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Enrico Valdinoci

Publications and source records attributed to Enrico Valdinoci.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Asymptotics of nonlocal nonlinear Robin energies

We study the free minimization problem for a nonlinear, nonlocal functional associated with Robin-type nonlocal exterior conditions depending on a positive parameter $α$. We prove that, for every $α>0$, the minimizer exists, is unique, and satisfies suitable decay properties at infinity. We also investigate the regularity of the maps $α\mapsto u_α$ and $α\mapsto E_α$, where~$u_α$ denotes the minimizer and $E_α$ the corresponding energy. Finally, we derive asymptotic expansions of the energy as $α\to+\infty$ and as $α\to0^+$. The latter regime requires distinguishing between two cases, depending on whether the forcing term has zero mass. In one case, the limiting energy possesses a minimizer and $E_α$ converges to its energy, but in the other case $E_α$ diverges to $-\infty$.

math.AP

Quantitative stability for the nonlocal overdetermined Serrin problem

We establish quantitative stability for the nonlocal Serrin overdetermined problem, via the method of the moving planes. Interestingly, our stability estimate is even better than those obtained so far in the classical setting (i.e., for the classical Laplacian) via the method of the moving planes. A crucial ingredient is the construction of a new antisymmetric barrier, which allows a unified treatment of the moving planes method. This strategy allows us to establish a new general quantitative nonlocal maximum principle for antisymmetric functions, leading to new quantitative nonlocal versions of both the Hopf lemma and the Serrin corner point lemma. All these tools -- i.e., the new antisymmetric barrier, the general quantitative nonlocal maximum principle, and the quantitative nonlocal versions of both the Hopf lemma and the Serrin corner point lemma -- are of independent interest.

math.AP

A fractional critical problem in the halfspace with Neumann conditions

Given $s\in(0,1)$ and $n>2s$, we construct nontrivial solutions of the problem \begin{equation*} \begin{cases} (-Δ)^s u=u^{2^*_s-1} &{\mbox{ in }}\mathbb{R}^n_+,\\ {\mathcal{N}}_s u=0&{\mbox{ in }}\mathbb{R}^n_-,\end{cases} \end{equation*}where ${\mathcal{N}}_s$ represents the nonlocal Neumann condition of exterior type.

math.AP

Reconstructing double-well potentials from transition layers in long-range phase coexistence models

In models of phase coexistence, the precise form of the double-well potential is of central importance, yet it cannot be derived from first principles. In this paper, we investigate an inverse problem: starting from a prescribed transition layer with power-type decay at infinity, we reconstruct the structural properties of the associated double-well potential. We focus on the case of long-range interactions, where the dependence of the potential on the layer and its derivatives is particularly delicate. Our analysis establishes a correspondence between the decay rate of the transition layer and the regularity of the potential, revealing the existence of specific patterns and the possible emergence of degeneracies.

math.AP

A free boundary analysis of tumor invasion driven by angiogenesis

We discuss a free boundary model for tumor invasion that describes a cloud of cells that diffuse and, at the same time, are drifted along the vector field of the chemotactic direction. The model captures the evolution of a solid tumor, including the process of angiogenesis, which consists in the formation of new blood vessels that supply the tumor with oxygen and other nutrients, thereby promoting its spread and growth. We prove that, once formed, the tumor survives through time, maintaining strictly positive thickness. An explicit expression in terms of the initial data is derived. Moreover, we distinguish two regimes depending on the ratio $κ$ between the spreading of tumor cells and the growth of the tumor mass. If $κ$ is sufficiently large, then the tumor grows exponentially in time and invades the entire host tissue. In contrast, if $κ$ is small enough, then either the tumor remains bounded in size over time or may experience a fast contraction.

math.AP

Self-sustaining traveling fronts for a model related to bushfires

This article investigates a mathematical model for bushfire propagation, focusing on the existence and properties of translating solutions. We obtain quantitative bounds on the environmental diffusion coefficient and ignition kernels, identifying conditions under which fires either propagate across the entire region or naturally extinguish. Our analysis also reveals that vertically translating solutions do not exist, whereas traveling wave solutions with a front moving at any prescribed velocity always exist for kernels that are either of mild intensity or short range. These traveling waves exhibit unbounded profiles.

