The article considers the Dirichlet problem for a high-order mixed-type equation that splits into factors, each of which is a Lavrentiev-Bitsadze equation with its own excellent coefficient. Sufficient conditions are found for the coefficients under which the problem has a classical solution.
We consider an oblique derivative problem in a wedge for nondivergence parabolic equations with discontinuous in $t$ coefficients. We obtain weighted coercive estimates of solutions in anisotropic Sobolev spaces.
We obtain Calderón-Zygmund type estimates for parabolic equations with Orlicz growth, where nonlinearities involved in the equations may be discontinuous for the space and time variables. In addition, we consider parabolic systems with the Uhlenbeck structure.
We characterize the behavior of the solutions of linear evolution partial differential equations on the half line in the presence of discontinuous initial conditions or discontinuous boundary conditions, as well as the behavior of the solutions in the presence of corner singularities. The characterization focuses on an expansion in terms of computable special functions.
In this note we study the global regularity in the Morrey spaces for the second derivatives for the strong solutions of non variational elliptic equations.
We obtain new partial Hölder continuity results for solutions to divergence form elliptic systems with discontinuous coefficients, obeying $p(x)$-type nonstandard growth conditions. By an application of the method of $\mathcal{A}$-harmonic approximation, we are able to allow for both VMO-discontinuities in the coefficients, and the minimal $\log$-Hölder regularity assumption on the exponent function. In doing so, we recover a local version of the quantisation phenomenon characteristic continuous coefficient case.
We prove an existence result for a class of Dirichlet boundary value problems with discontinuous nonlinearity and involving a Leray-Lions operator. The proof combines monotonicity methods for elliptic problems, variational inequality techniques and basic tools related to monotone operators.
In this paper, we derive a local Carleman estimate for the complex second order elliptic operator with Lipschitz coefficients having jump discontinuities. Combing the result in [BL] and the arguments in [DcFLVW], we present an elementary method to derive the Carleman estimate under the optimal regularity assumption on the coefficients.
We establish pointwise estimates for the Green function to the Dirichlet problem for parabolic equation with coefficients measurable in time variable. Using these estimate we obtain coercive estimates for this problem in anisotropic weighted Lebesgue spaces and prove the solvability theorems.
In this paper, we would like to derive a quantitative uniqueness estimate, the three-region inequality, for the second order elliptic equation with jump discontinuous coefficients. The derivation of the inequality relies on the Carleman estimate proved in our previous work. We then apply the three-region inequality to study the size estimate problem with one boundary measurement.
This article addresses linear hyperbolic partial differential equations with non-smooth coefficients and distributional data. Solutions are studied in the framework of Colombeau algebras of generalized functions. Its aim is to prove upper and lower bounds for the singular support of generalized solutions for wave equations with discontinuous coefficients. New existence results with weaker assumptions on the representing families are required and proven. The program is carried through for various types of one- and multidimensional wave equations and hyperbolic systems.
In this paper, we review some results over the last 10-15 years on elliptic and parabolic equations with discontinuous coefficients. We begin with an approach given by N. V. Krylov to parabolic equations in the whole space with VMO$_x$ coefficients. We then discuss some subsequent development including elliptic and parabolic equations with coefficients which are allowed to be merely measurable in one or two space directions, weighted $L_p$ estimates with Muckenhoupt ($A_p$) weights, non-local elliptic and parabolic equations, as well as fully nonlinear elliptic and parabolic equations.
We prove the existence of a fundamental solution of the Cauchy initial boundary value problem on the whole space for a parabolic partial differential equation with discontinuous unbounded first-order coefficient at the origin. We establish also non-asymptotic, rapidly decreasing at infinity, upper and lower estimates for the fundamental solution. We extend the classical parametrix method provided by E.E. Levi.
We study linear and quasilinear Venttsel boundary value problems involving elliptic operators with discontinuous coefficients. On the base of the a priori estimates obtained, maximal regularity and strong solvability in Sobolev spaces are proved.
