In this paper we use the method of matched asymptotic expansions in order to obtain a geometric motion as the singular limit of a nonlinear fourth order inhomogeneous equation.
We study the $L^1-L^\infty$ dispersive estimate of the inhomogeneous fourth-order Schrödinger operator $H=Δ^{2}-Δ+V(x)$ with zero energy obstructions in $\mathbf{R}^{3}$. For the related propagator $e^{-itH}$, we prove that for $0<t\leq 1$, then $e^{-itH}P_{ac}(H)$ satisfies the $|t|^{-3/4}$-estimate. For $t>1$, we prove that:\,\, 1) if zero is a regular point of $H$, then $e^{-itH}P_{ac}(H)$ satisfies the $|t|^{-3/2}$- dispersive estimate.\,\, 2) if zero is a resonance of $H$, there exists a time dependent operator $F_{t}$ such that $e^{-itH}P_{ac}(H)-F_{t}$ satisfies the $|t|^{-3/2}$- disper…
We consider a free boundary problem modeling electrostatic microelectromechanical systems. The model consists of a fourth-order damped wave equation for the elastic plate displacement which is coupled to an elliptic equation for the electrostatic potential. We first review some recent results on existence and non-existence of steady-states as well as on local and global well-posedness of the dynamical problem, the main focus being on the possible touchdown behavior of the elastic plate. We then investigate the behavior of the solutions in the time singular limit when the ratio between inertial…
This paper concerns with the convergence analysis of a fourth order singular perturbation of the Dirichlet Monge-Ampère problem in the $n$-dimensional radial symmetric case. A detailed study of the fourth order problem is presented. In particular, various {\em a priori} estimates with explicit dependence on the perturbation parameter $\vepsi$ are derived, and a crucial convexity property is also proved for the solution of the fourth order problem. Using these estimates and the convexity property, we prove that the solution of the perturbed problem converges uniformly and compactly to the uniqu…
We study the nonlinear inhomogeneous wave equation in one space dimension: $v_{tt} - T(v,x)_{xx} = 0$. By constructing some "decoupled" Riccati type equations for smooth solutions, we provide a singularity formation result without restrictions on the total variation of unknown, which generalize earlier singularity results of Lax and the first author. These results are applied to several one-dimensional hyperbolic models, such as compressible Euler flows with a general pressure law, elasticity in an inhomogeneous medium, transverse MHD flow, and compressible flow in a variable area duct.
Finite time singularity formation in a fourth order nonlinear parabolic partial differential equation (PDE) is analyzed. The PDE is a variant of a ubiquitous model found in the field of Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and is studied on a one-dimensional (1D) strip and the unit disc. The solution itself remains continuous at the point of singularity while its higher derivatives diverge, a phenomenon known as quenching. For certain parameter regimes it is shown numerically that the singularity will form at multiple isolated points in the 1D strip case and along a ring of points in the ra…
We study the solvability of the second boundary value problem for a class of highly singular fourth order equations of Monge-Ampère type. They arise in the approximation of convex functionals subject to a convexity constraint using Abreu type equations. Both the Legendre transform and partial Legendre transform are used in our analysis. In two dimensions, we establish global solutions to the second boundary value problem for highly singular Abreu equations where the right hand sides are of $q$-Laplacian type for all $q>1$. We show that minimizers of variational problems with a convexity constr…
A nonlinear parabolic equation of the fourth order is analyzed. The equation is characterized by a mobility coefficient that degenerates at 0. Existence of at least one weak solution is proved by using a regularization procedure and deducing suitable a-priori estimates. If a viscosity term is added and additional conditions on the nonlinear terms are assumed, then it is proved that any weak solution becomes instantaneously strictly positive. This in particular implies uniqueness for strictly positive times and further time-regularization properties. The long-time behavior of the problem is als…
This manuscript proves the energy scattering of global solutions to a repulsive fourth-order generalized Hartree equation with non-radial data in the inter-critical regime. This work uses a new approach due to Dodson-Murphy [4] and extends the previous work [14] by removing the spherically symmetric assumption on the data.
