We deal with maximum principles for a class of linear, degenerate elliptic differential operators of the second order. In particular the Weak and Strong Maximum Principles are shown to hold for this class of operators in bounded domains, as well as a Hopf type lemma, under suitable hypothesis on the degeneracy set of the operator. We derive, as consequences of these principles, some generalized maximum principles and an a priori estimate on the solutions of the Dirichlet problem for the linear equation....

A type of adaptive finite element method is presented for semilinear elliptic problems based on multilevel correction scheme. The main idea of the method is to transform the semilinear elliptic equation into a sequence of linearized boundary value problems on the adaptive partitions and some semilinear elliptic problems on very low dimensional finite element spaces. Hence, solving the semilinear elliptic problem can reach almost the same efficiency as the adaptive method for the associated boundary...

An entire solution of the Allen-Cahn equation $\Delta u=f\left(u\right)$, where $f$ is an odd function and has exactly three zeros at $\pm 1$ and $0$, e.g. $f\left(u\right)=u(u^2-1)$, is called a $2k$ end solution if its nodal set is asymptotic to $2k$ half lines, and if along each of these half lines the function $u$ looks (up to a multiplication by $-1$) like the one dimensional, odd, heteroclinic solution $H$, of $H^{\text{'}\text{'}}=f\left(H\right)$. In this paper we present some recent advances in the theory of the multiple end solutions. We begin with the description of the moduli space of such solutions....

We study the existence, nonexistence and multiplicity of positive solutions for the family of problems $-\Delta u=f_{\lambda }(x,u)$, $u\in H_0^1\left(\Omega \right)$, where $\Omega$ is a bounded domain in ${ℝ}^N$, $N\ge 3$ and $\lambda >0$ is a parameter. The results include the well-known nonlinearities of the Ambrosetti–Brezis–Cerami type in a more general form, namely $\lambda a\left(x\right)u^q+b\left(x\right)u^p$, where $0\le q<1<p\le 2^{*}-1$. The coefficient $a\left(x\right)$ is assumed to be nonnegative but $b\left(x\right)$ is allowed to change sign, even in the critical case. The notions of local superlinearity and local sublinearity introduced in [9] are essential in this...