We deal with the problem of determining a time varying inclusion within a thermal conductor. In particular we study the continuous dependance of the inclusion from the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map. Under a priori regularity assumptions on the unknown defect we establish logarithmic stability estimates.
We consider a class of nonvariational linear operators formed by homogeneous left invariant Hormander's vector fields with respect to a structure of Carnot group. The bounded coefficients of the operators belong to "vanishing logarithmic mean oscillation" class with respect to the distance induced by the vector fields (in particular they can be discontinuous). We prove local estimates in "local BMO" spaces intersected with the Lebesgue spaces. Even in the uniformly elliptic case our estimates improve the known results.
We consider the Dirichlet problem in a wedge for parabolic equation whose coefficients are measurable function of t. We obtain coercive estimates in weighted $L_{p,q}$-spaces. The concept of "critical exponent" introduced in the paper plays here the crucial role. Various important properties of the critical exponent are proved. We give applications to the Dirichlet problem for linear and quasi-linear non-divergence parabolic equations with discontinuous in time coefficients in cylinders $Ω\times(0,T)$, where $Ω$ is a bounded domain with an edge or with a conical point.
In this paper, we prove the existence of a weak solution for the Dirichlet boundary value problem related to the $p(x)-$Laplacian $$ -\mbox{div}(|\nabla u|^{p(x)-2}\nabla u)+u\in -[\underline{g}(x,u),\overline{g}(x,u)], $$ by using the degree theory after turning the problem into a Hammerstein equation. The right hand side $g$ is a possibly discontinuous function in the second variable satisfying some non-standard growth conditions..
We consider Hamilton--Jacobi equations, where the Hamiltonian depends discontinuously on both the spatial and temporal location. Our main results are the existence and well--posedness of a viscosity solution to the Cauchy problem. We define a viscosity solution by treating the discontinuities in the coefficients analogously to ``internal boundaries''. By defining an appropriate penalization function, we prove that viscosity solutions are unique. The existence of viscosity solutions is established by showing that a sequence of front tracking approximations is compact in $L^\infty$, and that the…
This paper concerns the inverse problem of retrieving a stationary potential for the Schrödinger evolution equation in a bounded domain of RN with Dirichlet data and discontinuous principal coefficient a(x) from a single time-dependent Neumann boundary measurement. We consider that the discontinuity of a is located on a simple closed hyper-surface called the interface, and a is constant in each one of the interior and exterior domains with respect to this interface. We prove uniqueness and lipschitz stability for this inverse problem under certain convexity hypothesis on the geometry of the in…
We consider an oblique derivative problem for non-divergence parabolic equations with discontinuous in $t$ coefficients in a half-space. We obtain weighted coercive estimates of solutions in anisotropic Sobolev spaces. We also give an application of this result to linear parabolic equations in a bounded domain. In particular, if the boundary is of class ${\cal C}^{1,δ}$, $δ\in (0,1]$, then we present a coercive estimate of solutions in weighted anisotropic Sobolev spaces, where the weight is a power of the distance to the boundary.
We prove in this short report the existence of a fundamental solution (F.S.) for the Cauchy initial boundary problem on the whole space for the parabolic differential equation having at origin the point of non-integrable unbounded discontinuity for coefficient before a first order derivative. We give also the non-asymptotic rapidly decreasing at infinity estimate for these function. We extend the classical parametrix method offered by E.E.Levi.
We provide an integral estimate for a non-divergence (non-variational) form second order elliptic equation $a_{ij}u_{ij}=u^p$, $u\ge 0$, $p\in[0, 1)$, with bounded discontinuous coefficients $a_{ij}$ having small BMO norm. We consider the simplest discontinuity of the form~$x\otimes x|x|^{-2}$ at the origin. As an application we show that the free boundary corresponding to the obstacle problem (i.e. when~$p=0$) cannot be smooth at the points of discontinuity of~$a_{ij}(x)$. To implement our construction, an integral estimate and a scale invariance will provide the homogeneity of the blow-up se…
The paper considers a boundary value problem for the high-order Lavrent'ev-Bitsadze equation. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the uniqueness of the solution are found. When substantiating the existence, the problem of "small denominators" arises. Sufficient conditions for the separability of the "small denominator" from zero are found. An example of a boundary value problem not solvable by the Fourier method is given, in the cases rectangle with integer side measurements.
