A geodesic γ on the unit tangent sphere bundle T1M of a Riemannian manifold (M, g), equipped with the Sasaki metric gS, can be considered as a curve x on M together with a unit vector field V along it. We study the curves x. In particular, we investigate for which manifolds (M, g) all these curves have constant first curvature κ1 or have vanishing curvature κi for some i = 1, 2 or 3.

We consider a general class of degenerate elliptic-parabolic problems associated with the equation b(υ)t = div a(υ, Dυ) + f. Existence of renormalized solutions is established for general L1 data. Uniqueness of renormalized solutions has already been shown in a previous work.

We consider the coupled Schrödinger–Korteweg–de Vries system which arises in various physical contexts as a model for the interaction of long and short nonlinear waves. Ground states of the system are, by definition, minimizers of the energy functional subject to constraints on conserved functionals associated with symmetries of the system. In particular, ground states have a simple time dependence because they propagate via those symmetries. For a range of values of the parameters α, β, γ, δi, ci, we prove the existence and stability of a two-parameter family of ground states associated with a two-parameter family of symmetries.

We consider the problem Δu = λf(u) in Ω, u(x) tends to +∞ as x approaches ∂Ω. Here, Ω is a bounded smooth domain in RN, N ≥ 1 and λ is a positive parameter. In this paper, we are interested in analysing the role of the sign changes of the function f in the number of solutions of this problem. As a consequence of our main result, we find that if Ω is star-shaped and f behaves like f(u) = u(u−a)(u−1) with ½ < a < 1, then there is a solution bigger than 1 for all λ and there exists λ0 > 0 such that, for λ < λ0, there is no positive solution that crosses 1 and, for λ > λ0, at least two solutions that cross 1. The proof is based on a priori estimates, the construction of barriers and topological-degree arguments.

We present several new inequalities for Euler's beta function, B(x, y). One of our results states that the beta function can be approximated on (0, 1] × (0, 1] by rational functions as follows, with the best possible constants α = 1 and β = ⅔π2 − 4 = 2.579 73 ….

We consider the homogenization of parabolic systems with Dirichlet boundary conditions when the operators and the domains in which the problems are posed vary simultaneously. We assume the operators do not depend on t. Then we show that the corrector obtained in a previous paper for the elliptic problem still gives a corrector for the parabolic one. From this result, we easily obtain the limit problem in the parabolic case.

The present paper describes the topological and ergodic structure of the set of bounded trajectories of the flow defined by a scalar convex differential equation. We characterize the minimal subsets, the ergodic measures concentrated on them, and study the longtime behaviour of the bounded trajectories in terms of the Lyapunov exponents of the linearized equations. In particular, we obtain conditions that guarantee the existence of almost-periodic, almost-automorphic and recurrent solutions.

We derive Povzner–Wienholtz-type self-adjointness results for m × m matrix-valued Sturm–Liouville operators in L2((a, b);R dx)m, m ∈ N, for (a, b) a half-line or R.

We define a functional version of the Fučik spectrum for the Laplacian and we prove that this functional spectrum has empty interior.

The purpose of this paper is to study the stability of some unilateral free-discontinuity problems in two-dimensional domains, with the density of the volume part having p-growth, with 1 < p < ∞, under perturbations of the discontinuity sets in the Hausdorff metric.

We address the problem of parallelizability and stable parallelizability of a family of manifolds that are obtained as quotients of circle actions on complex Stiefel manifolds. We settle the question in all cases but one, and obtain in the remaining case a partial result.

This article represents another step in our programme of obtaining a Galois theory and a coGalois theory when we have a category C and a given enveloping (for Galois) or covering (for coGalois) class. More precisely, in this paper, we study what should be understood by a conormal morphism between two objects of a given category and we characterize conormal morphisms between finite abelian groups when the covering class under consideration is that of torsion-free abelian groups.

This paper is devoted to the proof of the well posedness of a class of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The vector field depends on the solution to a scalar conservation law. Forward uniqueness of Filippov solutions is obtained, as well as their Hölder continuous dependence on the initial data of the ODE. Furthermore, we prove the continuous dependence in C0 of the solution to the ODE from the initial data of the conservation law in L1.

