equations describing formation of morphogen gradients, the concentration fields of molecules acting as spatial regulators of cell differentiation in developing tissues. For the considered class of models, we establish existence of a new type of ultra-singular self-similar solutions. These solutions arise as limits of the solutions of the initial value problem with zero initial data and infinitely strong source at the boundary. We prove existence and uniqueness of such solutions in the suitable weighted energy spaces. Moreover, we prove that the obtained self-similar solutions are the long-time limits of the solutions of the initial value problem with zero initial data and a time-independent boundary source

Energy inequalities for a model of wave propagation in cold plasma

Energy inequalities are derived for an elliptic-hyperbolic operator arising in plasma physics. These inequalities imply the existence of distribution and weak solutions to various closed boundary-value problems. An existence theorem is proven for a related class of Keldysh equations, and the failure of expected methods for obtaining uniqueness is discussed. The proofs use ideas recently introduced by Lupo, Morawetz, and Payne for a generalized Tricomi operator. The existence of strong solutions under open boundary conditions is also proven.Comment: 33 page

Nonlinear Diffusion and Image Contour Enhancement

The theory of degenerate parabolic equations of the forms $$u_t=(\Phi(u_x))_{x} \quad {\rm and} \quad v_{t}=(\Phi(v))_{xx}$$ is used to analyze the process of contour enhancement in image processing, based on the evolution model of Sethian and Malladi. The problem is studied in the framework of nonlinear diffusion equations. It turns out that the standard initial-value problem solved in this theory does not fit the present application since it it does not produce image concentration. Due to the degenerate character of the diffusivity at high gradient values, a new free boundary problem with singular boundary data can be introduced, and it can be solved by means of a non-trivial problem transformation. The asymptotic convergence to a sharp contour is established and rates calculated.Comment: 29 pages, includes 6 figure

On singular elliptic equations with measure sources

We prove existence of solutions for a class of singular elliptic problems with a general measure as source term whose model is $$\begin{cases} -\Delta u = \frac{f(x)}{u^{\gamma}} +\mu & \text{in}\ \Omega, u=0 &\text{on}\ \partial\Omega, u>0 &\text{on}\ \Omega, \end{cases}$$ where $\Omega$ is an open bounded subset of $\mathbb{R}^N$. Here $\gamma > 0$, $f$ is a nonnegative function on $\Omega$, and $\mu$ is a nonnegative bounded Radon measure on $\Omega$