It is shown that Ф = | grad u |2–uΔu, where u is a solution of Δ2u+pf(u) = 0 in D, assumes its maximum value on the boundary of D. This principle leads one to a lower bound on the first eigenvalue in the non-linear Dirichlet eigenvalue problem and to the non-existence of solutions to this non-linear partial differential equation subject to certain zero boundaryconditions.

We introduce the concept of quasi-completely continuous multilinear operators and use this concept to characterize, for a wide class of Banach spaces X1, …, Xk, the multilinear operators T : X1 × … × Xk → X with an X-valued Aron–Berner extension.

We consider Hill's equation on the interval [0, a] with periodic and semi-periodic boundary condition. We derive the asymptotic form of the eigenvalues without smoothness conditions on q.

A new approach is presented for the solution of spectral problems on infinite domains with regular ends, which avoids the need to solve boundary-value problems for many trial values of the spectral parameter. We present numerical results both for eigenvalues and for resonances, comparing with results reported by Aslanyan, Parnovski and Vassiliev.

On donne dans cet article un théorème d'existence de solutions lipschitziennes pour des problèmes du type:

où Ω est un ouvert convexe borné de ℝn, n ≧ 2, p ≧ 2, aucune hypothèse de convexité n'est faite sur g ou f. On étend de la sorte des ŕesultats d'existence obtenus en dimension 1.

where Ω is a bounded open convex subset of ℝn, n ≧ 2, p ≧ 2; we suppose no assumption of convexity on g or f. In this way we extend existence results proved in dimension 1.)

The exponential Euler spline curves of Schoenberg are used to derive the correctness of cardinal interpolation by shifted univariate B-splines and the “metric condition” on the bi-infinite Toeplitz matrix of interpolation. Additional monotonicity properties of the associated symbol for interpolation in each of its parameters are also given.

Let G: ε(G)⊂ℋ → ℋ be a maximal dissipative operator with compact resolvent on a complex separable Hilbert space ℋ and T(t) be the Co semigroup generated by G. A spectral mapping theorem σ(T(t))\{0} = exp (tσ(G))/{0} together with a condition for 0 ε σ(T(t)) are proved if the set {x ε ⅅ(G) | Re (Gx, x) = 0} has finite codimension in ε(G) and if some eigenvalue conditions for G are satisfied. Proofs are given in terms of the Cayley transformation T = (G + I)(G − I)−1 of G. The results are applied to the damped wave equation utt + γutx + uxxxx + ßuxx = 0, 0 ≦ t < ∞ 0 < x < 1, β, γ ≧ 0, with boundary conditions u(0, t) = ux(0, t) = uxx (1, t) = uxxx(1, t) = 0.

The real difference equation an+2 − (λ|an+1| + μan+1) + an = 0 may be interpreted as a dynamical system Φ:(an, an+1) ↦ (an+1, an+2) acting in the plane. The set ΛP of points (λ, μ) for which the mapping Φ is periodic has a rich structure. In this paper, we derive some geometric properties of ΛP (for example, we show that it is unbounded and uncountable), and we derive criteria for Φ to be periodic. We also investigate when Φ is conjugate to a rotation of the plane, and we describe how the rotation numbers of the corresponding circle maps Φ/|Φ| are related to the structure of ΛP.

In this work we study the existence and qualitative properties of non-negative solutions of the Lotka—Volterra models with nonlinear diffusion under homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. We consider the three typical interactions: prey—predator, competition and symbiosis. Unlike the linear diffusion models, non-trivial non-negative solutions can exist which are not strictly positive. Sufficient conditions in terms of the coefficients involved in the setting of the models are given, assuring that one species (or both) does not survive on a set of its habitat (called ‘dead core’) of positive measure.

For each ring R, we construct a topological space pt (R) which includes as a subspace both the classical spectrum specR and the torsion theoretic spectrum R-sp. For many rings (e.g. rings with Krull dimension), spec R is a retract of pt (R) and the retraction map θ generalizes the Gabriel correspondence for noetherian rings. There is a natural decomposition theory on MOD-R which extends the Goldman theory in the same way that the tertiary theory extends the primary theory. The map θ provides a direct comparison between this new decomposition theory and the tertiary theory. The space pt (R) is closely connected with the lattice of hereditary torsion theories on R, and for fully bounded (not necessarily noetherian) R, this connection is very tight.