We study generalized solutions of multidimensional transport equation with bounded measurable solenoidal field of coefficients $a(x)$. It is shown that any generalized solution satisfies the renormalization property if and only if the operator $a\cdot\nabla u$, $u\in C_0^1(\mathbb{R}^n)$ in the Hilbert space $L^2(\mathbb{R}^n)$ is an essentially skew-adjoint operator, and this is equivalent to the uniqueness of generalized solutions. We also establish existence of a contractive semigroup, which provides generalized solutions, and give a criterion of its uniqueness.
We prove the partial Hölder continuity on boundary points for minimizers of quasiconvex non-degenerate functionals \begin{equation*} \mathcal{F}({\bf u}) \colon =\int_Ω f(x,{\bf u},D{\bf u})\,\mathrm{d}x, \end{equation*} where $f$ satisfies a uniform VMO condition with respect to the $x$-variable, is continuous with respect to ${\bf u}$ and has a general growth with respect to the gradient variable.
This paper is devoted to the investigation of propagation of singularities in hyperbolic equations with non-smooth oefficients, using the Colombeau theory of generalized functions. As a model problem, we study the Cauchy problem for the one-dimensional wave equation with a discontinuous coefficient depending on time. After demonstrating the existence and uniqueness of generalized solutions in the sense of Colombeau to the problem, we investigate the phenomenon of propagation of singularities, arising from delta function initial data, for the case of a piecewise constant coefficient. We also pr…
This article studies the partial Hölder continuity of weak solutions to certain degenerate parabolic systems whose model is the differentiable parabolic $p(x,t)$-Laplacian system, \begin{equation*}\partial_t u-\operatorname{div}[μ(z)(1+|Du|^2)^{\frac{p(z)-2}{2}}Du]=0,\qquad p(z)\geq2.\end{equation*} Here, the exponential function $p(z)$ satisfies a logarithmic continuity condition. We show that if $μ(z)$ satisfies a certain VMO-type condition, then $u$ is locally Hölder continuous except for a measure zero set.
We consider a Sturm--Liouville boundary value problem in a boun\-ded domain $\cD$ of $\mathbb{R}^n$. By this is meant that the differential equation is given by a second order elliptic operator of divergent form in $\cD$ and the boundary conditions are of Robin type on $\partial \cD$. The first order term of the boundary operator is the oblique derivative whose coefficients bear discontinuities of the first kind. Applying the method of weak perturbation of compact self-adjoint operators and the method of rays of minimal growth, we prove the completeness of root functions related to the boundar…
Li-Vogelius and Li-Nirenberg gave a gradient estimate for solutions of strongly elliptic equations and systems of divergence forms with piecewise smooth coefficients, respectively. The discontinuities of the coefficients are assumed to be given by manifolds of codimension 1, which we called them manifolds of discontinuities. Their gradient estimate is independent of the distances between manifolds of discontinuities. In this paper, we gave a parabolic version of their results. That is, we gave a gradient estimate for parabolic equations of divergence forms with piecewise smooth coefficients. T…
We study linear time fractional diffusion equations in divergence form of time order less than one. It is merely assumed that the coefficients are measurable and bounded, and that they satisfy a uniform parabolicity condition. As the main result we establish for nonnegative weak supersolutions of such problems a weak Harnack inequality with optimal critical exponent. The proof relies on new a priori estimates for time fractional problems and uses Moser's iteration technique and an abstract lemma of Bombieri and Giusti, the latter allowing to avoid the rather technically involved approach via B…
This paper is devoted to the study of some nonlinear parabolic equations with discontinuous diffusion intensities. Such problems appear naturally in physical and biological models. Our analysis is based on variational techniques and in particular on gradient flows in the space of probability measures equipped with the distance arising in the Monge-Kantorovich optimal transport problem. The associated internal energy functionals in general fail to be differentiable, therefore classical results do not apply directly in our setting. We study the combination of both linear and porous medium type d…