In this paper, we consider the relation between $p > 1$ and critical dimension of the extremal solution of the semilinear equation $$\{\begin{array}{lllllll} βΔ^{2}u-τΔu=\fracλ{(1-u)^{p}} & in\ \ B, 0<u\leq 1 & in\ \ B, u=Δu=0 & on\ \ \partial B, \end{array} . $$ where $B$ is the unit ball in $R^{n}$, $λ>0$ is a parameter, $τ>0, β>0,p>1$ are fixed constants. By Hardy-Rellich inequality, we find that when $p$ is large enough, the critical dimension is 13.}
In this paper we study the biharmonic operator perturbed by an inverse fourth-order potential. In particular, we consider the operator $A=Δ^2-V=Δ^2-c|x|^{-4}$ where $c$ is any constant such that $c<\left(\frac{N(N-4)}{4}\right)^2$. The semigroup generated by $-A$ in $L^2(\mathbb{R}^N)$, $N\geq5$, extrapolates to a bounded holomorphic $C_0$-semigroup on $L^p(\mathbb{R}^N)$ for $p\in [p^{'}_0,p_0]$ where $p_0=\frac{2N}{N-4}$ and $p_0^{'}$ is its dual exponent. Furthermore, we study the boundedness of the Riesz transform $ΔA^{-1/2}$ on $L^p(\mathbb{R}^N)$ for all $p\in(p_0^{'},2]$.
This paper is devoted to the study of the inhomogeneous wave equation with singular (less than continuous) time dependent coefficients. Particular attention is given to the role of the lower order terms and suitable Levi conditions are formulated in order to obtain a very weak solution as introduced in \cite{GR:14}. Very weak solutions for this kind of equations are also investigated from a numerical point of view in two toy models: the wave equation with a Heaviside function and a delta distribution, respectively, as coefficient in its principal part.
This note studies the asymptotic behavior of global solutions to the fourth-order Schrödinger equation $$i\dot u+Δ^2 u+F(x,u)=0 .$$ Indeed, for both cases, local and non-local source term, the scattering is obtained in the focusing mass super-critical and energy sub-critical regimes, with radial setting. This work uses a new approach due to Dodson-Murphy \cite{dm}.
We consider a singularly perturbed fourth-order problem with third-order terms on the unit square. With a formal power series approach, we decompose the solution into solutions of reduced (third-order) problems and various layer parts. The existence of unique solutions for the problem itself and for the reduced third-order problems is also addressed.
Using the method of Nehari manifold, we prove the existence of at least two distinct weak solutions to elliptic equation of four order with singulatities and with critical Sobolev growth.
We show the existence and the regularity properties of the weak solutions to the two-dimensional stationary incompressible inhomogeneous Navier-Stokes equations with variable viscosity coefficient, by analyzing a fourth-order nonlinear elliptic equation for the stream function. The density function and the viscosity coefficient may have large variations. In addition, we formulate the solutions for the parallel, concentric and radial flows respectively, and as examples we calculate the solutions with piecewise-constant viscosity coefficients explicitly.
