We consider non-interacting particles subject to a fixed external potential $V$ and a self-generated magnetic field $B$. The total energy includes the field energy $\beta \int B^2$ and we minimize over all particle states and magnetic fields. In the case of spin-1/2 particles this minimization leads to the coupled Maxwell-Pauli system. The parameter $\beta$ tunes the coupling strength between the field and the particles and it effectively determines the strength of the field. We investigate the stability and...

We prove an upper bound for the Aviles–Giga problem, which involves the minimization of the energy $E_{\epsilon }\left(v\right)=\epsilon {\int }_{\Omega }|{\nabla }^2{v|}^{2}dx+{\epsilon }^{-1}{\int }_{\Omega }{\left(1-\right|\nabla v|}^2{)}^{2}dx$ over $v\in H^2\left(\Omega \right)$, where $\epsilon >0$ is a small parameter. Given $v\in W^{1,\infty }\left(\Omega \right)$ such that $\nabla v\in BV$ and $\left|\nabla v\right|=1$ a.e., we construct a family $\left\{v_{\epsilon }\right\}$ satisfying: $v_{\epsilon }\to v$ in $W^{1,p}\left(\Omega \right)$ and $E_{\epsilon }\left(v_{\epsilon }\right)\to \frac{1}{3}{\int }_{J_{\nabla v}}{\left|{\nabla }^{+}v-{\nabla }^{-}v\right|}^{3}d{\mathscr{H}}^{N-1}$ as $\epsilon$ goes to 0.

In a cholesteric liquid crystal the director field $n(x,y,z)$ tends to form a right-angle helicoid around a twist axis in order to minimize the internal energy; however, a fixed alignment of the director field at the boundary (strong anchoring) can give rise to distorted configurations of the director field, as oblique helicoid, in order to save energy. The transition to this distorted configurations depend on the boundary conditions and on the geometry of the liquid crystal, and it is known...

The distributional $k$-dimensional Jacobian of a map $u$ in the Sobolev space $W^{1,k-1}$ which takes values in the sphere $S^{k-1}$ can be viewed as the boundary of a rectifiable current of codimension $k$ carried by (part of) the singularity of $u$ which is topologically relevant. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the range of the Jacobian operator; in particular, we show that any boundary $M$ of codimension $k$ can be realized as Jacobian of a Sobolev map valued in $S^{k-1}$. In case $M$ is polyhedral, the...

We consider the exclusion process in the one-dimensional discrete torus with $N$ points, where all the bonds have conductance one, except a finite number of slow bonds, with conductance $N^{-\beta }$, with $\beta \in [0,\infty )$. We prove that the time evolution of the empirical density of particles, in the diffusive scaling, has a distinct behavior according to the range of the parameter $\beta$. If $\beta \in [0,1)$, the hydrodynamic limit is given by the usual heat equation. If $\beta =1$, it is given by a parabolic equation involving an operator...

We prove an estimate for the difference of two solutions of the Schrödinger map equation for maps from $T^1$ to $S^2.$ This estimate yields some continuity properties of the flow map for the topology of $L^2(T^1,S^2)$, provided one takes its quotient by the continuous group action of $T^1$ given by translations. We also prove that without taking this quotient, for any $t\>0$ the flow map at time $t$ is discontinuous as a map from ${𝒞}^{\infty }(T^1,S^2)$, equipped with the weak topology of $H^{1/2},$ to the space of distributions ${\left({𝒞}^{\infty }(T^1,{ℝ}^3)\right)}^{*}.$ The argument relies...

We present a novel approach for bounding the resolvent of $$H=-\Delta +i(A·\nabla +\nabla ·A)+V=:-\Delta +L1$$ for large energies. It is shown here that there exist a large integer $m$ and a large number ${\lambda }_0$ so that relative to the usual weighted $L^2$-norm, $$\parallel {\left(L{(-\Delta +(\lambda +i0))}^{-1}\right)}^m\parallel <\frac{1}{2}2$$ for all $\lambda >{\lambda }_0$. This requires suitable decay and smoothness conditions on $A,V$. The estimate (2) is trivial when $A=0$, but difficult for large $A$ since the gradient term exactly cancels the natural decay of the free resolvent. To obtain (2), we introduce a conical decomposition of the resolvent and...

