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

Strong competition versus fractional diffusion: the case of Lotka-Volterra interaction

We consider a system of differential equations with nonlinear Steklov boundary conditions, related to the fractional problem $$(-\Delta)^s u_i = f_i(x,u_i) - \beta u_i^p \sum_{j\neq i} a_{ij} u_j^p,$$ where $i = i,\dots, k$, $s\in(0,1)$, $p>0$, $a_{ij}>0$ and $\beta>0$. When $k=2$ we develop a quasi-optimal regularity theory in $C^{0,\alpha}$, uniformly w.r.t. $\beta$, for every $\alpha < \alpha_{\mathrm opt}=min(1,2s)$; moreover we show that the traces of the limiting profiles as $\beta\to+\infty$ are Lipschitz continuous and segregated. Such results are extended to the case of $k\geq3$ densities, with some restrictions on $s$, $p$ and $a_{ij}$

Fractional diffusion with Neumann boundary conditions: the logistic equation

Motivated by experimental studies on the anomalous diffusion of biological populations, we introduce a nonlocal differential operator which can be interpreted as the spectral square root of the Laplacian in bounded domains with Neumann homogeneous boundary conditions. Moreover, we study related linear and nonlinear problems exploiting a local realization of such operator as performed in [X. Cabre' and J. Tan. Positive solutions of nonlinear problems involving the square root of the Laplacian. Adv. Math. 2010] for Dirichlet homogeneous data. In particular we tackle a class of nonautonomous nonlinearities of logistic type, proving some existence and uniqueness results for positive solutions by means of variational methods and bifurcation theory.Comment: 36 pages, 1 figur

Stable solitary waves with prescribed L2L^2-mass for the cubic Schr\"odinger system with trapping potentials

For the cubic Schr\"odinger system with trapping potentials in $\mathbb{R}^N$, $N\leq3$, or in bounded domains, we investigate the existence and the orbital stability of standing waves having components with prescribed $L^2$-mass. We provide a variational characterization of such solutions, which gives information on the stability through of a condition of Grillakis-Shatah-Strauss type. As an application, we show existence of conditionally orbitally stable solitary waves when: a) the masses are small, for almost every scattering lengths, and b) in the defocusing, weakly interacting case, for any masses.Comment: 29 page