We define natural first order Lagrangians for immersions of Riemannian manifolds and we prove a bijective correspondence between such Lagrangians and the symmetric functions on an open subset of m-dimensional Euclidean space.

Let us consider two closed surfaces $ℳ$, $𝒩$ of class $C^1$ and two functions $\varphi :ℳ\to ℝ$, $\psi :𝒩\to ℝ$ of class $C^1$, called measuring functions. The natural pseudodistance $d$ between the pairs $(ℳ,)$, $(𝒩,\psi )$ is defined as the infimum of $\Theta \left(f\right):={max}_{P\in ℳ}\left|\varphi \left(P\right)-\psi \left(f\left(P\right)\right)\right|$ as $f$ varies in the set of all homeomorphisms from $ℳ$ onto $𝒩$. In this paper we prove that the natural pseudodistance equals either $|c_1-c_2|$, $\frac{1}{2}\left|c_1-c_2\right|$, or $\frac{1}{3}\left|c_1-c_2\right|$, where $c_1$ and $c_2$ are two suitable critical values of the measuring functions. This shows that a previous relation between the natural pseudodistance and critical values...

We study a nonlinear Neumann boundary value problem associated to a nonhomogeneous differential operator. Taking into account the competition between the nonlinearity and the bifurcation parameter, we establish sufficient conditions for the existence of nontrivial solutions in a related Orlicz–Sobolev space.

We give some new methods to construct nonharmonic biharmonic maps in the unit n-dimensional sphere 𝕊ⁿ.

We compute numerically the minimizers of the Dirichlet energy$$E\left(u\right)=\frac{1}{2}{\int }_{B^2}{\left|\nabla u\right|}^2\mathrm{d}x$$among maps $u:B^2\to S^2$ from the unit disc into the unit sphere that satisfy a boundary condition and a degree condition. We use a Sobolev gradient algorithm for the minimization and we prove that its continuous version preserves the degree. For the discretization of the problem we use continuous $P_1$ finite elements. We propose an original mesh-refining strategy needed to preserve the degree with the discrete version of the algorithm (which is a preconditioned...

We compute numerically the minimizers of the Dirichlet energy $$E\left(u\right)=\frac{1}{2}{\int }_{B^2}{\left|\nabla u\right|}^2\mathrm{d}x$$ among maps $u:B^2\to S^2$ from the unit disc into the unit sphere that satisfy a boundary condition and a degree condition. We use a Sobolev gradient algorithm for the minimization and we prove that its continuous version preserves the degree. For the discretization of the problem we use continuous P1 finite elements. We propose an original mesh-refining strategy needed to preserve the degree with the discrete version of the algorithm (which...

This paper develops the results announced in the Note [14]. Using an eigenvalue problem governed by a variational inequality, we try to unify the theory concerning the post-critical equilibrium state of a thin elastic plate subjected to unilateral conditions.

We present recent existence results of small amplitude periodic and quasi-periodic solutions of completely resonant nonlinear wave equations. Both infinite-dimensional bifurcation phenomena and small divisors difficulties occur. The proofs rely on bifurcation theory, Nash-Moser implicit function theorems, dynamical systems techniques and variational methods.