The laser Lorenz equations are studied by reducing them to a form suitable for application of an extension of a method developed by Kuzmak. The method generates a flow in a Poincaré section from which it is inferred that a certain Hopf bifurcation is always subcritical.

We discuss a model of a burning process, essentially due to Sal'nikov, in which a substrate undergoes a two-stage decay through some intermediate chemical to form a final product. The second stage of the process occurs at a temperature-sensitive rate, and is also responsible for the production of heat. The effects of thermal conduction are included, and the intermediate chemical is assumed to be capable of diffusion through the decomposing substrate. The governing equations thus form a reaction-diffusion system, and spatially inhomogeneous behaviour is therefore possible.

This paper is concerned with stationary patterns of temperature and chemical concentration in the model. A numerical method for the solution of the governing equations is outlined, and makes use of a Fourier-series representation of the pattern. The question of the stability of these patterns is discussed in detail, and a linearised solution is presented, which is valid for patterns of very small amplitude. The results of accurate solutions to the fully non-linear equations are discussed, and compared with the predictions of the linearised theory. Parameter regions in which there exists genuine nonuniqueness of solutions are identified.

In this paper we study parametric optimal control problems governed by a nonlinear parabolic equation in divergence form. The parameter appears in all the data of the problem, including the partial differential operator. Using as tools the G-convergence of operators and the Γ-convergence of functionals, we show that the set-valued map of optimal pairs is upper semicontinuous with respect to the parameter and the optimal value function responds continuously to changes of the parameter. Finally in the case of semilinear systems we show that our framework can also incorporate systems with weakly convergent coefficients.

The problem of scattering of surface water waves by a horizontal circular cylinder totally submerged in deep water is well studied in the literature within the framework of linearised theory with the remarkable conclusion that a normally incident wave train experiences no reflection. However, if the cross-section of the cylinder is not circular then it experiences reflection in general. The present paper studies the case when the cylinder is not quite circular and derives expressions for reflection and transmission coefficients correct to order ∈, where ∈ is a measure of small departure of the cylinder cross-section from circularity. A simplified perturbation analysis is employed to derive two independent boundary value problems (BVP) up to first order in ∈. The first BVP corresponds to the problem of water wave scattering by a submerged circular cylinder. The reflection coefficient up to first order and the first order correction to the transmission coefficient arise in the second BVP in a natural way and are obtained by a suitable use of Green' integral theorem without solving the second BVP. Assuming a Fourier expansion of the shape function, these are evaluated approximately. It is noticed that for some particular shapes of the cylinder, these vanish. Also, the numerical results for the transmission coefficients up to first order for a nearly circular cylinder for which the reflection coefficients up to first order vanish, are given in tabular form. It is observed that for many other smooth cylinders, the result for a circular cylinder that the reflection coefficient vanishes, is also approximately valid.

A steady two-dimensional free-surface flow in a channel of finite depth is considered. The channel ends abruptly with a barrier in the form of a vertical wall of finite height. Hence the stream, which is uniform far upstream, is forced to go upward and then falls under the effect of gravity. A configuration is examined where the rising stream splits into two jets, one falling backward and the other forward over the wall, in a fountain-like manner. The backward-going jet is assumed to be removed without disturbing the incident stream. This problem is solved numerically by an integral-equation method. Solutions are obtained for various values of a parameter measuring the fraction of the total incoming flux that goes into the forward jet. The limit where this fraction is one is also examined, the water then all passing over the wall, with a 120° corner stagnation point on the upper free surface.

The problem of solving a differential-difference equation with quadratic non-linearities of a certain type is reduced to the problem of solving an associated linear differential-difference equation.

An analysis is made of quadrature viatwo-point formulae when the integrand is Lipschitz or of bounded variation. The error estimates are shown to be as good as those found in recent studies using Simpson (three-point) formulae.

We examine the differential properties of the solution of the linear integral equation of the second kind, whose kernel depends on the difference of arguments and has an integrable singularity at the point zero. The derivatives of the solution of the equation have singularities at the end points of the domain of integration, and we derive precise estimates for these singularities.

This paper is devoted to the derivation of a necessary condition of F. John type which must be satisfied by a solution of a mathematical programming problem with set and cone constraints. The necessary condition is applied to an optimisation problem defined on functional spaces with inequality state constraints. Furthermore a pseudo open mapping theorem is developed in the course of proving the main theorem.

In 1984, Elliott and Stenger wrote a joint paper on the approximation of Hilbert transforms over analytic arcs. In the present paper we sharpen the previously obtained results of Elliott and Stenger, and we also obtain formulas for approximating Cauchy integrals over analytic arcs.

Fluid withdrawn through a line sink from a layered fluid in a vertically confined porous medium is considered. A hodograph method is used to obtain the shape of the interface for a given sink position at the critical flow rate. The analytical solution is compared with a more general numerical solution developed in earlier work. It was found that the surface profiles obtained by the two methods are in close agreement. However, the present work has the advantage that it gives a fully explicit solution.

It is shown that, for any round-robin tournament, one can find a pairing of the teams and allocate home and away matches so that only one member of each pair plays at home in each round.

Solitary wave interaction is examined using an extended Benjamin-Bona-Mahony (eBBM) equation. This equation includes higher-order nonlinear and dispersive effects and is is asymptotically equivalent to the extended Korteweg-de Vries (eKdV) equation. The eBBM formulation is preferable to the eKdV equation for the numerical modelling of solitary wave collisions, due to the stability of its finite-difference scheme. In particular, it allows the interaction of steep waves to be modelled, which due to numerical instability, is not possible using the eKdV equation.

Numerical simulations of a number of solitary wave collisions of varying nonlinearity are performed for two special cases corresponding to surface water waves. The mass and energy of the dispersive wavetrain generated by the inelastic collision is tabulated and used to show that the change in solitary wave amplitude after interaction is of O(α4), verifying previously obtained theoretical predictions.

The paper is concerned with periodic solutions of the difference equation un + 1 = 2aun, where a and b are constants, with and b > 0. A new method is developed for dealing with this problem and, for period lengths up to 6, polynomial equations are given which allow the periodic solutions to be determined in a precise and practical manner. These equations apply whether the periodic solutions are stable or unstable and the elements of the cycle can be determined with an accuracy which is not affected by instability of the cycle.

A simple transformation puts the equation into the form , where A = a2 − a, and the detailed discussion is based on this simpler form. The discussion includes details such as the number of cyclic solutions for a given value of A, the pattern of the cycles and their stability. For practical purposes, it is enough to consider a restricted range of values of A, namely , although the equations obtained are valid for A > 2.

A Demianski-type metric is investigated in connection with the Einstein-Maxwell fields. Using complex vectorial formalism, some exact solutions of Einstein-Maxwell field equations for source-free electromagnetic fields plus pure radiation fields are obtained. The radiating Demianski solution, the Debney-Kerr-Schild solution and the Brill solution are derived as particular cases.

We consider a nonlinear singular perturbation problem on a semi-infinite interval, that is a generalization of the well-known Lagerstrom model equation intended to model low Reynolds number flow. By applying a Green's function method and the contraction mapping principle, we are able to obtain existence, uniqueness and asymptoticity results for this problem.