This paper is concerned with the existence of minimizers for functionals having a double-well integrand with affine boundary conditions. Such functionals are related to the so-called Kohn–Strang functional, which arises in optimal shape design problems in electrostatics or elasticity. They are known to be not quasiconvex, and therefore existence of minimizers is, in general, guaranteed only for their quasiconvex envelopes. We generalize the previous results of Allaire and Francfort, and give necessary and sufficient conditions on the affine boundary conditions for existence of minimizers. Our method relies on the computation of the quasiconvexification of these functionals by using homogenization theory. We also prove by a general argument that their rank-one convexifications coincide with their quasiconvexifications.

In this paper we consider ‘slowly’ oscillating perturbations of almost periodic Duffing-like systems, i.e. systems of the form ü = u − (a(t) + α(wt))W′(u), t ∈ ℝ, u ∈ ℝN, where W ∈ C2N(ℝN, ℝ) is superquadratic and a and α are positive and almost periodic. By variational methods, we prove that if w > 0 is small enough, then the system admits a multibump dynamics. As a consequence we get that the system ü = u − a(t)W′(u), t ∈ ℝ, u ∈ ℝN, admits multibump solutions whenever a belongs to an open dense subset of the set of positive almost periodic continuous functions.

A defect energy Jβ, which measures jump discontinuities of a unit length gradient field, is studied. The number β indicates the power of the jumps of the gradient fields that appear in the density of Jβ. It is shown that Jβ for β = 3 is lower semicontinuous (on the space of unit gradient fields belonging to BV) in L1-convergence of gradient fields. A similar result holds for the modified energy , which measures only a particular type of defect. The result turns out to be very subtle, since with β > 3 is not lower semicontinuous, as is shown in this paper. The key idea behind semicontinuity is a duality representation for J3 and . The duality representation is also important for obtaining a lower bound by using J3+ for the relaxation limit of the Ginzburg–Landau type energy for gradient fields. The lower bound obtained here agrees with the conjectured value of the relaxation limit.

We show that no infinite-dimensional Banach space provided with a strictly convex norm satisfies Lindenstrauss's property B. This is a generalization of previous results by Lindenstrauss for rotund spaces isomorphic to C0 and by Gowers for ℓp (1 < p < ∞). Also, there is an appropriate complex version of the announced result that works for all the C-strictly convex spaces. As a consequence, the Hardy space H1, any infinite-dimensional complex L1(μ), and, in general, any infinite-dimensional predual of a von Neumann algebra lacks Lindenstrauss's property B.

Asymptotic formulae for the Titchmarsh—Weyl m-coefficient on rays in the complex λ-plane for the equation − y ″ + qy = λy whenthe potential is limit circle and non-oscillatory at x = 0 are obtained under assumptions slightly more general than xq(x) ∈ L1(0,c). The behaviour of q at the right end-point is arbitrary and may fall in either the limit-point or limit-circle case. A method of regularization of the equation is given that can be made to depend either on a solution of the equation for λ = 0 or more directly on an approximation to the solution in terms of q. This enables equivalent definitions of the m-coefficient to be given for the singular Sturm—Liouville problem associated with a singular limit-circle boundary condition, and its associatedregular Sturm—Liouville problem. As a consequence, it becomes possible to apply asymptotic results obtained by Atkinson for the regular problem in order to give asymptoticresults for the singular problem. Potentials of the form q(x) = C/xj, 1 ≤ j < 2, are included. In the case j = 1, an independent calculation of the limit-point m-coefficient over the range (0,∞), relying on Whittaker functions, verifies the main result.

Let An and Gn (respectively, A′n and G′n) be the weighted arithmetic and geometric means of x1, …, xn (respectively, 1 – x1, …, 1 – xn). We present sharp upper and lower bounds for the differences and . And we determine the best possible constants r and s such that

holds for all xi ∈ [a, b] (i = 1, …, n; 0 < a < b < 1). Our theorems extend and sharpen results of Fan, Cartwright and Field, McGregor and the author.

Let X be a smooth projective curve of genus g ≥ 2. Here we construct stable vector bundles on X equipped with a filtration with suitable numerical properties and with stable graded subquotients.

This work connects the theory of commutators with analytic families of operators in abstract interpolation theory. Our main result asserts that if {Lξ}0≤Reξ≤1 is an analytic family of operators satisfying some conditions, then [Lθ,Ω] +(Lξ)′(θ): Āθ→ Bθ is bounded. From this, we can deduce the boundedness of the commutator .

We prove classical averaging lemmas in the L2 framework with the help of the Fourier transform in variables x and v, but not t. This method is then used to study discretized problems arising out of the numerical analysis of kinetic equations.

