Several energies measuring jump discontinuities of a unit length gradient field are considered and are called defect energies. The main example is a total variation I(φ) of the hessian of a function φ in a domain. It is shown that the distance function is the unique minimiser of I(φ) among all non-negative Lipschitz solutions of the eikonal equation |grad φ| = 1 with zero boundary data, provided that the domain is a two-dimensional convex domain. An example shows that the distance function is not a minimiser of I if the domain is noncovex. This suggests that the selection mechanism by I is different from that in the theory of viscosity solutions in general. It is often conjectured that the minimiser of a defect energy is a distance function if the energy is formally obtained as a singular limit of some variational problem. Our result suggests that this conjecture is very subtle even if it is true.

We consider convolution operators arising in the study of abstract initial boundary value problems. These operators are of the form

where {S(t)}t ≧0 is a C0-semigroup in a Banach space X,, with infinitesimal generator A0,: D(A0), ⊂ X, → X, and K(z): Y → X is a linxear, continuous mapping defined in another Banach space Y., We study the continuity of T between the spaces Lp([0, + ∞), Y), and Lq([0, + ∞), X), 1 ≦ p, q, ≦ + ∞. We give several examples of the applicability of the results to some familiar initial boundary value problems, including both parabolic and hyperbolic cases.

We show that an energy decay ∥u(t)∥2 = O(t−µ) for solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations on ℝn, n ≦ 5, implies a decay of the higher order norms, e.g. ∥Dα u(t)∥2 = O(t−µ −|α|/2) and ∥u(t)|∞ = O(t−µ −n/4).

In this paper, a sufficient condition (H) is given on initial values for which there is a unique smooth global in time solution of the initial value problem for a special nonisentropic gas dynamics system.

We propose here a way to extend to all the 1-set of ℝ2 the well-known affine length which was just defined for a C2 curve. Moreover, this leads us to define the affine dimension of a 1-set which can be used for discriminate rectifiable 1-sets from unrectifiable 1-sets of ℝ2.

In a previous paper, B.-Y. Chen defined a Riemannian invariant δ by subtracting from the scalar curvature at every point of a Riemannian manifold the smallest sectional curvature at that point, and proved, for a submanifold of a real space form, a sharp inequality between δ and the mean curvature function. In this paper, we extend this inequality to totally real submanifolds of a complex space form. As a consequence, we obtain a metric obstruction for a Riemannian manifold Mn to admit a minimal totally real (i.e. Lagrangian) immersion into a complex space form of complex dimension n. Next we investigate three-dimensional submanifolds of the complex projective space ℂP3 which realise the equality in the inequality mentioned above. In particular, we construct and characterise a totally real minimal immersion of S3 in ℂP3.

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.

Let denote a subring of the complex field that contains 1 and is closed under complex conjugation. It is shown that, with respect to the involution induced by word-reversal, the algebra over of a free monoid admits a trace and a separating family of star matrix representations. From the existence of a trace it is deduced that the aforementioned involution is special, in the sense of Easdown and Munn. Similar results hold for the algebra over of a free monoid with involution.

In this paper we study smoothing effects of solutions to the Benjamin–Ono equation

where H is the Hilbcrt transform defined by

We prove that if φ ∈ H2 and (x∂x)4φ then the solution u of(BO) belongs to

, where

We provide an explicit example of a function that is homogeneous of degree one, rank-one convex, but not convex.

The rigorous definition of time-ordered exponentials, solving quantum linear stochastic differential equations, is extended to Boson and Fermion stochastic calculi with infinitely many degrees of freedom. The relation to the classicalmultiplicative stochastic integral, solving the Doleans exponential equation, is discussed.

In this paper the initial value problem for a class of Zakharov equations arising from ion-acoustic modes is discussed. Without assuming the Cauchy data are small, we prove the existence and uniqueness of the global smooth solution for the problem via the so-called continuous method and delicate a priori estimates.

This paper considers the Cauchy problem for hyperbolic conservation laws arising in chromatography:

with bounded measurable initial data, where the relaxation term g(δ, u, v) converges to zero as the parameter δ > 0 tends to zero. We show that a solution of the equilibrium equation

is given by the limit of the solutions of the viscous approximation

of the original system as the dissipation ε and the relaxation δ go to zero related by δ = O(ε). The proof of convergence is obtained by a simplified method of compensated compactness [2], avoiding Young measures by using the weak continuity theorem (3.3) of two by two determinants.

This paper proves the existence of solutions to the spherical piston problem for isentropic gas dynamics with equation of state p(p) = Apγ, γ≧ 1. The method of analysis is to replace the usual viscosity ε with εt, thus permitting a search for self-similar viscous limits. The main result of the paper is that self-similar viscous limits are proved to exist and converge to a solution to the piston problem when

N = 1, 2, 3 space dimensions.

A subsemigroup S of a semigroup Q is a left (right) order in Q if every q ∈ Q can be written as q = a*b(q = ba*) for some a, b ∈S, where a* denotes the inverse of a in a subgroup of Q and if, in addition, every square-cancellable element of S lies in a subgroup of Q. If S is both a left order and a right order in Q, we say that S is an order in Q. We show that if S is a left order in Q and S satisfies a permutation identity xl…xn = x1π…xnπ where 1 < 1π and nπ<n, then S and Q are commutative. We give a characterisation of commutative orders and decide the question of when one semigroup of quotients of a commutative semigroup is a homomorphic image of another. This enables us to show that certain semigroups have maximum and minimum semigroups of quotients. We give examples to show that this is not true in general.

We consider the following problem

where for all ≦f(x,u)≦c1up-1 + c2u for all x ∈ℝN,u≧0 with c1>0,c2∈(0, 1), 2<p<(2N/(N – 2)) if N ≧ 3, 2 ≧ + ∝ if N = 2. We prove that (*) has at least two positive solutions if

and h≩0 in ℝN, where S is the best Sobolev constant and

A method for counting the solutions for Penrose–Fife-type phase field equations is derived. The method used is similar to that developed recently for obtaining a precise count for the number of solutions for the Cahn–Hilliard equation [9], and is based on the derivation of an extended system of Picard–Fuchs equations as well as on estimates obtained in [11]. The Penrose–Fife-type phase field equations represent a thermodynamically consistent model for phase separation of a conserved order parameter (typically concentration) in binary systems in which latent heat effects are important in the phase separation process.

We compute the heat content asymptotics of odd dimensional hemispheres in closed form.