Consider the equation

where are linear positive continuous operators and f : Cloc(ℝ;ℝ) → Lloc(ℝ;ℝ) is a continuous operator satisfying the local Carathéodory conditions. Efficient conditions guaranteeing the existence of a global solution, which is bounded and non-negative in the neighbourhood of –∞, to the equation considered are established provided that ℓ0, ℓ1 and f are Volterra-type operators. The existence of a solution that is positive on the whole real line is discussed as well. Furthermore, the asymptotic properties of such solutions are studied in the neighbourhood of –∞. The results are applied to certain models appearing in the natural sciences.

We prove a strong optimal Hardy–Sobolev inequality for the twisted Laplacian on ℂn . The twisted Laplacian is the magnetic Laplacian for a system of n particles in the plane, corresponding to the constant magnetic field. The inequality we obtain is strong optimal in the sense that the weight cannot be improved. We also show that our result extends to a one-parameter family of weighted Sobolev spaces.

For a dynamics on the whole line, for both discrete and continuous time, we extend a result of Pliss that gives a characterization of the notion of a trichotomy in various directions. More precisely, the result gives a characterization in terms of an admissibility property in the whole line (namely, the existence of bounded solutions of a linear dynamics under any nonlinear bounded perturbation) of the existence of a trichotomy, i.e. of exponential dichotomies in the future and in the past, together with a certain transversality condition at time zero. In particular, we consider arbitrary linear operators acting on a Banach space as well as sequences of norms instead of a single norm, which allows us to consider the general case of non-uniform exponential behaviour.

In this note semi-bounded self-adjoint extensions of symmetric operators are investigated with the help of the abstract notion of quasi boundary triples and their Weyl functions. The main purpose is to provide new sufficient conditions on the parameters in the boundary space to induce self-adjoint realizations, and to relate the decay of the Weyl function to estimates on the lower bound of the spectrum. The abstract results are illustrated with uniformly elliptic second-order partial differential equations on domains with non-compact boundaries.

We consider the total curvature of graphs of curves in high-codimension Euclidean space. We introduce the corresponding relaxed energy functional and prove an explicit representation formula. In the case of continuous Cartesian curves, i.e. of graphs cu of continuous functions u on an interval, we show that the relaxed energy is finite if and only if the curve cu has bounded variation and finite total curvature. In this case, moreover, the total curvature does not depend on the Cantor part of the derivative of u. We treat the wider class of graphs of one-dimensional functions of bounded variation, and we prove that the relaxed energy is given by the sum of the length and total curvature of the new curve obtained by closing the holes in cu generated by jumps of u with vertical segments.

Using a variational approach we obtain the existence of at least three periodic solutions for discontinuous perturbations of the vector p-Laplacian operator .

We analyse the decay properties of the solution semigroup S(t) generated by the linear integrodifferential equation

where the operator A is strictly positive self-adjoint with A –1 not necessarily compact. The asymptotic stability of S(t) is investigated in terms of the dependence of the parameter γ ∈ ℝ. In particular, we show that S(t) is not exponentially stable when γ ≠ 1.

We study Lotka–Volterra models with fractional Laplacian. To do this we study in detail the logistic problem and show that the sub–supersolution method works for both the scalar problem and for systems. We apply this method to show the existence and non-existence of positive solutions in terms of the system parameters.

The existence of a non-trivial bounded solution to the Dirichlet problem is established for a class of nonlinear elliptic equations involving a fully anisotropic partial differential operator. The relevant operator depends on the gradient of the unknown through the differential of a general convex function. This function need not be radial, nor have a polynomial-type growth. Besides providing genuinely new conclusions, our result recovers and embraces, in a unified framework, several contributions in the existing literature, and augments them in various special instances.

In Ramsey theory one wishes to know how large a collection of objects can be while avoiding a particular substructure. A problem of recent interest has been to study how large subsets of the natural numbers can be while avoiding three-term geometric progressions. Building on recent progress on this problem, we consider the analogous problem over quadratic number fields. We first construct high-density subsets of the algebraic integers of an imaginary quadratic number field that avoid three-term geometric progressions. When unique factorization fails, or over a real quadratic number field, we instead look at subsets of ideals of the ring of integers. Our approach here is to construct sets ‘greedily’, a generalization of the greedy set of rational integers considered by Rankin. We then describe the densities of these sets in terms of values of the Dedekind zeta function. Next, we consider geometric-progression-free sets with large upper density. We generalize an argument by Riddell to obtain upper bounds for the upper density of geometric-progression-free subsets, and construct sets avoiding geometric progressions with high upper density to obtain lower bounds for the supremum of the upper density of all such subsets. Both arguments depend critically on the elements with small norm in the ring of integers.

In this paper, inverse spectral problems for Sturm–Liouville operators on a tree (a graph without cycles) are studied. We show that if the potential on an edge is known a priori, then b – 1 spectral sets uniquely determine the potential functions on a tree with b external edges. Constructive solutions, based on the method of spectral mappings, are provided for the considered inverse problems.