Global weak solutions of 3D compressible magnetohydrodynamic equations subject to large external potential forces with discontinuous initial data and vacuum
In this paper, we consider the following free boundary problem $$ (P)\left\{\begin{array}{ll} Δu = λϕ(x)\Sum_{i=1}^n H(u-μ_i )& \quad \mbox{ in }\ Ω=Ω_2\setminus \overlineΩ_1, \\[0.3cm]u =0 &\quad \mbox{ on } \partial Ω_2, \\[0.3cm]u =M &\quad \mbox{ on } \partial Ω_1. \end{array} \right. $$ The domain $Ω$ is a convex ring where $Ω_1$ and $Ω_2$ are bounded convex domain in $\mathbb{R}^N,$ $N\geq 2,$ $H$ is the Heaviside step function, $λ, M,μ_i$ $(i=1,..,n)$ are a given positive real parameters and $ϕ$ is a given function . We show that under suitable conditions, there exists a solution to pro…
In this paper we study nonnegative minimizers of general degenerate elliptic functionals, $\int F(X,u,Du) dX \to \min$, for variational kernels $F$ that are discontinuous in $u$ with discontinuity of order $\sim χ_{\{u > 0 \}}$. The Euler-Lagrange equation is therefore governed by a non-homogeneous, degenerate elliptic equation with free boundary between the positive and the zero phases of the minimizer. We show optimal gradient estimate and nondegeneracy of minima. We also address weak and strong regularity properties of free boundary. We show the set $\{u > 0 \}$ has locally finite perimeter…
We study existence and uniqueness of distributional solutions to the differential equation of the Euler-Bernoulli rod with discontinuous coefficients and right-hand side. Upon checking the validity of a solution the occurring products of singular coefficients with the distributional solution have no obvious meaning. When interpreted on the most general level of the so-called hierarchy of distributional products, it turns out that existence of a solution forces a minimum regularity to hold. Curiously, the choice of the distributional product concept is thus incompatible with the possibility of …
In the discrete setting of one-dimensional finite-differences we prove a Carleman estimate for a semi-discretization of the parabolic operator $\partial_t-\partial_x (c\partial_x)$ where the diffusion coefficient $c$ has a jump. As a consequence of this Carleman estimate, we deduce consistent null-controllability results for classes of semi-linear parabolic equations.
Consider an isotropic elastic medium $Ω\subset \mathbb{R}^3$ whose Lamé parameters are piecewise smooth. In the elastic wave initial value inverse problem, we are given the solution operator for the elastic wave equation, but only outside $Ω$ and only for initial data supported outside $Ω$. Using the recently introduced scattering control series in the acoustic case, we prove that piecewise smooth Lamé parameters are uniquely determined by this map under certain geometric conditions. We also show the extent that multiple scattering in the interior may be suppressed and eliminated with access t…
In the first main result of this paper we prove that one can approximate discontinious solutions of the 1d Navier Stokes system with solutions of the 1d Navier-Stokes-Korteweg system as the capilarity parameter tends to 0. Moreover, we allow the viscosity coefficients $μ$ = $μ$ ($ρ$) to degenerate near vaccum. In order to obtain this result, we propose two main technical novelties. First of all, we provide an upper bound for the density verifing NSK that does not degenerate when the capillarity coefficient tends to 0. Second of all, we are able to show that the positive part of the effective v…
By using some deep tools from microlocal analysis, J. Le Rousseau and L. Robbiano (Invent. Math., 183 (2011), 245--336) established several Carleman estimates for parabolic operators with isotropic diffusion coefficients which have jumps at interfaces. In this paper, we revisit the same problem but for the general case of anisotropic diffusion coefficients. Our main tools are a pointwise estimate for parabolic operators and a suitable chosen weight function.
