We study weak solutions for a class of free-boundary problems which includes as a special case the classical problem of travelling gravity waves on water of finite depth. We show that such problems are equivalent to problems in fixed domains and study the regularity of their solutions. We also prove that in very general situations the free boundary is necessarily the graph of a function.

We study the periodic and Neumann boundary-value problems associated with the second-order nonlinear differential equation

where is a sublinear function at infinity having superlinear growth at zero. We prove the existence of two positive solutions when

and λ > 0 is sufficiently large. Our approach is based on Mawhin's coincidence degree theory and index computations.

It is proposed to investigate the various ways in which it is possible to divide the plane into congruent triangles, and space of three dimensions into congruent tetrahedra. The method of inquiry will not at first reveal any distinction between elliptic, euclidean, and hyperbolic space; networks in all three spaces will be obtained concurrently, and they must be tested afterwards to determine the type of space to which they belong. In the first part we shall deal with the plane, and in the second part with space of three dimensions.

In this paper we characterise the levels of the functional (0.3) at which the Palais-Smale condition fails in the Sobolev space V(Ω) defined below. From this result we deduce an existence theorem for positive solutions to the mixed boundary problem (0.1)–(0.2) under geometrical assumptions on the domain Ω and the part of the boundary of Ω where a Neumann condition is prescribed.

Quasi-differential expressions with matrix-valued coefficients, which generalize those of Shin and Zettl, are considered with regard to equivalence, adjoints and symmetry. The characterization results imply that in the scalar case the class of quasi-differential expressions considered here coincides with that of Shin and is equivalent to that of Zettl. Furthermore polynomials in quasi-differential expressions are defined as expressions of the same kind and shown to coincide with the usual ones. Finally it is indicated that the known general results for the deficiency indices carry over to quasi-differential expressions.

We consider the initial boundary value problem for the equations of one-dimensional nonlinear thermoelasticity in ℝ+; and prove a global existence-uniqueness theorem for small smooth data. The asymptotic behaviour is simultaneously obtained.

This article is concerned with eigenvalue problems of the form Au = λTu in a Hilbert space H, where Ais a selfadjoint positive operator generated by a second-order Sturm-Liouville differential expression and T a selfadjoint indefinite multiplicative operator which is one-to-one. Emphasis is on the full-range and partial-range expansionproperties of the eigenfunctions.

A 3 × 3 autonomous, non-linear system of ordinary differential equations modelling the immune response in animals to invasion by active self-replicating antigens has been introduced by G. I. Bell and studied by G. H. Pimbley Jr. Using Hopf's theorem on bifurcating periodic solutions and a stability criterion of Hsu and Kazarinoff, we obtain existence of a family of unstable periodic solutions bifurcating from one steady state of a reduced 2×2 form of the 3×3 system. We show that no periodic solutions bifurcate from the other steady state. We also prove existence and exhibit a stability criterion for families of periodic solutions of the full 3×3 system. We provide two numerical examples. The second shows existence of orbitally stable families of periodic solutions of the 3×3 system.

In this paper we employ some new ideas and more delicate estimates, as well as some ideas from previous works, to establish the existence of universal attractors for a nonlinear one-dimensional heat-conductive viscous real gas in the bounded domain Ω = (0,1).

There is a large catalogue of decompositions of conditioned superprocesses in terms of an ‘immortal backbone’ or ‘skeleton’ along the branches of which mass is constantly immigrated. We add to this with a study of the (infinite-variance) (1 + β)-superprocess, conditioned on survival until some fixed time T. As one would expect, we see a Poisson number of immortal trees (conditioned on there being at least one), along which mass (conditioned to die before time T) is immigrated. However, here we see a new source of immigration. Not only is mass immigrated along the branches of the immortal trees, but also there is an extra burst of immigration whenever the immortal tree branches. Moreover, the rate of immigration along the branches is no longer deterministic. In the limit as T → ∞, the immortal trees degenerate to the Evans immortal particle and the immigration (of unconditioned mass) along the particle is dictated by a stable subordinator.

As in an earlier paper by the author, three cardinal numbers, the shift, the defect and the collapse, are associated with each element of the full transformation semigroup ℑ(X), where X is an infinite set. It is shown that the elements of finite shift and non-zero defect form a subsemigroup F of ℑ(X). Moreover, if E(F) denotes the set of idempotents in F then 〈E(F)〉 = F, but (E(F))n ⊂F for every finite n. For each infinite cardinal m not exceeding ∣X∣ the set Qm of balanced elements of weight m, i.e. those with shift, defect and collapse all equal to m, forms a subsemigroup of ℑ(X). Moreover, (E(Qm))4=Qm,(E(Qm))3⊂Qm.

This paper is concerned with the travelling waves for a class of non-local dispersal non-cooperative system, which can model the prey-predator and disease-transmission mechanism. By the Schauder's fixed-point theorem, we first establish the existence of travelling waves connecting the semi-trivial equilibrium to non-trivial leftover concentrations, whose bounds are deduced from a precise analysis. Further, we characterize the minimal wave speed of travelling waves and obtain the non-existence of travelling waves with slow speed. Finally, we apply the general results to an epidemic model with bilinear incidence for its propagation dynamics.

Given an algebraic curve in the complex affine plane, we describe how to determine all planar polynomial vector fields which leave this curve invariant. If all (finite) singular points of the curve are non-degenerate, we give an explicit expression for these vector fields. In the general setting we provide an algorithmic approach, and as an alternative we discuss sigma processes.

Integral transformations T of the formal form

where G is a Meijer-G function are studied on the spaces ℐμ,r of functions f such that

Results are obtained on the boundedness, representation and range of the transformations, and on when they have an inverse of the same formal form.

The paper is concerned with the distributional properties of Markoff chains in two and three dimensions where the transition probability for the length of a step and its orientation relative to that of the previous step is specified.

The discrete two-dimensional chain of n steps is first discussed, and by the use of moving axes an equation relating characteristic functions of the end-point distribution for successive values of n is obtained. The corresponding differential equation for the limiting chain with continuous first derivatives is given and asymptotic solutions for long chains are found.

The three-dimensional chain is similarly treated in terms of moving axes, and the limiting continuous chain is again discussed. Finally the same methods are applied to the discrete chain of equal steps to obtain the asymptotic form of the end-point distribution for long chains.

Regular Sturm–Liouville problems with indefinite weight functions may possess finitely many non-real eigenvalues. In this paper we prove explicit bounds on the real and imaginary parts of these eigenvalues in terms of the coefficients of the differential expression.

This paper deals with the blow-up of solutions to a class of parabolic problems with time-dependent coefficients under homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions. For one set of problems in this class we show that no global solution can exist. For another we derive lower bounds for the time of blow-up when blow-up occurs.

The characteristic numbers of the Mathieu equation

are those values of a for which, when q is given, the equation admits of a solution of period π or 2π. The periodic solutions, or Mathieu functions, may be developed as a Fourier-series convergent for all values of q,

multiplied by one or other of the factors

We study the existence and asymptotic behaviour of positive solutions of a semilinear elliptic equation in entire space. A special case of this equation is the scalar curvature equation which arises in Riemannian geometry.

We study the monotonicity for certain combinations of generalized elliptic integrals, thus generalizing analogous well-known results for classical complete elliptic integrals, and prove a conjecture put forward by Heikkala, Vamanamurthy and Vuorinen.