The energy class ${}_p$ is studied for 0 < p < 1. A characterization of certain bounded plurisubharmonic functions in terms of ${ℱ}_p$ and its pluricomplex p-energy is proved.

We consider the Yamabe type family of problems $\left(P_{\epsilon }\right):-\Delta u_{\epsilon }=u_{\epsilon }^{(n+2)/\left(n-2\right)}$, $u_{\epsilon }>0$ in $A_{\epsilon }$, $u_{\epsilon }=0$ on $\partial A_{\epsilon }$, where $A_{\epsilon }$ is an annulus-shaped domain of ${ℝ}^n$, $n\ge 3$, which becomes thinner as $\epsilon \to 0$. We show that for every solution $u_{\epsilon }$, the energy ${\int }_{A_{\epsilon }}|\nabla u_{|}^2$ as well as the Morse index tend to infinity as $\epsilon \to 0$. This is proved through a fine blow up analysis of appropriate scalings of solutions whose limiting profiles are regular, as well as of singular solutions of some elliptic problem on ${ℝ}^n$, a half-space or an infinite strip. Our argument also involves a Liouville...

We deal with the problem ⎧ -Δu = f(x,u) + λg(x,u), in Ω, ⎨ ($P_{\lambda }$) ⎩ $u_{\mid \partial \Omega }=0$ where Ω ⊂ ℝⁿ is a bounded domain, λ ∈ ℝ, and f,g: Ω×ℝ → ℝ are two Carathéodory functions with f(x,0) = g(x,0) = 0. Under suitable assumptions, we prove that there exists λ* > 0 such that, for each λ ∈ (0,λ*), problem ($P_{\lambda }$) admits a non-zero, non-negative strong solution $u_{\lambda }\in {\bigcap }_{p\ge 2}{W}^{2,p}\left(\Omega \right)$ such that $li{m}_{\lambda \to 0⁺}\left|\right|u_{\lambda }{\left|\right|}_{W^{2,p}\left(\Omega \right)}=0$ for all p ≥ 2. Moreover, the function $\lambda \mapsto I_{\lambda }\left(u_{\lambda }\right)$ is negative and decreasing in ]0,λ*[, where $I_{\lambda }$ is the energy functional related to ($P_{\lambda }$). ...

Let $\Omega$ be a bounded domain of class $C^2$ in $ℝ$N and let $K$ be a compact subset of $\partial \Omega$. Assume that $q\ge (N+1)/\left(N-1\right)$ and denote by $U_K$ the maximal solution of $-\Delta u+u^q=0$ in $\Omega$ which vanishes on $\partial \Omega \setminus K$. We obtain sharp upper and lower estimates for $U_K$ in terms of the Bessel capacity $C_{2/q,q^{\text{'}}}$ and prove that $U_K$ is $\sigma$-moderate. In addition we describe the precise asymptotic behavior of $U_K$ at points $\sigma \in K$, which depends on the “density” of $K$ at $\sigma$, measured in terms of the capacity $C_{2/q,q^{\text{'}}}$.

We address the problem of the existence of finite energy solitary waves for nonlinear Klein-Gordon or Schrödinger type equations $\Delta u-u+f\left(u\right)=0$ in ${ℝ}^N$, $u\in H^1\left({ℝ}^N\right)$, where $N\ge 2$. Under natural conditions on the nonlinearity $f$, we prove the existence of $\mathrm{𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠}$ in any dimension $N\ge 2$. Our result complements earlier works of Bartsch and Willem $(N=4\mathrm{𝚘𝚛}N\ge 6)$ and Lorca-Ubilla $(N=5)$ where solutions invariant under the action of $O\left(2\right)\times O(N-2)$ are constructed. In contrast, the solutions we construct are invariant under the action of $D_k\times O(N-2)$ where $D_k\subset O\left(2\right)$ denotes the dihedral...