This problem is motivated by a model of traffic flow.

For linear systems with a multi-symplectic structure, arising from the linearization of Hamiltonian partial differential equations about a solitary wave, the Evans function can be characterized as the determinant of a matrix, and each entry of this matrix is a restricted symplectic form. This variant of the Evans function is useful for a geometric analysis of the linear stability problem. But, in general, this matrix of two-forms may have branch points at isolated points, shrinking the natural region of analyticity. In this paper, a new construction of the symplectic Evans matrix is presented, which is based on individual vectors but is analytic at the branch points—indeed, maximally analytic. In fact, this result has greater generality than just the symplectic case; it solves the following open problem in the literature: can the Evans function be constructed in a maximally analytic way when individual vectors are used? Although the non-symplectic case will be discussed in passing, the paper will concentrate on the symplectic case, where there are geometric reasons for evaluating the Evans function on individual vectors. This result simplifies and generalizes the multi-symplectic framework for the stability analysis of solitary waves, and some of the implications are discussed.

We investigate equilibrium configurations for a polymer-stabilized liquid-crystal material subject to an applied magnetic field. The configurations are determined by energy minimization, where the energies of the system include those of bulk, surface and external field. The Euler–Lagrange equation is a nonlinear partial differential equation with nonlinear boundary conditions defined on a perforated domain modelling the cross-section of the liquid-crystal–polymer-fibre composite. We analyse the critical values for the external magnetic field representing Fredericks transitions and describe the equilibrium configurations under any magnitude of the external field. We also discuss the limit of the critical values and configurations as the number of polymer fibres approaches infinity. In the case where, away from the boundary of the composite, the fibres are part of a periodic array, we prove that non-constant configurations develop order-one oscillations on the scale of the array's period. Furthermore, we determine the small-scale structure of the configurations as the period tends to zero.

We prove partial regularity for local minimizers of quasiconvex integrals of the form I(v) = ∫ΩF(Dv(x))dx, where the integrand f(ξ) has sub-quadratic growth, i.e. |F(ξ)| ≤ L(1 + |ξ|p), with 1 < p < 2. A function u ∈ W1,p(Ω;RN) is a W1,q(Ω;RN) local minimizer of I(v) if there exists a δ > 0 such that I(u) ≤ I(v) whenever v and ‖Dv − Du‖q ≤ δ.

We study the behaviour of non-convex functionals singularly perturbed by a possibly oscillating inhomogeneous gradient term, in the spirit of the gradient theory of phase transitions. We show that a limit problem giving a sharp interface, as the perturbation vanishes, always exists, but may be inhomogeneous or anisotropic. We specialize this study when the perturbation oscillates periodically, highlighting three types of regimes, depending on the frequency of the oscillations. In the two extreme cases, a separation of scales effect is described.

We show that, if f : M2×2 → R is rank-one convex on the hyperboloid is the set of 2 × 2 real symmetric matrices, then f can be approximated by quasi-convex functions on M2×2 uniformly on compact subsets of . Equivalently, every gradient Young measure supported on a compact subset of is a laminate.

We examine the problem of extending, in a natural way, order-preserving maps that are defined on the interior of a closed cone K1 (taking values in another closed cone K2) to the whole of K1.

We give conditions, in considerable generality (for cones in both finite- and infinite-dimensional spaces), under which a natural extension exists and is continuous. We also give weaker conditions under which the extension is upper semi-continuous.

Maps f defined on the interior of the non-negative cone K in RN, which are both homogeneous of degree 1 and order preserving, are non-expanding in the Thompson metric, and hence continuous. As a corollary of our main results, we deduce that all such maps have a homogeneous order-preserving continuous extension to the whole cone. It follows that such an extension must have at least one eigenvector in K – {0}. In the case where the cycle time χ(f) of the original map does not exist, such eigenvectors must lie in ∂K – {0}.

We conclude with some discussions and applications to operator-valued means. We also extend our results to an ‘intermediate’ situation, which arises in some important application areas, particularly in the construction of diffusions on certain fractals via maps defined on the interior of cones of Dirichlet forms.