In this paper we study the existence, non-existence and simplicity of the first eigenvalue of the perturbed Hardy-Sobolev operator under various assumptions on the perturbation q. We study the asymptotic behaviour of the first eigenfunction near the origin when the perturbation q is q = s, 0 < s < 1. We will also establish the best constant in a Hardy-Sobolev inequality proved by Adimurthi et al.

W1,p-gradient Young measures supported in the set Q2(K) of two-dimensional K-quasiconformal matrices are studied. We prove that these Young measures can be generated by gradients of K-quasiregular mappings. This leads, for example, to the 0-1 law for quasiregular W1,p-gradient Young measures and other quasiregular properties such as higher integrability.

In this paper we study the existence, non-existence and simplicity of the first eigenvalue of the perturbed Hardy-Sobolev operator under various assumptions on the perturbation q. We study the asymptotic behaviour of the first eigenfunction near the origin when the perturbation q is q = s, 0 < s < 1. We will also establish the best constant in a Hardy-Sobolev inequality proved by Adimurthi et al.

W1,p-gradient Young measures supported in the set Q2(K) of two-dimensional K-quasiconformal matrices are studied. We prove that these Young measures can be generated by gradients of K-quasiregular mappings. This leads, for example, to the 0-1 law for quasiregular W1,p-gradient Young measures and other quasiregular properties such as higher integrability.

Convergence theorems for the practical eigenvector free methods of Gay and Goerisch are obtained under a variety of hypotheses, so that our theorems apply to both traditional boundary-value problems and atomic problems. In addition, we prove convergence of the T*T method of Bazley and Fox without an alignment of projections hypothesis required in previous literature.

The stability of linear initial–boundary-value problems for hyperbolic systems (with constant coefficients) is linked to the zeros of the so-called Lopatinskii determinant. Depending on the location of these zeros, problems may be either unstable, strongly stable or weakly stable. The first two classes are known to be ‘open’, in the sense that the instability or the strong stability persists under a small change of coefficients in the differential operator and/or in the boundary condition.

Here we show that a third open class exists, which we call ‘weakly stable of real type’. Many examples of physical or mathematical interest depend on one or more parameters, and the determination of the stability class as a function of these parameters usually needs an involved computation. We simplify it by characterizing the transitions from one open class to another one. These boundaries are easier to determine since they must solve some overdetermined algebraic system.

Applications to the wave equation, linear elasticity, shock waves and phase boundaries in fluid mechanics are given.

We study a class of quasilinear elliptic problems with diffusion matrices that have at least one diagonal coefficient that blows up for a finite value of the unknown; the other coefficients being continuous with respect to the unknown (without any growth assumption). We introduce two equivalent notions of solutions for such problems and we prove an existence result in these frameworks. Under additional local assumptions on the coefficients, we also establish the uniqueness of the solution. In that case, and when the non-diagonal coefficients are bounded, this unique (generalized) solution is also the unique weak solution strictly less than the value where the diagonal coefficient blows up.

Convergence theorems for the practical eigenvector free methods of Gay and Goerisch are obtained under a variety of hypotheses, so that our theorems apply to both traditional boundary-value problems and atomic problems. In addition, we prove convergence of the T*T method of Bazley and Fox without an alignment of projections hypothesis required in previous literature.

We prove that the two-dimensional Brown–Ravenhall operator is bounded from below when the coupling constant is below a specified critical value—a property also referred to as stability. As a consequence, the operator is then self-adjoint. The proof is based on the strategy followed by Evans et al. and Lieb and Yau, with some relevant changes characteristic of the dimension. Our analysis also yields a sharp Kato inequality.

We introduce the totally multiplicatively prime algebras as those normed algebras for which there exists a positive number K such that K‖F‖‖a‖ ≤ ‖WF,a‖ for all F in M(A) (the multiplication algebra of A) and a in A, where WF,a denotes the operator from M(A) into A defined by WF,a(T) = FT(a) for all T in M(A). These algebras are totally prime and their multiplication algebra is ultraprime. We get the stability of the class of totally multiplicatively prime algebras by taking central closure. We prove that prime H*-algebras are totally multiplicatively prime and that the ℓ1-norm is the only classical norm on the free non-associative algebras for which these are totally multiplicatively prime.

The stability of linear initial–boundary-value problems for hyperbolic systems (with constant coefficients) is linked to the zeros of the so-called Lopatinskii determinant. Depending on the location of these zeros, problems may be either unstable, strongly stable or weakly stable. The first two classes are known to be ‘open’, in the sense that the instability or the strong stability persists under a small change of coefficients in the differential operator and/or in the boundary condition.

