In this study, we investigate the intial value problem (IVP) for a time-fractional fourth-order equation with nonlinear source terms. More specifically, we consider the time-fractional biharmonic with exponential nonlinearity and the time-fractional Cahn–Hilliard equation. By using the Fourier transform concept, the generalized formula for the mild solution as well as the smoothing effects of resolvent operators are proved. For the IVP associated with the first one, by using the Orlicz space with the function $\Xi (z)={\textrm {e}}^{|z|^{p}}-1$ and some embeddings between it and the usual Lebesgue spaces, we prove that the solution is a global-in-time solution or it shall blow up in a finite time if the initial value is regular. In the case of singular initial data, the local-in-time/global-in-time existence and uniqueness are derived. Also, the regularity of the mild solution is investigated. For the IVP associated with the second one, some modifications to the generalized formula are made to deal with the nonlinear term. We also establish some important estimates for the derivatives of resolvent operators, they are the basis for using the Picard sequence to prove the local-in-time existence of the solution.

In this paper, we study the nonlinear diffusion equation associated with a particle system where the common drift depends on the rate of absorption of particles at a boundary. We provide an interpretation of this equation, which is also related to the supercooled Stefan problem, as a structural credit risk model with default contagion in a large interconnected banking system. Using the method of heat potentials, we derive a coupled system of Volterra integral equations for the transition density and for the loss through absorption. An approximation by expansion is given for a small interaction parameter. We also present a numerical solution algorithm and conduct computational tests.

We consider the Cauchy problem

$$\left\{ {\matrix{ {u_t = \Delta u + u^p,\quad } \hfill & {x\in {\bf R}^N,\;t \leq 0,} \hfill \cr {u(x,0) = u_0(x),\quad } \hfill & {x\in {\bf R}^N,} \hfill \cr } } \right.$$

Pullback attractors with forwards unbounded behaviour are to be found in the literature, but not much is known about pullback attractors with each and every section being unbounded. In this paper, we introduce the concept of unbounded pullback attractor, for which the sections are not required to be compact. These objects are addressed in this paper in the context of a class of non-autonomous semilinear parabolic equations. The nonlinearities are assumed to be non-dissipative and, in addition, defined in such a way that the equation possesses unbounded solutions as the initial time goes to -∞, for each elapsed time. Distinct regimes for the non-autonomous term are taken into account. Namely, we address the small non-autonomous perturbation and the asymptotically autonomous cases.

In this paper, we study the positive solutions for a semilinear equation in hyperbolic space. Using the heat semigroup and by constructing subsolutions and supersolutions, a Fujita-type result is established.

The focus of this article is to present the projected finite element method for solving systems of reaction-diffusion equations on evolving closed spheroidal surfaces with applications to pattern formation. The advantages of the projected finite element method are that it is easy to implement and that it provides a conforming finite element discretization which is “logically” rectangular. Furthermore, the surface is not approximated but described exactly through the projection. The surface evolution law is incorporated into the projection operator resulting in a time-dependent operator. The time-dependent projection operator is composed of the radial projection with a Lipschitz continuous mapping. The projection operator is used to generate the surface mesh whose connectivity remains constant during the evolution of the surface. To illustrate the methodology several numerical experiments are exhibited for different surface evolution laws such as uniform isotropic (linear, logistic and exponential), anisotropic, and concentration-driven. This numerical methodology allows us to study new reaction-kinetics that only give rise to patterning in the presence of surface evolution such as the activator-activator and short-range inhibition; long-range activation.

We propose and investigate a novel solution strategy to efficiently and accurately compute approximate solutions to semilinear optimal control problems, focusing on the optimal control of phase field formulations of geometric evolution laws. The optimal control of geometric evolution laws arises in a number of applications in fields including material science, image processing, tumour growth and cell motility. Despite this, many open problems remain in the analysis and approximation of such problems. In the current work we focus on a phase field formulation of the optimal control problem, hence exploiting the well developed mathematical theory for the optimal control of semilinear parabolic partial differential equations. Approximation of the resulting optimal control problemis computationally challenging, requiring massive amounts of computational time and memory storage. The main focus of this work is to propose, derive, implement and test an efficient solution method for such problems. The solver for the discretised partial differential equations is based upon a geometric multigrid method incorporating advanced techniques to deal with the nonlinearities in the problem and utilising adaptive mesh refinement. An in-house two-grid solution strategy for the forward and adjoint problems, that significantly reduces memory requirements and CPU time, is proposed and investigated computationally. Furthermore, parallelisation as well as an adaptive-step gradient update for the control are employed to further improve efficiency. Along with a detailed description of our proposed solution method together with its implementation we present a number of computational results that demonstrate and evaluate our algorithms with respect to accuracy and efficiency. A highlight of the present work is simulation results on the optimal control of phase field formulations of geometric evolution laws in 3-D which would be computationally infeasible without the solution strategies proposed in the present work.

We consider the Gierer–Meinhardt system with precursor inhomogeneity and two small diffusivities in an interval

$$\begin{equation*} \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} A_t=\epsilon^2 A''- \mu(x) A+\frac{A^2}{H}, &x\in(-1, 1),\,t>0,\\[3mm] \tau H_t=D H'' -H+ A^2, & x\in (-1, 1),\,t>0,\\[3mm] A' (-1)= A' (1)= H' (-1) = H' (1) =0, \end{array} \right. \end{equation*}$$

$$\begin{equation*}\mbox{where } \quad 0<\epsilon \ll\sqrt{D}\ll 1, \quad \end{equation*}$$

$$\begin{equation*} \tau\geq 0 \mbox{ and $\tau$ is independent of $\epsilon$. } \end{equation*}$$

$O(\sqrt{D})$

We study classical solutions of the Cauchy problem for a class of non-Lipschitz semilinear parabolic partial differential equations in one spatial dimension with sufficiently smooth initial data. When the nonlinearity is Lipschitz continuous, results concerning existence, uniqueness and continuous dependence on initial data are well established (see, for example, the texts of Friedman and Smoller and, in the context of the present paper, see also Meyer), as are the associated results concerning Hadamard well-posedness. We consider the situations when the nonlinearity is Hölder continuous and when the nonlinearity is upper Lipschitz continuous. Finally, we consider the situation when the nonlinearity is both Hölder continuous and upper Lipschitz continuous. In each case we focus upon the question of existence, uniqueness and continuous dependence on initial data, and thus upon aspects of Hadamard well-posedness.

We prove the existence of weak solutions for the strongly nonlinear parabolic problem

in the anisotropic Sobolev space , where the data f are assumed to be in the dual, and the nonlinear term g(x, t, s) has growth and sign conditions on s.