The action of any group on itself by conjugation and the corresponding conjugacy relation play an important role in group theory. There have been many attempts to find notions of conjugacy in semigroups that would be useful in special classes of semigroups occurring in various areas of mathematics, such as semigroups of matrices, operator and topological semigroups, free semigroups, transition monoids for automata, semigroups given by presentations with prescribed properties, monoids of graph endomorphisms, etc. In this paper we study four notions of conjugacy for semigroups, their interconnections, similarities and dissimilarities. They appeared originally in various different settings (automata, representation theory, presentations, and transformation semigroups). Here we study them in full generality. The paper ends with a large list of open problems.

This paper is concerned with the construction of global, non-vacuum, strong, large amplitude solutions to initial–boundary-value problems for the one-dimensional compressible Navier–Stokes equations with degenerate transport coefficients. Our analysis derives the positive lower and upper bounds on the specific volume and the absolute temperature.

Given a non-negative integer n and a complete hereditary cotorsion triple , the notion of subcategories in an abelian category is introduced. It is proved that a virtually Gorenstein ring R is n-Gorenstein if and only if the subcategory of Gorenstein injective R-modules is with respect to the cotorsion triple , where stands for the subcategory of Gorenstein projectives. In the case when a subcategory of is closed under direct summands such that each object in admits a right -approximation, a Bazzoni characterization is given for to be . Finally, an Auslander–Reiten correspondence is established between the class of subcategories and that of certain subcategories of which are -coresolving covariantly finite and closed under direct summands.

A well-posedness theory for the initial-value problem for hydroelastic waves in two spatial dimensions is presented. This problem, which arises in numerous applications, describes the evolution of a thin elastic membrane in a two-dimensional (2D) potential flow. We use a model for the elastic sheet that accounts for bending stresses and membrane tension, but which neglects the mass of the membrane. The analysis is based on a vortex sheet formulation and, following earlier analyses and numerical computations in 2D interfacial flow with surface tension, we use an angle–arclength representation of the problem. We prove short-time well-posedness in Sobolev spaces. The proof is based on energy estimates, and the main challenge is to find a definition of the energy and estimates on high-order non-local terms so that an a priori bound can be obtained.

We study the second-order invariants of a Lorentzian surface in ℝ2,2, and the curvature hyperbolas associated with its second fundamental form. Besides the four natural invariants, new invariants appear in some degenerate situations. We then introduce the Gauss map of a Lorentzian surface and give an extrinsic proof of the vanishing of the total Gauss and normal curvatures of a compact Lorentzian surface. The Gauss map and the second-order invariants are then used to study the asymptotic directions of a Lorentzian surface and discuss their causal character. We also consider the relation of the asymptotic lines with the mean directionally curved lines. We finally introduce and describe the quasi-umbilic surfaces, and the surfaces whose four classical invariants vanish identically.

Bifurcation of non-radial solutions from radial solutions of a semilinear elliptic equation with negative exponent in expanding annuli of ℝ2 is studied. To obtain the main results, we use a blow-up argument via the Morse index of the regular entire solutions of the equation

The main results of this paper can be seen as applications of the results obtained recently for finite Morse index solutions of the equation

with N ⩾ 2 and p > 0.

We answer a question of Takesaki by showing that the following can be derived from the thesis of Shen: if A and B are σ-unital hereditary C*-subalgebras of C such that ‖p – q‖ < 1, where p and q are the corresponding open projections, then A and B are isomorphic. We give some further elaborations and counterexamples with regard to the σ-unitality hypothesis. We produce a natural one-to-one correspondence between complete order isomorphisms of C*-algebras and invertible left multipliers of imprimitivity bimodules. A corollary of the above two results is that any complete order isomorphism between σ-unital C*-algebras is the composite of an isomorphism with an inner complete order isomorphism. We give a separable counterexample to a question of Akemann and Pedersen; namely, the space of quasi-multipliers is not linearly generated by left and right multipliers. But we show that the space of quasi-multipliers is multiplicatively generated by left and right multipliers in the σ-unital case. In particular, every positive quasi-multiplier is of the form T*T for T a left multiplier. We show that a Lie theory consequence of the negative result just stated is that the map sending T to T*T need not be open, even for very nice C*-algebras. We show that surjective maps between σ-unital C*-algebras induce surjective maps on left, right, and quasi-multipliers. (The more significant similar result for multipliers is Pedersen's non-commutative Tietze extension theorem.) We elaborate the relations of the above with continuous fields of Hilbert spaces and in so doing answer a question of Dixmier and Douady. We discuss the relationship of our results to the theory of perturbations of C*-algebras.

Every cohomology ring isomorphism between two non-singular complete toric varieties (respectively, two quasitoric manifolds), with second Betti number 2, is realizable by a diffeomorphism (respectively, homeomorphism).

Let Ω be an open connected cone in ℝn with vertex at the origin. Assume that the Operator

is subcritical in Ω, where δΩ is the distance function to the boundary of Ω and μ ⩽ 1/4. We show that under some smoothness assumption on Ω the improved Hardy-type inequality

holds true, and the Hardy-weight λ(μ)|x|–2 is optimal in a certain definite sense. The constant λ(μ) > 0 is given explicitly.