The dynamical and stationary behaviors of a fourth-order equation in the unit ball with clamped boundary conditions and a singular reaction term are investigated. The equation arises in the modeling of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and includes a positive voltage parameter $λ$. It is shown that there is a threshold value $λ_*>0$ of the voltage parameter such that no radially symmetric stationary solution exists for $λ>λ_*$, while at least two such solutions exist for $λ\in (0,λ_*)$. Local and global well-posedness results are obtained for the corresponding hyperbolic and parabolic evol…
We consider the time-harmonic acoustic wave scattering by a bounded {\it anisotropic inhomogeneity} embedded in an unbounded {\it anisotropic} homogeneous medium. The material parameters may have discontinuities across the interface between the inhomogeneous interior and homogeneous exterior regions. The corresponding mathematical problem is formulated as a transmission problems for a second order elliptic partial differential equation of Helmholtz type with discontinuous variable coefficients. Using a localised quasi-parametrix based on the harmonic fundamental solution, the transmission prob…
Blow-up in second and fourth order semi-linear parabolic partial differential equations (PDEs) is considered in bounded regions of one, two and three spatial dimensions with uniform initial data. A phenomenon whereby singularities form at multiple points simultaneously is exhibited and explained by means of a singular perturbation theory. In the second order case we pre- dict that points furthest from the boundary are selected by the dynamics of the PDE for singularity. In the fourth order case, singularities can form simultaneously at multiple locations, even in one spatial dimension. In two …
We prove some qualitative properties for singular solutions to a class of strongly coupled system involving a Gross--Pitaevskii-type nonlinearity. Our main theorems are vectorial fourth order counterparts of the classical results of [J. Serrin, Acta Math. (1964)], [P.-L. Lions, J. Differential Equations (1980)], [P. Aviles, Comm. Math. Phys. (1987)], and [B. Gidas and J. Spruck, Comm. Pure Appl. Math. (1981)]. On the technical level, we use the moving sphere method to classify the limit blow-up solutions to our system. Besides, applying asymptotic analysis techniques, we show that these soluti…
We study the limit behaviour of solutions of a class of solutions of nonlinear parabolic equations with a degenerate strong absorption. We prove that two types of phenomena can occur: the pointwise singularity or the formation of razor blades (or persistent singularities).
In this paper, we give several new approaches to study interior estimates for a class of fourth order equations of Monge-Ampère type. First, we prove interior estimates for the homogeneous equation in dimension two by using the partial Legendre transform. As an application, we obtain a new proof of the Bernstein theorem without using Caffarelli-Gutiérrez's estimate, including the Chern conjecture on affine maximal surfaces. For the inhomogeneous equation, we also obtain a new proof in dimension two by an integral method relying on the Monge-Ampère Sobolev inequality. This proof works even when…
A one-way wave equation is an evolution equation in one of the space directions that describes (approximately) a wave field. The exact wave field is approximated in a high frequency, microlocal sense. Here we derive the pseudodifferential one-way wave equation for an inhomogeneous acoustic medium using a known factorization argument. We give explicitly the two highest order terms, that are necessary for approximating the solution. A wave front (singularity) whose propagation velocity has non-zero component in the special direction is correctly described. The equation can't describe singulariti…
We study the regularity of the extremal solution of the semilinear biharmonic equation $\bi u=\fλ{(1-u)^2}$, which models a simple Micro-Electromechanical System (MEMS) device on a ball $B\subset\IR^N$, under Dirichlet boundary conditions $u=\partial_νu=0$ on $\partial B$. We complete here the results of F.H. Lin and Y.S. Yang \cite{LY} regarding the identification of a "pull-in voltage" $\la^*>0$ such that a stable classical solution $u_\la$ with $0<u_\la<1$ exists for $\la\in (0,\la^*)$, while there is none of any kind when $\la>\la^*$. Our main result asserts that the extremal solution $u_{…
We study the asymptotic behavior for singular solutions to a critical fourth order system generalizing the constant $Q$-curvature equation. Our main result extends to the case of strongly coupled systems, the celebrated asymptotic classification due to [L. A. Caffarelli, B. Gidas and J. Spruck, Comm. Pure Appl. Math. (1989)] and [N. Korevaar, R. Mazzeo, F. Pacard and R. Schoen, Invent. Math., (1999)]. On the technical level, we use an involved spectral analysis to study the Jacobi fields' growth properties in the kernel of the linearization of our system around a blow-up limit solution. Beside…
We obtain necessary conditions and sufficient conditions on the existence of solutions to the Cauchy problem for a fractional semilinear heat equation with an inhomogeneous term. We identify the strongest spatial singularity of the inhomogeneous term for the solvability of the Cauchy problem.
