Applied Mathematics Commons^™

Boundary Homogenization And Capture Time Distributions Of Semipermeable Membranes With Periodic Patterns Of Reactive Sites, Andrew J. Bernoff, Daniel Schmidt, Alan E. Lindsay

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We consider the capture dynamics of a particle undergoing a random walk in a half- space bounded by a plane with a periodic pattern of absorbing pores. In particular, we numerically measure and asymptotically characterize the distribution of capture times. Numerically we develop a kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) method that exploits exact solutions to create an efficient particle- based simulation of the capture time that deals with the infinite half-space exactly and has a run time that is independent of how far from the pores one begins. Past researchers have proposed homogenizing the surface boundary conditions, replacing the reflecting (Neumann) …

Numerical Approximation Of Diffusive Capture Rates By Planar And Spherical Surfaces With Absorbing Pores, Andrew J. Bernoff, Alan E. Lindsay

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In 1977 Berg and Purcell published a landmark paper entitled Physics of Chemore- ception, which examined how a bacterium can sense a chemical attractant in the fluid surrounding it [H. C. Berg and E. M. Purcell, Biophys J, 20 (1977), pp. 193–219]. At small scales the attrac- tant molecules move by Brownian motion and diffusive processes dominate. This example is the archetype of diffusive signaling problems where an agent moves via a random walk until it either strikes or eludes a target. Berg and Purcell modeled the target as a sphere with a set of small circular targets (pores) that …

Existence And Qualitative Properties Of Solutions For Nonlinear Dirichlet Problems, Alfonso Castro, Jorge Cossio, Carlos Vélez

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Sign-changing solutions to semilinear elliptic problems in connection with their Morse indices. To this end, we first establish a priori bounds for one-sign solutions. Secondly, using abstract saddle point principles we find large augmented Morse index solutions. In this part, extensive use is made of critical groups, Morse index arguments, Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction, and Leray-Schauder degree. Finally, we provide conditions under which these solutions necessarily change sign and we comment about further qualitative properties.

Existence Of Solutions For A Semilinear Wave Equation With Non-Monotone Nonlinearity, Alfonso Castro, Benjamin Preskill '09

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For double-periodic and Dirichlet-periodic boundary conditions, we prove the existence of solutions to a forced semilinear wave equation with asymptotically linear nonlinearity, no resonance, and non-monotone nonlinearity when the forcing term is not flat on characteristics. The solutions are in L^∞ when the forcing term is in L^∞ and continous when the forcing term is continuous. This is in contrast with the results in [4], where the non-enxistence of continuous solutions is established even when forcing term is of class C^∞ but is flat on a characteristic.

A Semilinear Wave Equation With Smooth Data And No Resonance Having No Continuous Solution, Jose F. Caicedo, Alfonso Castro

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We prove that a boundary value problem for a semilinear wave equation with smooth nonlinearity, smooth forcing, and no resonance cannot have continuous solutions. Our proof shows that this is due to the non-monotonicity of the nonlinearity.

Turing Patterns On Growing Spheres: The Exponential Case, Julijana Gjorgjieva, Jon T. Jacobsen

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We consider Turing patterns for reaction-diffusion systems on the surface of a growing sphere. In particular, we are interested in the effect of dynamic growth on the pattern formation. We consider exponential isotropic growth of the sphere and perform a linear stability analysis and compare the results with numerical simulations.

Strings, Chains, And Ropes, Darryl H. Yong

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Following Antman [Amer. Math. Mon., 87 (1980), pp. 359–370], we advocate a more physically realistic and systematic derivation of the wave equation suitable for a typical undergraduate course in partial differential equations. To demonstrate the utility of this derivation, three applications that follow naturally are described: strings, hanging chains, and jump ropes.

The Motion Of A Thin Liquid Film Driven By Surfactant And Gravity, Michael Shearer, Rachel Levy

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We investigate wave solutions of a lubrication model for surfactant-driven flow of a thin liquid film down an inclined plane. We model the flow in one space dimension with a system of nonlinear PDEs of mixed hyperbolic-parabolic type in which the effects of capillarity and surface diffusion are neglected. Numerical solutions reveal distinct patterns of waves that are described analytically by combinations of traveling waves, some with jumps in height and surfactant concentration gradient. The various waves and combinations are strikingly different from what is observed in the case of flow on a horizontal plane. Jump conditions admit new shock …

Semilinear Equations With Discrete Spectrum, Alfonso Castro

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This is an overview of the solvability of semilinear equations where the linear part has discrete spectrum. Semilinear elliptic and hyperbolic equations, as well as Hammerstein integral equations, are used as motivating examples. The presentation is intended to be accessible to non experts.