We prove some results in the context of isoperimetric inequalities with quantitative terms. In the $2$-dimensional case, our main contribution is a method for determining the optimal coefficients $c_1,...,c_m$ in the inequality $\delta P\left(E\right)\ge {\sum }_{k=1}^m{c}_k\alpha {\left(E\right)}^k+o\left(\alpha {\left(E\right)}^m\right)$, valid for each Borel set $E$ with positive and finite area, with $\delta P\left(E\right)$ and $\alpha \left(E\right)$ being, respectively, the $\mathrm{𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑡}$ and the $\mathrm{𝐹𝑟𝑎𝑒𝑛𝑘𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑦}$ of $E$. In $n$ dimensions, besides proving existence and regularity properties of minimizers for a wide class of $\mathrm{𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑞𝑢𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠}$ including the lower semicontinuous extension of $\frac{\delta P\left(E\right)}{\alpha {\left(E\right)}^2}$, we...

Let $G_1$ and $G_2$ be two given graphs. The Ramsey number $R(G_1,G_2)$ is the least integer $r$ such that for every graph $G$ on $r$ vertices, either $G$ contains a $G_1$ or $\overline{G}$ contains a $G_2$. Parsons gave a recursive formula to determine the values of $R(P_n,K_{1,m})$, where $P_n$ is a path on $n$ vertices and $K_{1,m}$ is a star on $m+1$ vertices. In this note, we study the Ramsey numbers $R(P_n,K_1\vee F_m)$, where $F_m$ is a linear forest on $m$ vertices. We determine the exact values of $R(P_n,K_1\vee F_m)$ for the cases $m\le n$ and $m\ge 2n$, and for the case that $F_m$ has no odd component. Moreover, we...

We consider the systems of hyperbolic equations ⎧$uₜₜ=\Delta \left(a(t,x)u\right)+\Delta \left(b(t,x)v\right)+{h(t,x)\left|v\right|}^p$, t > 0, $x\in {ℝ}^N$, (S1) ⎨ ⎩$vₜₜ=\Delta \left(c(t,x)v\right)+{k(t,x)\left|u\right|}^q$, t > 0, $x\in {ℝ}^N$ ⎧$uₜₜ=\Delta \left(a(t,x)u\right)+{h(t,x)\left|v\right|}^p$, t > 0, $x\in {ℝ}^N$, (S2) ⎨ ⎩$vₜₜ=\Delta \left(c(t,x)v\right)+{l(t,x)\left|v\right|}^m+k(t,x){\left|u\right|}^q$, t > 0, $x\in {ℝ}^N$, (S3) ⎧$uₜₜ=\Delta \left(a(t,x)u\right)+\Delta \left(b(t,x)v\right)+{h(t,x)\left|u\right|}^p$, t > 0, $x\in {ℝ}^N$, ⎨ ⎩$vₜₜ=\Delta \left(c(t,x)v\right)+{k(t,x)\left|v\right|}^q$, t > 0, $x\in {ℝ}^N$, in $(0,\infty )\times {ℝ}^N$ with u(0,x) = u₀(x), v(0,x) = v₀(x), uₜ(0,x) = u₁(x), vₜ(0,x) = v₁(x). We show that, in each case, there exists a bound B on N such that for 1 ≤ N ≤ B solutions to the systems blow up in finite time.

Let ${\ell }_j:=-d²/dx²+k²q_j\left(x\right)$, k = const > 0, j = 1,2, $0<essinf{q}_j\left(x\right)\le esssup{q}_j\left(x\right)<\infty$. Suppose that (*) ${\int }_0^{1}p\left(x\right)u₁(x,k)u₂(x,k)dx=0$ for all k > 0, where p is an arbitrary fixed bounded piecewise-analytic function on [0,1], which changes sign finitely many times, and $u_j$ solves the problem ${\ell }_j{u}_j=0$, 0 ≤ x ≤ 1, $u_j^{\text{'}}(0,k)=0$, $u_j(0,k)=1$. It is proved that (*) implies p = 0. This result is applied to an inverse problem for a heat equation.