7. A method of factor estimation is given in which assumptions are made only about the form of the error distributions of the tests administered. This is compared with a method previously suggested in which, on the contrary, the test scores and the individual factor measurements were assumed to be normally distributed over the population of individuals tested. A comparison is also made with other processes at present in use.

We consider steady flows of viscoelastic fluids for which the extrastress tensor is given by a differential constitutive equation and is such that the retardation time is large (weakly viscoelastic fluids).

We show the existence of a unique viscoelastic steady flow close to a given Newtonian flow and investigate its linear stability.

As an example, we consider the Bénard problem for viscoelastic fluids and we prove that there exists a nontrivial linearly stable flow of a weakly viscoelastic fluid in a container heated from below.

Let I be the group of rotations of the circle and suppose that a map f from I into I is “almost linear”. More precisely, let ε be a positive real number and suppose that d(f(x)+f(y), f(x + y))<ε for all x and y in I; f is said to be an ε-homomorphism. If ε is sufficiently small, then a homomorphism h from I into I can be constructed such that d(f(x), h(x))≦ε for all x in I. This result is refined and generalized in several ways.

The system of differential equations ∇f = M∇g, where M is a given square matrix, arises in many contexts. A complete solution to this problem in the case when M is a constant matrix is presented here. Applications to continuum mechanics and biHamiltonian systems are indicated.

A new formula is given for the spectral function in singular Sturm–Liouville problems where the potential is like – (const.)xc (0 < c ≦ 2). The formula is used to answer an open question concerning the asymptotic form of the spectral function.

We study the bifurcation of limit cycles in general quadratic perturbations of the particular quadratic system which represents one of two codimension-five components in the intersection of two strata in the centre manifold, and Q4. The study of limit cycles for this degenerate case requires us to investigate not the first but the second variation M2 of the displacement function. We prove that up to three limit cycles can emerge from the period annulus surrounding the centre. This implies that the cyclicity of period annuli of nearby systems in and Q4 is at most three as well. Our approach relies upon the possibility of deriving appropriate Picard–Fuchs equations satisfied by the four independent integrals included in M2.

An integral operator is constructed which maps solutions of the reduced wave equation defined in exterior domains onto solutions of ∆n u+λ2(l+B(r))u = 0 (*) defined in exterior domains, where B(r) is a continuously differentiable function of compact support. This operator is then used to construct a solution to the exterior Neumann problem for (*) satisfying the Sommerfeld radiation condition at infinity. Such problems arise in connection with the scattering of acoustic waves in a non-homogeneous medium, and this paper gives a method for solving these problems which is suitable for analytic and numerical approximations.

In this paper, we study the existence of periodic solutions of neutral functional differential equations (NFDEs). A topological transversality theorem is used to obtain fixed points of certain nonlinear compact operators, which correspond to periodic solutions of the original differential equations. The method relies on a priori bounds on periodic solutions to a family of appropriately constructed NFDEs. A general existence theorem is proved and several illustrative examples are given where we use Liapunov-like functions in deriving such a priori bounds on periodic solutions. Due to the topological nature of the approach, the theorem applies as well to NFDEs of mixed type and NFDEs with state-dependent delay. Some comparisons between our results and the existing ones are also provided.

Let Ω ⊂ Rn be a bounded domain and let f : Ω × RN × RN×n → R. Consider the functional over the class of Sobolev functions W1,q(Ω;RN) (1 ≤ q ≤ ∞) for which the integral on the right is well defined. In this paper we establish sufficient conditions on a given function u0 and f to ensure that u0 provides an Lr local minimizer for I where 1 ≤ r ≤ ∞. The case r = ∞ is somewhat known and there is a considerable literature on the subject treating the case min(n, N) = 1, mostly based on the field theory of the calculus of variations. The main contribution here is to present a set of sufficient conditions for the case 1 ≤ r < ∞. Our proof is based on an indirect approach and is largely motivated by an argument of Hestenes relying on the concept of ‘directional convergence’.

A spin factor is a JW-factor of type I2. It is shown that certain automorphisms of finite dimensional spin factors extend to extremal positive linear maps on complex matrix algebras which are not decomposable, and hence, do not preserve extreme rays of the positive cone.