An Existence Result For A Class Of Sublinear Semipositone Systems, Alfonso Castro, C. Maya, Ratnasingham Shivaji

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We consider the existence of positive solutions for the system

-Δu_i = λ[f_i(u₁,u₂,...,u_m) - h_i]; Ω

u_i = 0; ∂Ω

where λ > 0 is a parameter, Δ is the Laplacian operator, Ω is a bounded domain in Rⁿ; n ≥ 1 with a smooth boundary ∂Ω, f_i are C¹ functions satisfying f₁(0,0,...,0) = 0, lim z→∞ f_i(z,z,...,z) = ∞ and lim z→∞ f_i(z,z,...,z)/z = 0, and h_i are nonnegative continuous functions in Ω for i = 1,2,...,m. …

Examples Of Cayley 4-Manifolds, Weiqing Gu, Christopher Pries '03

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We determine several families of so-called Cayley 4-dimensional manifolds in the real Euclidean 8-space. Such manifolds are of interest because Cayley 4-manifolds are supersymmetric cycles that are candidates for representations of fundamental particles in String Theory. Moreover, some of the examples of Cayley manifolds discovered in this paper may be modified to construct explicit examples in our current search for new holomorphic invariants for Calabi-Yau 4-folds and for the further development of mirror symmetry.

We apply the classic results of Harvey and Lawson to find Cayley manifolds which are graphs of functions from the set of quaternions to itself. We …

Solitary Waves In Layered Nonlinear Media, Randall J. Leveque, Darryl H. Yong

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We study longitudinal elastic strain waves in a one-dimensional periodically layered medium, alternating between two materials with different densities and stress-strain relations. If the impedances are different, dispersive effects are seen due to reflection at the interfaces. When the stress-strain relations are nonlinear, the combination of dispersion and nonlinearity leads to the appearance of solitary waves that interact like solitons. We study the scaling properties of these solitary waves and derive a homogenized system of equations that includes dispersive terms. We show that pseudospectral solutions to these equations agree well with direct solutions of the hyperbolic conservation laws in the …

The Effect Of The Domain Topology On The Number Of Minimal Nodal Solutions Of An Elliptic Equation At Critical Growth In A Symmetric Domain, Alfonso Castro, Mónica Clapp

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We consider the Dirichlet problem Δu + λu + |u|^2*−2u = 0 in Ω, u = 0 on ∂Ω where Ω is a bounded smooth domain in R^N, N≥4, and 2* = 2N/(N−2) is the critical Sobolev exponent. We show that if Ω is invariant under an orthogonal involution then, for λ>0 sufficiently small, there is an effect of the equivariant topology of Ω on the number of solutions which change sign exactly once.

Nonlinear Dynamics Of Mode-Locking Optical Fiber Ring Lasers, Kristin M. Spaulding, Darryl H. Yong, Arnold D. Kim, J Nathan Kutz

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We consider a model of a mode-locked fiber ring laser for which the evolution of a propagating pulse in a birefringent optical fiber is periodically perturbed by rotation of the polarization state owing to the presence of a passive polarizer. The stable modes of operation of this laser that correspond to pulse trains with uniform amplitudes are fully classified. Four parameters, i.e., polarization, phase, amplitude, and chirp, are essential for an understanding of the resultant pulse-train uniformity. A reduced set of four coupled nonlinear differential equations that describe the leading-order pulse dynamics is found by use of the variational nature …

Positive Solutions For A Concave Semipositone Dirichlet Problem, Alfonso Castro, Ratnasingham Shivaji

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No abstract provided for this article

On Multiple Solutions Of A Nonlinear Dirichlet Problem, Alfonso Castro, Jorge Cossio, John M. Neuberger

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We prove that a semilinear elliptic boundary value problem has five solutions when the range of the derivative of the nonlinearity includes at least the first two eigenvalues. We also prove that if the region is a ball the semilinear elliptic problem has two solutions that change sign and are nonradial.

Positive Solution Curves Of Semipositone Problems With Concave Nonlinearities, Alfonso Castro, Sudhasree Gadam, Ratnasingham Shivaji

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We consider the positive solutions to the semilinear equation:

-Δu(x) = λf(u(x)) for x ∈ Ω

u(x) = 0 for x ∈ ∂Ω

where Ω denotes a smooth bounded region in R^N (N > 1) and λ > 0. Here f :[0, ∞)→R is assumed to be monotonically increasing, concave and such that f(0) < 0 (semipositone). Assuming that f'(∞) ≡ lim t→∞ f'(t) > 0, we establish the stability and uniqueness of large positive solutions in terms of (f(t)/t)'. When Ω is a ball, we determine the exact number of positive solutions for each λ > 0. We also obtain the geometry of the branches of positive solutions completely and establish how …

Positive Solutions For A Semilinear Elliptic Problem With Critical Exponent, Ismail Ali, Alfonso Castro

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No abstract provided in article.

Existence Results For Semipositone Systems, V. Anuradha, Alfonso Castro, Ratnasingham Shivaji

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We study existence of positive solutions to the coupled-system of boundary value problems of the form

-Δu(x) = λf(x,u,v); x ∈ Ω

-Δv(x) = λg(x,u,v); x ∈ Ω

u(x) = 0 = v(x); x ∈ ∂Ω

where λ > 0 is a parameter, Ω is a bounded domain in R^N; N ≥ 1 with a smooth boundary ∂Ω and f,g are C^1 function with at least one of f(x_0,0,0) or g(x_0,0,0) being negative for some x_0 ∈ Ω (semipositone). We establish our existence results using the method of sub-super solutions. We also discuss non-existence results for λ small.