Let $M$ be a given nonempty set of positive integers and $S$ any set of nonnegative integers. Let $\overline{\delta }\left(S\right)$ denote the upper asymptotic density of $S$. We consider the problem of finding $$\mu \left(M\right):=\underset{S}{sup}\overline{\delta }\left(S\right),$$ where the supremum is taken over all sets $S$ satisfying that for each $a,b\in S$, $a-b\notin M.$ In this paper we discuss the values and bounds of $\mu \left(M\right)$ where $M=\{a,b,a+nb\}$ for all even integers and for all sufficiently large odd integers $n$ with $a<b$ and $gcd(a,b)=1.$

Let ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{k\to d}$ be the following algorithmic problem: Given a finite simplicial complex $K$ of dimension at most $k$, does there exist a (piecewise linear) embedding of $K$ into ${ℝ}^d$? Known results easily imply polynomiality of ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{k\to 2}$ ($k=1,2$; the case $k=1,d=2$ is graph planarity) and of ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{k\to 2k}$ for all $k\ge 3$. We show that the celebrated result of Novikov on the algorithmic unsolvability of recognizing the 5-sphere implies that ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{d\to d}$ and ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{(d-1)\to d}$ are undecidable for each ${}_d\ge 5$. Our main result is NP-hardness of ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{2\to 4}$ and, more generally, of ${\mathrm{𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝙳}}_{k\to d}$ for all...

In this work we study the problem $u_t{-div\left(\right|x|}^{-2\gamma }\nabla u)=\lambda \frac{u^{\alpha }}{{\left|x\right|}^{2(\gamma +1)}}+f$ in $\Omega \times (0,T)$, $u\ge 0$ in $\Omega \times (0,T)$, $u=0$ on $\partial \Omega \times (0,T)$, $u(x,0)=u_0\left(x\right)$ in $\Omega$, $\Omega \subset {ℝ}^N$ $(N\ge 2)$ is a bounded regular domain such that $0\in \Omega$, $\lambda >0$, $\alpha >0$, $-\infty <\gamma <\left(N-2\right)/2$, $f$ and $u_0$ are positive functions such that $f\in L^1(\Omega \times (0,T))$ and $u_0\in L^1\left(\Omega \right)$. The main points under analysis are: (i) spectral instantaneous and complete blow-up related to the Harnack inequality in the case $\alpha =1$, $1+\gamma >0$; (ii) the nonexistence of solutions if $\alpha >1$, $1+\gamma >0$; (iii) a uniqueness result for weak solutions (in the distribution sense); (iv) further results on existence of weak solutions...

We consider the linear Schrödinger equation under periodic boundary conditions, driven by a random force and damped by a quasilinear damping: $$\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}t}u+\mathrm{i}\left(-\Delta +V\left(x\right)\right)u=\nu \left(\Delta u-{\gamma }_R{\left|u\right|}^{2p}u-\mathrm{i}{\gamma }_I{\left|u\right|}^{2q}u\right)+\sqrt{\nu }\eta (t,x).(*)$$ The force $\eta$ is white in time and smooth in $x$; the potential $V\left(x\right)$ is typical. We are concerned with the limiting, as $\nu \to 0$, behaviour of solutions on long time-intervals $0\le t\le {\nu }^{-1}T$, and with behaviour of these solutions under the double limit $t\to \infty$ and $\nu \to 0$. We show that these two limiting behaviours may be described in terms of solutions for the($*$) which is a well...

Let ${ℱ}_h^i(k,n)$ be the $i$-th ordered configuration space of all distinct points $H_1,...,H_h$ in the Grassmannian $Gr(k,n)$ of $k$-dimensional subspaces of ${ℂ}^n$, whose sum is a subspace of dimension $i$. We prove that ${ℱ}_h^i(k,n)$ is (when non empty) a complex submanifold of $Gr{(k,n)}^h$ of dimension $i(n-i)+hk(i-k)$ and its fundamental group is trivial if $i=min(n,hk)$, $hk\ne n$ and $n\&gt;2$ and equal to the braid group of the sphere $ℂ$ $P^1$ if $n=2$. Eventually we compute the fundamental group in the special case of hyperplane arrangements, i.e. $k=n-1$.