We prove that nonlocal minimal graphs in the plane exhibit generically stickiness effects and boundary discontinuities. More precisely, we show that if a nonlocal minimal graph in a slab is continuous up to the boundary, then arbitrarily small perturbations of the far-away data produce boundary discontinuities. Hence, either a nonlocal minimal graph is discontinuous at the boundary, or a small perturbation of the prescribed conditions produces boundary discontinuities. The proof relies on a sliding method combined with a fine boundary regularity analysis, based on a discontinuity/smoothness al…
We will show that the same type of estimates known for the fundamental solutions for scalar parabolic equations with smooth enough coefficients hold for the first order derivatives of fundamental solution with respect to space variables of scalar parabolic equations of divergence form with discontinuous coefficients. The estimate is very important for many applications. For example, it is important for the inverse problem identifying inclusions inside a heat conductive medium from boundary measurements.
Asymptotic formula is derived for the behavior of the fundamental solution of the second-order elliptic self-adjoint operator with a piecewise-smooth coefficient in front of the senior derivatives near the discontinuity surface of the coefficient. Applications to inverse problems are discussed.
We study linear and quasilinear Venttsel initial-boundary value problems for parabolic operators with discontinuous coefficients. On the basis of the a priori estimates obtained, strong solvability in composite Sobolev spaces is proved.
We show uniqueness in law for a general class of stochastic differential equations in $\mathbb{R}^d$, $d\ge 2$, with possibly degenerate and/or fully discontinuous locally bounded coefficients among all weak solutions that spend zero time at the points of degeneracy of the dispersion matrix. The points of degeneracy have $d$-dimensional Lebesgue-Borel measure zero. Weak existence is obtained for more general, not necessarily locally bounded drift coefficient.
For $Ω\subseteq\mathbb{R}^{n}$ an open and bounded region we consider solutions $u\in W_{\text{loc}}^{1,p(x)}\big(Ω;\mathbb{R}^{N}\big)$, with $N>1$, of the $p(x)$-Laplacian system \begin{equation} \nabla\cdot\left(a(x)|Du|^{p(x)-2}Du\right)=0\text{, a.e. }x\inΩ,\notag \end{equation} where concerning the coefficient function $x\mapsto a(x)$ we assume only that \begin{equation} a\in W^{1,q}(Ω)\cap L^{\infty}(Ω),\notag \end{equation} where $q>1$ is essentially arbitrary. This implies that the coefficient in the PDE can be highly irregular, and yet in spite of this we still recover that \begin{eq…
Starting from a microscopic model for a system of neurons evolving in time which individually follow a stochastic integrate-and-fire type model, we study a mean-field limit of the system. Our model is described by a system of SDEs with discontinuous coefficients for the action potential of each neuron and takes into account the (random) spatial configuration of neurons allowing the interaction to depend on it. In the limit as the number of particles tends to infinity, we obtain a nonlinear Fokker-Planck type PDE in two variables, with derivatives only with respect to one variable and discontin…
The paper considers parabolic equations in non-divergent form with discontinuous coefficients at higher derivatives. Their investigation is most complicated because, in general, in the case of discontinuous coefficients, the uniqueness of a solution for nonlinear parabolic or elliptic equations can fail, and there is no a priory estimate for partial derivatives of a solution. In this paper, existence and regularity results are obtained under some Cordes type restrictions on the coefficients. The results are applied to diffusion processes.
Subsurface flows are commonly modeled by advection-diffusion equations. Insufficient measurements or uncertain material procurement may be accounted for by random coefficients. To represent, for example, transitions in heterogeneous media, the parameters of the equation are spatially discontinuous. Specifically, a scenario with coupled advection- and diffusion coefficients that are modeled as sums of continuous random fields and discontinuous jump components are considered. For the numerical approximation of the solution, an adaptive, pathwise discretization scheme based on a Finite Element ap…
The Richards' equation is a model for flow of water in unsaturated soils. The coefficients of this (nonlinear) partial differential equation describe the permeability of the medium. Insufficient or uncertain measurements are commonly modeled by random coefficients. For flows in heterogeneous\textbackslash fractured\textbackslash porous media, the coefficients are modeled as discontinuous random fields, where the interfaces along the stochastic discontinuities represent transitions in the media. More precisely, the random coefficient is given by the sum of a (continuous) Gaussian random field a…