We obtain global existence and regularity of strong solutions to the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations for a variety of boundary conditions in such a way that the initial and forcing data can be large in the high-frequency eigenspaces of the Stokes operator. We do not require that the domain be thin as in previous analyses. But in the case of thin domains (and zero Dirichlet boundary conditions) our results represent a further improvement and refinement of previous results obtained.

Two relative compactness results for two-scale convergence in homogenization, due to G. Nguetseng, were recently extended to the multi-scale case by G. Allaire and M. Briane. Whereas their extension of Nguetseng's first result, which is in L2, is straightforward, their extension of his second result, which takes place in the Sobolev space H1, is quite complicated, even though it follows Nguetseng by using the fact that the image of H1 under the gradient mapping is the orthogonal complement of the set of divergence-free functions. Here a much simpler proof is provided by deriving the H1-type result from combining the first extension result with the fact that the above-mentioned image space is also the space of all rotation-free fields. Moreover, this approach reveals that the two results can be seen as corollaries of a fundamental relative compactness result for Young measures.

We introduce the concept of an elementary operator between two algebras, and thereby extend the study of operators of the form

where ai, bi are fixed elements in an algebra. Elementary operators on some classes of algebras are considered and their general form is described in some special cases.

Presented herein is a new method for analysing the long-time behaviour of solutions of nonlinear, dispersive, dissipative wave equations. The method is applied to the generalized Korteweg–de Vries equation posed on the entire real axis, with a homogeneous dissipative mechanism included. Solutions of such equations that commence with finite energy decay to zero as time becomes unboundedly large. In circumstances to be spelled out presently, we establish the existence of a universal asymptotic structure that governs the final stages of decay of solutions. The method entails a splitting of Fourier modes into long and short wavelengths which permits the exploitation of the Hamiltonian structure of the equation obtained by ignoring dissipation. We also develop a helpful enhancement of Schwartz's inequality. This approach applies particularly well to cases where the damping increases in strength sublinearly with wavenumber. Thus the present theory complements earlier work using centre-manifold and group-renormalization ideas to tackle the situation wherein the nonlinearity is quasilinear with regard to the dissipative mechanism.

Solutions with peaks near the critical points of Q(x) are constructed for the problem

We establish the existence of 2k −1 positive solutions when Q(x) has k non-degenerate critical points in ℝN

The purpose of this paper is to establish a Lusin-type approximation of functions with bounded deformation by Lipschitz or C1 functions. The main ingredients inthe proof of our result are the maximal function of the measure Eu, the ‘Poincaré-type’ result by Kohn and the approximate symmetric differentiability of BD functions by Ambrosio and others.

For certain classes of groups, it is shown that there are restrictions on the type of action a group in the class can have on a Λ-tree, where Λ is an arbitrary ordered abelian group, generalizing results by other authors in the case Λ = ℝ. The main classes considered are locally nilpotent, polycyclic by finite, locally (polycyclic by finite) and locally (hyperabelian by finite). The arguments involve an investigation of the relation between the type of action a group has on a Λ-tree and the type of action of its subgroups by restriction.

Local models are given for the singularities that can appear on the trajectories ofgeneral motions of the plane with more than two degrees of freedom. Versal unfoldings of these model singularities give rise to computer-generated pictures describing the family of trajectories arising from small deformations of the tracing point, and determine the local structure of the bifurcation curves.

We show that shooting methods for homoclinic or heteroclinic orbits in dynamical systems may automatically guarantee the topological transversality of the stable and unstable manifolds. The interest of such results is twofold. First, these orbits persist under perturbations which destroy the structure allowing the shooting method and, second, topological transversality is often sufficient when some kind of transversality is required to obtain chaotic dynamics. We shall focus on heteroclinic solutions in the extended Fisher–Kolmogorov equation.

If a Sturm—Liouville problem is given in an open interval of the real line, then regular boundary value problems can be considered on compact sub-intervals. For these regular problems, all with necessarily discrete spectra, the eigenvalues depend on both the end-points of the compact intervals, and upon the choice of the real separated boundary conditions at these end-points. These eigenvalues are not, in general, continuous functionsof the end-points and boundary conditions. The paper shows the surprising form of these discontinuities. The results have applications to the approximations of singular Sturm—Liouville problems by regular problems, and to the theoretical aspects of the Sleign2 Computer program.

In this paper, we consider the existence of multiple solutions of biharmonic equations boundary value problem

where Ω is a bounded smooth domain in ℝN, N ≥ 5; λ ∈ ℝ1 is a given constant; p = 2N/(N − 4) is the critical Sobolev exponent for the embedding ; Δ2 = ΔΔ denotes iterated N-dimensional Laplacian; f(x) is a given function. Some results on the existence and non-existence of multiple solutions for the above problem have been obtained by Ekeland's variational principle and the mountain-pass lemma under some assumptions on f(x) and N.