We show the location of so called critical points, i.e., couples of diffusion coefficients for which a non-trivial solution of a linear reaction-diffusion system of activator-inhibitor type on an interval with Neumann boundary conditions and with additional non-linear unilateral condition at one or two points on the boundary and/or in the interior exists. Simultaneously, we show the profile of such solutions.

Critical points of a variant of the Ambrosio-Tortorelli functional, for which non-zero Dirichlet boundary conditions replace the fidelity term, are investigated. They are shown to converge to particular critical points of the corresponding variant of the Mumford-Shah functional; those exhibit many symmetries. That Dirichlet variant is the natural functional when addressing a problem of brittle fracture in an elastic material.

Critical points of a variant of the Ambrosio-Tortorelli functional, for which non-zero Dirichlet boundary conditions replace the fidelity term, are investigated. They are shown to converge to particular critical points of the corresponding variant of the Mumford-Shah functional; those exhibit many symmetries. That Dirichlet variant is the natural functional when addressing a problem of brittle fracture in an elastic material.

On the unit disk $B_1\subset {ℝ}^2$ we study the Moser-Trudinger functional $E\left(u\right)={\int }_{B_1}\left(e^{u^2}-1\right)dx,u\in H_0^1\left(B_1\right)$ and its restrictions ${E|}_{M_{\Lambda }}$, where $M_{\Lambda }:=\{u\in H_0^1\left(B_1\right){:\parallel u\parallel }_{H_0^1}^2=\Lambda \}$ for $\Lambda >0$. We prove that if a sequence $u_k$ of positive critical points of ${E|}_{M_{{\Lambda }_k}}$ (for some ${\Lambda }_k>0$) blows up as $k\to \infty$, then ${\Lambda }_k\to 4\pi$, and $u_k\to 0$ weakly in $H_0^1\left(B_1\right)$ and strongly in $C_{\mathrm{loc}}^1({\overline{B}}_1\setminus \left\{0\right\})$. Using this fact we also prove that when $\Lambda$ is large enough, then ${E|}_{M_{\Lambda }}$ has no positive critical point, complementing previous existence results by Carleson-Chang, M. Struwe and Lamm-Robert-Struwe.

Some results on cross-diffusion systems with entropy structure are reviewed. The focus is on local-in-time existence results for general systems with normally elliptic diffusion operators, due to Amann, and global-in-time existence theorems by Lepoutre, Moussa, and co-workers for cross-diffusion systems with an additional Laplace structure. The boundedness-by-entropy method allows for global bounded weak solutions to certain diffusion systems. Furthermore, a partial result on the uniqueness of weak...

Consider the family uₜ = Δu + G(u), t > 0, $x\in {\Omega }_{\epsilon }$, ${\partial }_{{\nu }_{\epsilon }}u=0$, t > 0, $x\in \partial {\Omega }_{\epsilon }$, $\left(E_{\epsilon }\right)$ of semilinear Neumann boundary value problems, where, for ε > 0 small, the set ${\Omega }_{\epsilon }$ is a thin domain in ${ℝ}^l$, possibly with holes, which collapses, as ε → 0⁺, onto a (curved) k-dimensional submanifold of ${ℝ}^l$. If G is dissipative, then equation $\left(E_{\epsilon }\right)$ has a global attractor ${}_{\epsilon }$. We identify a “limit” equation for the family $\left(E_{\epsilon }\right)$, prove convergence of trajectories and establish an upper semicontinuity result for the family ${}_{\epsilon }$ as ε → 0⁺.

For a principal type pseudodifferential operator, we prove that condition $\left(\psi \right)$ implies local solvability with a loss of 3/2 derivatives. We use many elements of Dencker’s paper on the proof of the Nirenberg-Treves conjecture and we provide some improvements of the key energy estimates which allows us to cut the loss of derivatives from $ϵ+3/2$ for any $ϵ\>0$ (Dencker’s most recent result) to 3/2 (the present paper). It is already known that condition $\left(\psi \right)$ doesnotimply local solvability with a loss of 1 derivative,...