We discuss the combined semi-classical and relaxation limit of a one-dimensional isentropic quantum hydrodynamical model for semiconductors. The quantum hydrodynamic equations consist of the isentropic Euler equations for the particle density and current density, including the quantum potential and a momentum relaxation term. The momentum equation is highly nonlinear and contains a dispersive term with third-order derivatives. The equations are self-consistently coupled to the Poisson equation for the electrostatic potential. With the help of the Maxwell-type iteration, we prove that, as the relaxation time and Planck constant tend to zero, periodic initial-value problems of a scaled one-dimensional isentropic quantum hydrodynamic model have unique smooth solutions existing in the time interval where the classical drift-diffusion model has smooth solutions. Meanwhile, we justify a formal derivation of the classical drift-diffusion model from the quantum hydrodynamic model.

We characterize the boundedness of the Hardy operator between weighted amalgams, a problem studied, but not completely solved, by C. Carton-Lebrun, H. P. Heinig and S. C. Hofmann. We also characterize the weighted weak-type inequalities for modified Hardy operators on amalgams.

A version of the Darboux transformation is explored for Sturm-Liouville problems with eigenvalue-dependent boundary conditions, from differential-equation and operator-theoretic viewpoints. Some of the literature on Darboux's transformation is related in a historical introduction.

In feedback stabilization studies, a control scheme is designed so that the ‘state’ of the system decays with a designated rate as t → ∞. Thus, any linear functional of the state also decays with at least the same decay rate. We study a class of linear parabolic systems, and show the existence of a feedback control scheme with a specific property such that some non-trivial linear functionals decay faster than the state. In constructing the control scheme, we also solve the new problem of an arbitrary allocation of the eigenvalues of some coefficient matrix which is subject to constraint, and give the necessary and sufficient condition in terms of controllability and observabililty assumptions. This is an essential extension of the celebrated 1967 theory of pole allocation by W. M. Wonham.

This paper is devoted to the study of Nicholson's blowflies equation with diffusion: a kind of time-delayed reaction diffusion. For any travelling wavefront with speed c > c* (c* is the minimum wave speed), we prove that the wavefront is time-asymptotically stable when the delay-time is sufficiently small, and the initial perturbation around the wavefront decays to zero exponentially in space as x → −∞, but it can be large in other locations. The result develops and improves the previous wave stability obtained by Mei et al. in 2004. The new approach developed in this paper is the comparison principle combined with the technical weighted-energy method. Numerical simulations are also carried out to confirm our theoretical results.

For a measure μ on ℝn (or on a doubling metric measure space) and a Young function Φ, we define two versions of Orlicz–Poincaré inequalities as generalizations of the usual p-Poincaré inequality. It is shown that, on ℝ, one of them is equivalent to the boundedness of the Hardy–Littlewood maximal operator from LΦ(ℝ,μ) to LΦ(ℝ,μ), while the other is equivalent to a generalization of the Muckenhoupt Ap-condition. While one direction in these equivalences is valid only on ℝ, the other holds in the general setting of doubling metric measure spaces. We also characterize both Orlicz–Poincaré inequalities on metric measure spaces by means of pointwise inequalities involving maximal functions of the gradient.

Following a method by Meldrum and van der Walt, near-rings of matrix maps are defined for general near-rings, not necessarily with identity. The influence of one-sided identities is discussed. When the base near-ring is integral and planar, the near-ring of matrix maps is shown to be simple. Various types of primitivity of the near-ring of matrix maps are discussed when the base near-ring is planar but not integral. Finally, an open problem concerning bijective matrix maps is solved.

We study positive solutions to the porous media equation of degenerate logistic type −Δu = a(x)u1/m – b(x)f(u), m > 1, which blow up at the inner boundary and satisfy a homogeneous boundary condition at the outer boundary of a multiply connected domain. In particular, we investigate uniqueness and blow-up rate near the inner boundary for such solutions. We also look at the limiting behaviour as m ↘ 1 for the special case where b(x) > 0 and f(u) = up/m with p > m.

We investigate a non-cooperative reaction-diffusion model arising in the theory of nuclear reactors and are concerned with the associated steady-state problem. We determine the asymptotic behaviour of the coexistence states near the point of bifurcation from infinity, which exhibits the following very interesting spatial blow-up pattern: when the fuel temperature reaches a certain value, the free fast neutrons undergoing nuclear reaction will blow up in each spatial point of the interior of the reactor. Without any restriction on spatial dimensions, we also discuss the uniqueness and stability of the coexistence states. Our results complement and sharpen those derived in two recent works by Arioli and Lóopez-Gómez.

Higher cluster categories were recently introduced as a generalization of cluster categories. This paper shows that in Dynkin types A and D, half of all higher cluster categories can be obtained as quotients of cluster categories. The other half are quotients of 2-cluster categories, the ‘lowest’ type of higher cluster categories. Hence, in Dynkin types A and D, all higher cluster phenomena are implicit in cluster categories and 2-cluster categories. In contrast, the same is not true in Dynkin type E.

We derive area limit laws for the various symmetry classes of staircase polygons on the square lattice, in a uniform ensemble where, for fixed perimeter, each polygon occurs with the same probability. This complements a previous study by Leroux and Rassart, where explicit expressions for the area and perimeter generating functions of these classes have been derived.

Let G = (G, +) be an additive group. The sumset theory of Plünnecke and Ruzsa gives several relations between the size of sumsets A + B of finite sets A, B, and related objects such as iterated sumsets kA and difference sets A − B, while the inverse sumset theory of Freiman, Ruzsa, and others characterizes those finite sets A for which A + A is small. In this paper we establish analogous results in which the finite set A ⊂ G is replaced by a discrete random variable X taking values in G, and the cardinality |A| is replaced by the Shannon entropy H(X). In particular, we classify those random variables X which have small doubling in the sense that H(X1 + X2) = H(X) + O(1) when X1, X2 are independent copies of X, by showing that they factorize as X = U + Z, where U is uniformly distributed on a coset progression of bounded rank, and H(Z) = O(1).

When G is torsion-free, we also establish the sharp lower bound , where o(1) goes to zero as H(X) → ∞.

For random trees T generated by the binary search tree algorithm from uniformly distributed input we consider the subtree size profile, which maps k ∈ ℕ to the number of nodes in T that root a subtree of size k. Complementing earlier work by Devroye, by Feng, Mahmoud and Panholzer, and by Fuchs, we obtain results for the range of small k-values and the range of k-values proportional to the size n of T. In both cases emphasis is on the process view, i.e., the joint distributions for several k-values. We also show that the dynamics of the tree sequence lead to a qualitative difference between the asymptotic behaviour of the lower and the upper end of the profile.