We study qualitative properties for nonnegative solutions to a conformally invariant coupled system of fourth order equations involving critical exponents. For solutions defined in the punctured space, there exist essentially two cases to analyze. If the origin is a removable singularity, we prove that non-singular solutions are rotationally invariant and weakly positive. More precisely, they are the product of a fourth order spherical solution by a unit vector with nonnegative coordinates. If the origin is a non-removable singularity, we show that the solutions are radially symmetric and stro…
We consider the homogenization of a singularly perturbed self-adjoint fourth order elliptic equation with locally periodic coefficients, stated in a bounded domain. We impose Dirichlet boundary conditions on the boundary of the domain. The presence of large parameters in the lower order terms and the dependence of the coefficients on the slow variable give rise to the effect of localization of the eigenfunctions. We show that the $j$th eigenfunction can be approximated by a rescaled function that is constructed in terms of the $j$th eigenfunction of fourth or second order order effective opera…
So far most studies on mathematical models for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are focused on the so-called small aspect ratio model which is a wave or beam equation with a singular source term. It is formally derived by setting the aspect ratio equal to zero in a more complex model involving a moving boundary. A rigorous justification of this derivation is provided here when bending is taken into account.
A new method to compute Schauder Estimates for multidimensional fourth order heat-type equations is proposed. In particular, we show how knowing Schauder or Sobolev estimates for the one-dimensional fourth order heat equation allows to derive their multidimensional analogs for equations with time inhomogeneous coefficients with the same constants as in the case of the one-dimensional heat equation. Our method relies on a merger between (Krylov and Priola, 2017), where they actually showed the same result for the classical second order heat equation and (Funaki, 1979), where a probabilistic con…
We consider a fourth order evolution equation involving a singular nonlinear term $\fracλ{(1-u)^{2}}$ in a bounded domain $Ω\subset\R^{n}$. This equation arises in the modeling of microelectromechanical systems. We first investigate the well-posedness of a fourth order parabolic equation which has been studied in \cite{Lau}, where the authors, by the semigroup argument, obtained the well-posedness of this equation for $n\leq2$. Instead of semigroup method, we use the Faedo-Galerkin technique to construct a unique solution of the fourth order parabolic equation for $n\leq7$, which improves and …
We study the regularity of the extremal solution of the semilinear biharmonic equation $βΔ^2 u-τΔu=\fracλ{(1-u)^2}$ on a ball $B \subset \R^N$, under Navier boundary conditions $u=Δu=0$ on $\partial B$, where $λ>0$ is a parameter, while $τ>0$, $β>0$ are fixed constants. It is known that there exists a $λ^{*}$ such that for $λ>λ^{*}$ there is no solution while for $λ<λ^{*}$ there is a branch of minimal solutions. Our main result asserts that the extremal solution $u^{*}$ is regular ($\sup_{B}u^{*}<1$) for $N\leq 8$ and $β, τ>0$ and it is singular ($\sup_{B}u^{*}=1$) for $N\geq 9$, $β>0$, and $τ…
We use asymptotic analysis and numerical simulations to study peak-type singular solutions of the supercritical biharmonic NLS. These solutions have a quartic-root blowup rate, and collapse with a quasi self-similar universal profile, which is a zero-Hamiltonian solution of a fourth-order nonlinear eigenvalue problem.