Here we show that a third open class exists, which we call ‘weakly stable of real type’. Many examples of physical or mathematical interest depend on one or more parameters, and the determination of the stability class as a function of these parameters usually needs an involved computation. We simplify it by characterizing the transitions from one open class to another one. These boundaries are easier to determine since they must solve some overdetermined algebraic system.

Applications to the wave equation, linear elasticity, shock waves and phase boundaries in fluid mechanics are given.

In this paper, we study n-dimensional complete submanifolds with constant scalar curvature in the Euclidean space En+p and n-dimensional compact submanifolds with constant scalar curvature in the unit sphere Sn+p(1). We prove that the totally umbilical sphere Sn(r), totally geodesic Euclidean space En and generalized cylinder Sn−1(c) × E1 are the only n-dimensional (n > 2) complete submanifolds Mn with constant scalar curvature n(n − 1)r in the Euclidean space En+p, which satisfy the following condition: where S denotes the squared norm of the second fundamental form of Mn. For compact submanifolds with constant scalar curvature in the unit sphere Sn+p(1), we also obtain a corresponding result (see theorem 1.3).

We use singularity theory to classify forced symmetry-breaking bifurcation problems where f1 is O(2)-equivariant and f2 is Dn-equivariant with the orthogonal group actions on z ∈ R2. Forced symmetry breaking occurs when the symmetry of the equation changes when parameters are varied. We explicitly apply our results to the branching of subharmonic solutions in a model periodic perturbation of an autonomous equation and sketch further applications.

We study a class of quasilinear elliptic problems with diffusion matrices that have at least one diagonal coefficient that blows up for a finite value of the unknown; the other coefficients being continuous with respect to the unknown (without any growth assumption). We introduce two equivalent notions of solutions for such problems and we prove an existence result in these frameworks. Under additional local assumptions on the coefficients, we also establish the uniqueness of the solution. In that case, and when the non-diagonal coefficients are bounded, this unique (generalized) solution is also the unique weak solution strictly less than the value where the diagonal coefficient blows up.

The connection between the discrete and the continuous coagulation–fragmentation models is investigated. A weak stability principle relying on a priori estimates and weak compactness in L1 is developed for the continuous model. We approximate the continuous model by a sequence of discrete models and, writing the discrete models as modified continuous ones, we prove the convergence of the latter towards the former with the help of the above-mentioned stability principle. Another application of this stability principle is the convergence of an explicit time and size discretization of the continuous coagulation-fragmentation model.

By means of a certain variational principle, where rank-one convexity enters in a fundamental way as part of feasibility, we construct a whole class of rank-one convex functions. We show the existence of optimal paths and motivate our analysis by the issue of the equivalence of quasiconvexity and rank-one convexity for 2 × 2 matrices.

This work is concerned with basic structural properties of first-order hyperbolic systems with source terms divided by a small parameter ε. We identify a relaxation criterion necessary for the solution sequences indexed with ε to have reasonable limits as ε goes to zero. This relaxation criterion is shown to imply hyperbolicity of the reduced systems governing the limits. Moreover, we introduce a so-called GC-stability theory and strengthen the hyperbolicity result. The latter shows that there are no linearly stable hyperbolic relaxation approximations for non-hyperbolic conservation laws.

We prove that the two-dimensional Brown–Ravenhall operator is bounded from below when the coupling constant is below a specified critical value—a property also referred to as stability. As a consequence, the operator is then self-adjoint. The proof is based on the strategy followed by Evans et al. and Lieb and Yau, with some relevant changes characteristic of the dimension. Our analysis also yields a sharp Kato inequality.

We introduce the totally multiplicatively prime algebras as those normed algebras for which there exists a positive number K such that K‖F‖‖a‖ ≤ ‖WF,a‖ for all F in M(A) (the multiplication algebra of A) and a in A, where WF,a denotes the operator from M(A) into A defined by WF,a(T) = FT(a) for all T in M(A). These algebras are totally prime and their multiplication algebra is ultraprime. We get the stability of the class of totally multiplicatively prime algebras by taking central closure. We prove that prime H*-algebras are totally multiplicatively prime and that the ℓ1-norm is the only classical norm on the free non-associative algebras for which these are totally multiplicatively prime.

In this paper, we study n-dimensional complete submanifolds with constant scalar curvature in the Euclidean space En+p and n-dimensional compact submanifolds with constant scalar curvature in the unit sphere Sn+p(1). We prove that the totally umbilical sphere Sn(r), totally geodesic Euclidean space En and generalized cylinder Sn−1(c) × E1 are the only n-dimensional (n > 2) complete submanifolds Mn with constant scalar curvature n(n − 1)r in the Euclidean space En+p, which satisfy the following condition: where S denotes the squared norm of the second fundamental form of Mn. For compact submanifolds with constant scalar curvature in the unit sphere Sn+p(1), we also obtain a corresponding result (see theorem 1.3).