Branches Of Radial Solutions For Semipositone Problems, Alfonso Castro, Sudhasree Gadam, Ratnasingham Shivaji

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We consider the radially symmetric solutions to the equation −Δu(x) = λƒ(u(x)) for x ∈ Ω, u(x) = 0 for x ∈ ∂Ω, where Ω denotes the unit ball in R^N (N > 1), centered at the origin and λ > 0. Here ƒ: R→R is assumed to be semipositone (ƒ(0) < 0), monotonically increasing, superlinear with subcritical growth on [0, ∞). We establish the structure of radial solution branches for the above problem. We also prove that if ƒ is convex and ƒ(t)/(tƒ'(t)−ƒ(t)) is a nondecreasing function then for each λ > 0 there exists at most one positive solution u such that (λ, u) belongs to the unbounded branch of positive solutions. Further when ƒ(t) = tp − k, k > 0 and 1 < p < (N + 2)/(N − 2), we prove that the set of positive solutions is connected. Our results are motivated by and extend the developments in [4].

Uniqueness Of Stable And Unstable Positive Solutions For Semipositone Problems, Alfonso Castro, Sudhasree Gadam

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Abstract not included in this article.

A Bifurcation Theorem And Applications, Alfonso Castro, Jorge Cossio

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In this paper we give a sufficient condition on the nonlinear operator N for a point (λ, u) to be a local bifurcation point of equations of the form u + λL^-1(N(u)) = 0, where L is a linear operator in a real Hilbert space, L has compact inverse, and λ ∈ R is a parameter. Our result does not depend on the variational structure of the equation or the multiplicity of the eigenvalue of the linear operator L. Applications are made to systems of differential equations and to the existence of periodic solutions of nonlinear second order …

Nonnegative Solutions To A Semilinear Dirichlet Problem In A Ball Are Positive And Radially Symmetric, Alfonso Castro, Ratnasingham Shivaji

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We prove that nonnegative solutions to a semilinear Dirichlet problem in a ball are positive, and hence radially symmetric. In particular, this answers a question in [3] where positive solutions were proven to be radially symmetric. In section 4 we provide a sufficient condition on the geometry of the domain which ensures that nonnegative solutions are positive in the interior.

Multiple Solutions For A Dirichlet Problem With Jumping Nonlinearities Ii, Alfonso Castro, Ratnasingham Shivaji

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No abstract provided for this article.

Nonnegative Solutions For A Class Of Nonpositone Problems, Alfonso Castro, Ratnasingham Shivaji

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In the recent past many results have been established on non-negative solutions to boundary value problems of the form

-u''(x) = λf(u(x)); 0 < x < 1,

u(0) = 0 = u(1)

where λ>0, f(0)>0 (positone problems). In this paper we consider the impact on the non-negative solutions when f(0)<0. We find that we need f(u) to be convex to guarantee uniqueness of positive solutions, and f(u) to be appropriately concave for multiple positive solutions. This is in contrast to the case of positone problems, where the roles of convexity and concavity were interchanged to obtain similar results. We further establish the existence of non-negative solutions with interior zeros, which did not exist in positone problems.

Uniqueness Of Positive Solutions For A Class Of Elliptic Boundary Value Problems, Alfonso Castro, Ratnasingham Shivaji

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Uniqueness of non-negative solutions conjectured in an earlier paper by Shivaji is proved. Our methods are independent of those of that paper, where the problem was considered only in a ball. Further, our results apply to a wider class of nonlinearities.

Existence And Uniqueness For A Variational Hyperbolic System Without Resonance, Peter W. Bates, Alfonso Castro

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In this paper, we study the existence of weak solutions of the problem

□u + ∇G(u) = f(t,x) ; (t,x) є Ω ≡ (0,π)x(0,π)

u(t,x) = 0 ; (t,x) є ∂Ω

where □ is the wave operator ∂²/∂t² - ∂²/∂x², G: Rⁿ→R is a function of class C² such that ∇G(0) = 0 and f:Ώ→R^n is a continuous function having first derivative with respect to t in (L₂,(Ω))ⁿ and satisfying

f(0,x) = f(π,x) = 0

for all x є [0,π].

Critical Point Theory And The Number Of Solutions Of A Nonlinear Dirichlet Problem, Alfonso Castro, A. C. Lazer

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No abstract provided.

A Semilinear Dirichlet Problem, Alfonso Castro

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Let Ω be a bounded region in R^n. In this note we discuss the existence of weak solutions (see [4, Section 2]) of the Dirichlet problem:

Δu(x) + g(x, u(x)) + f(x, u(x), ∇u(x)) = 0 ; x є Ω

u(x) = 0 ; x є ∂Ω

where Δ is the Laplacian operator, g : Ω x R → R and f : Ω x Rⁿ⁺¹ → R are functions satisfying the Caratheodory condition (see [2, Section 3]), and ∇ is the gradient operator.