Asymptotic behaviour of large solutions of quasilinear elliptic problems

The paper deals with the large solutions of the problems $\triangle u=u^p$ and $\triangle u= e^u.$ They blow up at the boundary. It is well-known that the first term in their asymptotic behaviour near the boundary is independent of the geometry of the boundary. We determine the second term which depends on the mean curvature of the nearest point on the boundary. The computation is based on suitable upper and lower solutions and on estimates given in [4]. In the last section these estimates are used together with the P-function to establish the asymptotic behaviour of the gradient

Blow-up behavior of collocation solutions to Hammerstein-type volterra integral equations

We analyze the blow-up behavior of one-parameter collocation solutions for Hammerstein-type Volterra integral equations (VIEs) whose solutions may blow up in finite time. To approximate such solutions (and the corresponding blow-up time), we will introduce an adaptive stepsize strategy that guarantees the existence of collocation solutions whose blow-up behavior is the same as the one for the exact solution. Based on the local convergence of the collocation methods for VIEs, we present the convergence analysis for the numerical blow-up time. Numerical experiments illustrate the analysis

On the stability of solutions of semilinear elliptic equations with Robin boundary conditions on Riemannian manifolds

We investigate existence and nonexistence of stationary stable nonconstant solutions, i.e. patterns, of semilinear parabolic problems in bounded domains of Riemannian manifolds satisfying Robin boundary conditions. These problems arise in several models in applications, in particular in Mathematical Biology. We point out the role both of the nonlinearity and of geometric objects such as the Ricci curvature of the manifold, the second fundamental form of the boundary of the domain and its mean curvature. Special attention is devoted to surfaces of revolution and to spherically symmetric manifolds, where we prove refined results

Quenching and Propagation of Combustion Without Ignition Temperature Cutoff

We study a reaction-diffusion equation in the cylinder $\Omega = \mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{T}^m$, with combustion-type reaction term without ignition temperature cutoff, and in the presence of a periodic flow. We show that if the reaction function decays as a power of $T$ larger than three as $T\to 0$ and the initial datum is small, then the flame is extinguished -- the solution quenches. If, on the other hand, the power of decay is smaller than three or initial datum is large, then quenching does not happen, and the burning region spreads linearly in time. This extends results of Aronson-Weinberger for the no-flow case. We also consider shear flows with large amplitude and show that if the reaction power-law decay is larger than three and the flow has only small plateaux (connected domains where it is constant), then any compactly supported initial datum is quenched when the flow amplitude is large enough (which is not true if the power is smaller than three or in the presence of a large plateau). This extends results of Constantin-Kiselev-Ryzhik for combustion with ignition temperature cutoff. Our work carries over to the case $\Omega = \mathbb{R}^n\times\mathbb{T}^m$, when the critical power is $1 + 2/n$, as well as to certain non-periodic flows

Maximizing Neumann fundamental tones of triangles

We prove sharp isoperimetric inequalities for Neumann eigenvalues of the Laplacian on triangular domains. The first nonzero Neumann eigenvalue is shown to be maximal for the equilateral triangle among all triangles of given perimeter, and hence among all triangles of given area. Similar results are proved for the harmonic and arithmetic means of the first two nonzero eigenvalues

On Uniqueness of Boundary Blow-up Solutions of a Class of Nonlinear Elliptic Equations

We study boundary blow-up solutions of semilinear elliptic equations $Lu=u_+^p$ with $p>1$, or $Lu=e^{au}$ with $a>0$, where $L$ is a second order elliptic operator with measurable coefficients. Several uniqueness theorems and an existence theorem are obtained.Comment: To appear in Comm. Partial Differential Equations; 10 page

Positive solutions to indefinite Neumann problems when the weight has positive average

We deal with positive solutions for the Neumann boundary value problem associated with the scalar second order ODE $$u" + q(t)g(u) = 0, \quad t \in [0, T],$$ where $g: [0, +\infty[\, \to \mathbb{R}$ is positive on $\,]0, +\infty[\,$ and $q(t)$ is an indefinite weight. Complementary to previous investigations in the case $\int_0^T q(t) < 0$, we provide existence results for a suitable class of weights having (small) positive mean, when $g'(x) < 0$ at infinity. Our proof relies on a shooting argument for a suitable equivalent planar system of the type $$x' = y, \qquad y' = h(x)y^2 + q(t),$$ with $h(x)$ a continuous function defined on the whole real line.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure

A particle system with explosions: law of large numbers for the density of particles and the blow-up time

Consider a system of independent random walks in the discrete torus with creation-annihilation of particles and possible explosion of the total number of particles in finite time. Rescaling space and rates for diffusion/creation/annihilation of particles, we obtain a stong law of large numbers for the density of particles in the supremum norm. The limiting object is a classical solution to the semilinear heat equation u_t =u_{xx} + f(u). If f(u)=u^p, 1<p \le 3, we also obtain a law of large numbers for the explosion time

Sums of magnetic eigenvalues are maximal on rotationally symmetric domains

The sum of the first n energy levels of the planar Laplacian with constant magnetic field of given total flux is shown to be maximal among triangles for the equilateral triangle, under normalization of the ratio (moment of inertia)/(area)^3 on the domain. The result holds for both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions, with an analogue for Robin (or de Gennes) boundary conditions too. The square similarly maximizes the eigenvalue sum among parallelograms, and the disk maximizes among ellipses. More generally, a domain with rotational symmetry will maximize the magnetic eigenvalue sum among all linear images of that domain. These results are new even for the ground state energy (n=1).Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur

The hybrid spectral problem and Robin boundary conditions

The hybrid spectral problem where the field satisfies Dirichlet conditions (D) on part of the boundary of the relevant domain and Neumann (N) on the remainder is discussed in simple terms. A conjecture for the C_1 coefficient is presented and the conformal determinant on a 2-disc, where the D and N regions are semi-circles, is derived. Comments on higher coefficients are made. A hemisphere hybrid problem is introduced that involves Robin boundary conditions and leads to logarithmic terms in the heat--kernel expansion which are evaluated explicitly.Comment: 24 pages. Typos and a few factors corrected. Minor comments added. Substantial Robin additions. Substantial revisio