Best dispersal strategies in spatially heterogeneous environments: optimization of the principal eigenvalue for indefinite fractional Neumann problems

We study the positive principal eigenvalue of a weighted problem associated with the Neumann spectral fractional Laplacian. This analysis is related to the investigation of the survival threshold in population dynamics. Our main result concerns the optimization of such threshold with respect to the fractional order $s\in(0,1]$, the case $s=1$ corresponding to the standard Neumann Laplacian: when the habitat is not too fragmented, the principal positive eigenvalue can not have local minima for $0<s<1$. As a consequence, the best strategy for survival is either following the diffusion with $s=1$ (i.e. Brownian diffusion), or with the lowest possible $s$ (i.e. diffusion allowing long jumps), depending on the size of the domain. In addition, we show that analogous results hold for the standard fractional Laplacian in $\mathbb{R}^N$, in periodic environments.Comment: Version accepted for publication. Title changed according to referee's suggestio

Dynamic isoperimetry and the geometry of Lagrangian coherent structures

The study of transport and mixing processes in dynamical systems is particularly important for the analysis of mathematical models of physical systems. We propose a novel, direct geometric method to identify subsets of phase space that remain strongly coherent over a finite time duration. This new method is based on a dynamic extension of classical (static) isoperimetric problems; the latter are concerned with identifying submanifolds with the smallest boundary size relative to their volume. The present work introduces \emph{dynamic} isoperimetric problems; the study of sets with small boundary size relative to volume \emph{as they are evolved by a general dynamical system}. We formulate and prove dynamic versions of the fundamental (static) isoperimetric (in)equalities; a dynamic Federer-Fleming theorem and a dynamic Cheeger inequality. We introduce a new dynamic Laplacian operator and describe a computational method to identify coherent sets based on eigenfunctions of the dynamic Laplacian. Our results include formal mathematical statements concerning geometric properties of finite-time coherent sets, whose boundaries can be regarded as Lagrangian coherent structures. The computational advantages of our new approach are a well-separated spectrum for the dynamic Laplacian, and flexibility in appropriate numerical approximation methods. Finally, we demonstrate that the dynamic Laplacian operator can be realised as a zero-diffusion limit of a newly advanced probabilistic transfer operator method (Froyland, 2013) for finding coherent sets, which is based on small diffusion. Thus, the present approach sits naturally alongside the probabilistic approach (Froyland, 2013), and adds a formal geometric interpretation

The asymptotic behaviour of the heat equation in a twisted Dirichlet-Neumann waveguide

We consider the heat equation in a straight strip, subject to a combination of Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. We show that a switch of the respective boundary conditions leads to an improvement of the decay rate of the heat semigroup of the order of $t^{-1/2}$. The proof employs similarity variables that lead to a non-autonomous parabolic equation in a thin strip contracting to the real line, that can be analyzed on weighted Sobolev spaces in which the operators under consideration have discrete spectra. A careful analysis of its asymptotic behaviour shows that an added Dirichlet boundary condition emerges asymptotically at the switching point, breaking the real line in two half-lines, which leads asymptotically to the 1/2 gain on the spectral lower bound, and the $t^{-1/2}$ gain on the decay rate in the original physical variables. This result is an adaptation to the case of strips with twisted boundary conditions of previous results by the authors on geometrically twisted Dirichlet tubes.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

Multiple positive solutions for a class of p-Laplacian Neumann problems without growth conditions

For $1<p<\infty$, we consider the following problem $$-\Delta_p u=f(u),\quad u>0\text{ in }\Omega,\quad\partial_\nu u=0\text{ on }\partial\Omega,$$ where $\Omega\subset\mathbb R^N$ is either a ball or an annulus. The nonlinearity $f$ is possibly supercritical in the sense of Sobolev embeddings; in particular our assumptions allow to include the prototype nonlinearity $f(s)=-s^{p-1}+s^{q-1}$ for every $q>p$. We use the shooting method to get existence and multiplicity of non-constant radial solutions. With the same technique, we also detect the oscillatory behavior of the solutions around the constant solution $u\equiv1$. In particular, we prove a conjecture proposed in [D. Bonheure, B. Noris, T. Weth, {\it Ann. Inst. H. Poincar\'e Anal. Non Lin\'aire} vol. 29, pp. 573-588 (2012)], that is to say, if $p=2$ and $f'(1)>\lambda_{k+1}^{rad}$, there exists a radial solution of the problem having exactly $k$ intersections with $u\equiv1$ for a large class of nonlinearities.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure

Spectral problem on graphs and L-functions

The scattering process on multiloop infinite p+1-valent graphs (generalized trees) is studied. These graphs are discrete spaces being quotients of the uniform tree over free acting discrete subgroups of the projective group $PGL(2, {\bf Q}_p)$. As the homogeneous spaces, they are, in fact, identical to p-adic multiloop surfaces. The Ihara-Selberg L-function is associated with the finite subgraph-the reduced graph containing all loops of the generalized tree. We study the spectral problem on these graphs, for which we introduce the notion of spherical functions-eigenfunctions of a discrete Laplace operator acting on the graph. We define the S-matrix and prove its unitarity. We present a proof of the Hashimoto-Bass theorem expressing L-function of any finite (reduced) graph via determinant of a local operator $\Delta(u)$ acting on this graph and relate the S-matrix determinant to this L-function thus obtaining the analogue of the Selberg trace formula. The discrete spectrum points are also determined and classified by the L-function. Numerous examples of L-function calculations are presented.Comment: 39 pages, LaTeX, to appear in Russ. Math. Sur

A priori bounds and multiplicity of positive solutions for pp-Laplacian Neumann problems with sub-critical growth

Let $1<p<+\infty$ and let $\Omega\subset\mathbb R^N$ be either a ball or an annulus. We continue the analysis started in [Boscaggin, Colasuonno, Noris, ESAIM Control Optim. Calc. Var. (2017)], concerning quasilinear Neumann problems of the type -\Delta_p u = f(u), \quad u>0 \mbox{ in } \Omega, \quad \partial_\nu u = 0 \mbox{ on } \partial\Omega. We suppose that $f(0)=f(1)=0$ and that $f$ is negative between the two zeros and positive after. In case $\Omega$ is a ball, we also require that $f$ grows less than the Sobolev-critical power at infinity. We prove a priori bounds of radial solutions, focusing in particular on solutions which start above 1. As an application, we use the shooting technique to get existence, multiplicity and oscillatory behavior (around 1) of non-constant radial solutions.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figure