In this paper we study the following singular perturbation problem for the $p_\varepsilon(x)$-Laplacian: \[ Δ_{p_\varepsilon(x)}u^\varepsilon:=\mbox{div}(|\nabla u^\varepsilon(x)|^{p_\varepsilon(x)-2}\nabla u^\varepsilon)=β_{\varepsilon}(u^\varepsilon)+f_\varepsilon, \quad u^\varepsilon\geq 0, \] where $\varepsilon>0$, $β_{\varepsilon}(s)={1 \over \varepsilon} β({s \over \varepsilon})$, with $β$ a Lipschitz function satisfying $β>0$ in $(0,1)$, $β\equiv 0$ outside $(0,1)$ and $\int β(s)\, ds=M$. The functions $u^\varepsilon$, $f_\varepsilon$ and $p_\varepsilon$ are uniformly bounded. We prove …
In this paper, we study some fourth order singular critical equations of Lichnerowicz type involving the Paneitz-Branson operator, and we prove existence and non existence results under given assumptions.
The necessary and sufficient conditions for a regular positive entire solution $u$ of the biharmonic equation: \begin{equation} \label{0.1} -Δ^2 u=u^{-p} \;\; \mbox{in $\R^N \; (N \geq 3)$}, \;\; p>1 \end{equation} to be a radially symmetric solution are obtained via the moving plane method (MPM) of a system of equations. It is well-known that for any $a>0$, \eqref{0.1} admits a unique minimal positive entire radial solution ${\underline u}_a (r)$ and a family of non-minimal positive entire radial solutions $u_a (r)$ such that $u_a (0)={\underline u}_a (0)=a$ and $u_a (r) \geq {\underline u}_a…
We obtain heat kernel estimates for a class of fourth order non-uniformly elliptic operators in two dimensions. Contrary to existing results, the operators considered have symbols that are not strongly convex. This rises certain difficulties as it is known that, as opposed to the strongly convex case, there is no absolute exponential constant. Our estimates involve sharp constants and Finsler-type distances that are induced by the operator symbol. The main result is based on two general hypotheses, a weighted Sobolev inequalitry and an interpolation inequality, which are related to the singula…
In this paper, we study second-order and fourth-order elliptic problems which include not only a Poisson equation in the bulk but also an inhomogeneous Laplace--Beltrami equation on the boundary of the domain. The bulk and the surface PDE are coupled by a boundary condition that is either of Dirichlet or Robin type. We point out that both the Dirichlet and the Robin type boundary condition can be handled simultaneously through our formalism without having to change the framework. Moreover, we investigate the eigenvalue problems associated with these second-order and fourth-order elliptic syste…
We obtain generalizations of the uniform Sobolev inequalities of Kenig, Ruiz and the fourth author \cite{KRS} for Euclidean spaces and Dos Santos Ferreira, Kenig and Salo \cite{DKS} for compact Riemannian manifolds involving critically singular potentials $V\in L^{n/2}$. We also obtain the analogous improved quasimode estimates of the the first, third and fourth authors \cite{BSS} , Hassell and Tacy \cite{HassellTacy}, the first and fourth author \cite{SBLog}, and Hickman \cite{Hickman} as well as analogues of the improved uniform Sobolev estimates of \cite{BSSY} and \cite{Hickman} involving s…
We study the minimizers of $L^2$-subcritical inhomogeneous variational problems with spatially decaying nonlinear terms, which contain $x = 0$ as a singular point. The limit concentration behavior of minimizers is proved as $M\to\infty$ by establishing the refined analysis of the spatially decaying nonlinear term.
We show precompactness results for solutions to parabolic fourth order geometric evolution equations. As part of the proof we obtain smoothing estimates for these flows in the presence of a curvature bound, an improvement on prior results which also require a Sobolev constant bound. As consequences of these results we show that for any solution with a finite time singularity, the $L^{\infty}$ norm of the curvature must go to infinity. Furthermore, we characterize the behavior at infinity of solutions with bounded curvature.
The well known heat equation with finite speed of propagation proposed by Cattaneo is obtained by a more general fourth order PDE when a certain (small) parameters is put equal to zero. It seems that this fourth order equation has been essentially overlooked in the literature, in particular when it is subject to non homogeneous boundary conditions. In this paper we examine its well posedness and the asymptotic behavior when certain coefficients tend to singular values.