We consider entropy solutions to the eikonal equation $|\nabla u|=1$ in two-space dimensions. These solutions are motivated by a class of variational problems and fail in general to have bounded variation. Nevertheless, they share several of their fine properties with BV functions: we show in particular that the set of non-Lebesgue points has at least one co-dimension.

The aim of this paper is twofold. The first aim is to describe the entire solutions of the partial differential equation (PDE) $u_{z_1}^2+2Bu_{z_1}u_{z_2}+u_{z_2}^2=e^g$, where B is a constant and g is a polynomial or an entire function in $\mathbb {C}^2$. The second aim is to consider the entire solutions of another PDE, which is a generalization of the well-known PDE of tubular surfaces.

This paper gives an equivalent form of Picard’s theorem via entire solutions of the functional equation ${{f}^{2}}\,+\,{{g}^{2}}\,=\,1$ and then its improvements and applications to certain nonlinear (ordinary and partial) differential equations.

The paper describes entire solutions to the eiconal type non-linear partial differential equations, which include the eiconal equations ${{({{X}_{1}}(u))}^{2}}\,+\,{{({{X}_{2}}(u))}^{2}}\,=\,1$ as special cases, where ${{X}_{1}}\,=\,{{p}_{1}}\partial /\partial {{z}_{1}}\,+\,{{p}_{2}}\partial /\partial {{z}_{2}},\,{{X}_{2}}\,=\,{{p}_{3}}\partial /\partial {{z}_{1}}\,+\,{{p}_{4}}\partial /\partial {{z}_{2}}$ are linearly independent operators with ${{p}_{j}}$ being arbitrary polynomials in ${{\mathbf{C}}^{2}}$.

The paper is concerned with description of entire solutions of the partial differential equations where m ≥ 2, n ≥ 2 are integers and g is a polynomial or an entire function in C2. Descriptions are given and complemented by various examples.

An implicitly defined second order ODE is said to be singular if the second derivative cannot be smoothly written in terms of lower order variables. The standard existence and uniqueness theory cannot be applied to such ODE and the graphs of solutions may fail to be regular curves (i.e., the solutions may have isolated C0-points or may fail to be single valued). In this paper we describe a local analysis for a large class of implicit second order ODE whose singular points satisfy a regularity condition. Within this class of ODE there is a secondary notion of (contact) singularity which is analogous to rest points for regular ODE. Theorems 5, 6, 7 and 8 produce invariants for these singularities which control the existence, uniqueness and the level of regularity in solutions.