In this paper, we consider the problem of the existence of a spacelike closed geodesic on compact Lorentzian manifolds. Tipler and Galloway proved that, under suitable topological properties of the manifold, there exists a closed timelike geodesic. In their proofs, they use the hypothesis that the time coordinate of one timelike geodesic has derivative always different from zero. This clearly fails for spacelike geodesies. Using variational methods and applying the relative category theory, we prove the existence of a closed spacelike geodesic on a compact manifold of splitting type. Observe that, thanks to the previous results, the existence of at least two geometrically distinct closed geodesies on follows.

In this paper we study the Cauchy problem in Rn of general parabolic equations which take the form ut = Δum + ts|x|σup with non-negative initial value. Here s ≧ 0, m > (n − 2)+/n, p > max (1, m) and σ > − 1 if n = 1 or σ > − 2 if n ≧ 2. We prove, among other things, that for p ≦ pc, where pc ≡ m + s(m − 1) + (2 + 2s + σ)/n > 1, every nontrivial solution blows up in finite time. But for p > pc a positive global solution exists.

Assume that the local compliance tensor of an elastic composite in two space dimensions is equal to a rank-one tensor plus a null-Lagrangian (there is only one symmetric one in two dimensions). The purpose of this paper is to prove that the effective compliance tensor has the same representation: rank-one plus the null-Lagrangian. This statement generalises the wellknown result of Hill that a composite of isotropic phases with a common shear modulus is necessarily elastically isotropic and shares the same shear modulus. It also generalises the surprising discovery of Avellaneda et al. that under a certain condition on the pure crystal moduli the shear modulus of an isotropic polycrystal is uniquely determined. The present paper sheds light on this effect by placing it in a more general framework and using some elliptic PDE theory rather than the translation method. Our results allow us to calculate the polycrystalline G-closure of the special class of crystals under consideration. Our analysis is contrasted with a two-dimensional model problem for shape-memory polycrystals. We show that the two problems can be thought of as ‘elastic percolation’ problems, one elliptic, one hyperbolic.

We investigate different types of periodic solutions of a fourth-order, nonlinear differential equation, which has been proposed as a model for travelling waves in suspension bridges. We develop a shooting argument, which enables us to prove the existence of two families of multibump periodic solutions, each containing a countably infinite number of different solutions

We study the behaviour of the non-negative blowing up solutions to the quasilinear parabolic equation with a typical reaction–diffusion right-hand side and with a singularity in the space variable which takes the form

where m ≧ 1, p > 1 are arbitrary constants, in the critical exponent case q = (p–1)/m > 0. We impose zero Dirichlet boundary conditions at the singular point x = 0 and at x = 1, and take large initial data. For a class of ‘concave’ initial functions, we prove focusing at the origin of the solutions as t approaches the blow-up time T in the sense that x = 0 belongs to the blow-up set. The proof is based on an application of the intersection comparison method with an explicit ‘separable’ solution which has the same blow-up time as u. The method has a natural generalisation to the case of more general nonlinearities in the equation. A description of different fine structures of blow-up patterns in the semilinear case m = 1 and in the quasilinear one m > 1 is also presented. A numerical study of the semilinear equation is also made using an adaptive collocation method. This is shown to give very close agreement with the fine structure predicted and allows us to make some conjectures about the general behaviour.

In this paper we prove nonexistence of positive C2 solutions for systems of semilinear elliptic inequalities, for polyharmonic semilinear inequalities in cones and, under better conditions on the nonlinearity, for bounded positive solutions of elliptic semilinear equations in half spaces. Using a blow-up argument, these results allow us to prove a-priori bounds for a class of semilinear elliptic systems of equations in bounded domains.

Given a certain family ℱ of positive Borel measures and γ ∈ [0, 1), we define a general onesided maximal operator and we study weighted inequalities in Lp,q spaces for these operators. Our results contain, as particular cases, the characterisation of weighted Lorentz norm inequalities for some well-known one-sided maximal operators such as the one-sided Hardy–Littlewood maximal operator associated with a general measure , the one-sided fractional maximal operator and the maximal operator associated with the Cesèro-α averages.

We study affine invariants of space curves from the viewpoint of singularity theory of smooth functions. With the aid of singularity theory, we define a new equi-affine frame for space curves. We also introduce two surfaces associated with this equi-affine frame and give a generic classification of the singularities of those surfaces.

We answer questions of A. Carbery, M. Trinidad Menárguez and F. Soria by proving, firstly, that for the centred Hardy–Littlewood maximal function on the real line, the best constant C for the weak type (1, 1) inequality is strictly larger than 3/2, and secondly, that C is strictly less than 2 (known to be the best constant in the noncentred case).

The Hartman–Wintner problem on asymptotic equivalence of fundamental systems of solutions (FSSs) for two Sturm–Liouville equations is studied. The following results are obtained: a criterion of asymptotic equivalence of FSSs, and sufficient conditions of asymptotic equivalence of FSSs which are expressed in terms of the coefficients of the considered equations only.

We propose a generalisation of the Mullins–Sekerka problem to model phase separation in multi-component systems. The model includes equilibrium equations in bulk, the Gibbs–Thomson relation on the interfaces, Young's law at triple junctions, together with a dynamic law of Stefan type. Using formal asymptotic expansions, we establish the relationship to a transition layer model known as the Cahn-Hilliard system. We introduce a notion of weak solutions for this sharp interface model based on integration by parts on manifolds, together with measure theoretical tools. Through an implicit time discretisation, we construct approximate solutions by stepwise minimisation. Under the assumption that there is no loss of area as the time step tends to zero, we show the existence of a weak solution.

We study the Neumann Laplacian in unbounded regions of the form Ω = {(t, x) | t >O,f(t)−1x ∊ Ω′}, where Ω′ ⊂ ℝn−1 is a bounded open set with the Lipschitz boundary and f decays in such a way that the spectrum of is discrete but the counting function N(λ, ) of the spectrum grows faster than a power of λ, a typical example being f(t) = exp (– t In … In t), for t ≧ t0. We compute the principal term of the asymptotics of N(λ, ), with a remainder estimate.

In this paper we study the asymptotic behaviour of the solution for a nonconvex relaxation model. The time decay rates in both the exponential and algebraic forms of the travelling wave solutions are shown by the weighted energy method. Our results develop and improve the stability theory in [8,9].

In this paper, we study the following Ginzburg–Landau functional:

where (G, C), and p is a smooth bounded and non-negative map, having minima on the boundary of Ḡ. We give the location of the singularities in the case where the degree around each singularity is equal to 1.

We prove some new results which justify the use of interval truncation as a means of regularising a singular fourth-order Sturm–Liouville problem near a singular endpoint. Of particular interest are the results in the so-called lim-3 case, which has no analogue in second-order singular problems.

The purpose of this paper is to give a compactness-continuity result for the solution of a nonlinear Dirichlet problem in terms of its domain variation. The topology in the family of domains is given by the Hausdorff metric and continuity is obtained under capacity conditions. A generalisation of Sverak's result in iV-dimensions is deduced as a particular case.

Uniqueness of positive solutions of the following equation:

has been obtained, where B ⊂ ℝn is the ball of unit radius and λ > 0. Moreover, if n = 2, then the solutions are nondegenerate.