math.AP

A free boundary problem driven by boundary distance in the coincidence set

We study a free boundary problem of minimising a functional containing a non-local term rewarding depth into the zero phase: for $u\geqslant 0$ on a bounded, open set $Ω\subset\mathbb R^d$, we minimise $$J(u) = \int_Ω\left(\frac12|\nabla u|^2 - fu\right) \;-\; \int_{\{u=0\}} F\big(\mathrm{dist}(x,\partial \{u=0\})\big)\;\mathrm{d}x. $$ This kind of functional arises, for example, from a two-membranes problem with an adhesive contact energy. We first address a well-definedness issue caused by the non-local, boundary-sensitive nature of the functional and prove existence of minimisers, establishing along the way a weak lower semicontinuity result for the non-local term. We then derive stationarity conditions for minimisers, including a variational (Euler--Lagrange type) inequality, a PDE on the positivity set, and, under a mild non-degeneracy assumption, a free boundary condition obtained via inner variations and a Danskin-type differentiation of the distance function.

math.AP

On a Sobolev critical problem for the superposition of a local and nonlocal operator with the "wrong sign''

We study a critical problem for an operator of mixed order obtained by the superposition of a Laplacian with a fractional Laplacian. The main novelty is that we consider a mixed operator of the form $-Δ- γ(-Δ)^s$, namely we suppose that the fractional Laplacian has the ``wrong sign'' and can be seen as a nonlocal perturbation of the purely local case, which is needed to produce a nontrivial solution of the critical problem.

math.AP

A logistic equation with non-local operators of order near zero

In this paper we study an equation driven by a non-local operator of order "near zero" with mixed Dirichlet-Neumann boundary conditions, modelling a biological system consisting of a population self-competing for resources in a closed environment and subject to an extremely heavy-tailed dispersal process. We establish several results concerning the existence of states in which the population can survive requiring different assumptions on the non-linear reaction term and on the various configurations of the sets where the Dirichlet or Neumann conditions hold.

math.AP

Homoclinic solutions for nonlocal equations and applications to the theory of atom dislocation

We establish the existence of homoclinic solutions for suitable systems of nonlocal equations whose forcing term is of gradient type. The elliptic operator under consideration is the fractional Laplacian and the potentials that we take into account are of two types: the first one is a spatially homogeneous function with a strict local maximum at the origin, the second one is a spatially inhomogeneous potential satisfying the Ambrosetti-Rabinowitz condition coupled to a quadratic term with spatially dependent growth at infinity. The existence of these special solutions has interesting consequences for the theory of atomic edge dislocations in crystals according to the Peierls-Nabarro model and its generalization to fractional equations. Specifically, for the first type of potentials, the results obtained give the existence of a crystal configuration with atoms located at both extrema in an unstable rest position, up to an arbitrarily small modification of the structural potential and a "pinch" of a particle at any given position. For the second type of potentials, the results obtained also entail the existence of a crystal configuration reaching an equilibrium at infinity, up to an arbitrarily small superquadratic perturbation of the classical Peierls-Nabarro potential.

math.AP

Nonlocal minimal surfaces are generically unique, and smooth in one extra dimension

We study the fractional Plateau problem for $s$-minimal sets with prescribed exterior datum. For fixed exterior data, minimizers need not be unique, and singularities may occur beyond the critical dimension. We first prove a generic uniqueness theorem: along any strictly increasing family of exterior data, nonuniqueness occurs for at most countably many parameters. We then show that one can make arbitrarily small perturbations for which the interior regularity theory improves by one dimension.

math.AP

$Γ$-convergence of the non-local Massari functional and applications to inhomogeneous Allen-Cahn equations

We present several asymptotic results concerning the non-local Massari Problem for sets with prescribed mean curvature. In particular, we show that the fractional Massari functional $Γ$-converges to the classical one, and this convergence preserves minimizers in the $L^1_{\mbox{loc}}$-topology. This returns useful information about the asymptotic behavior of the solutions of the inhomogeneous Allen-Cahn equation in the forced and the mass-prescribed settings. In this context, a new geometric object, which we refer to as "non-local hybrid mean curvature", naturally appears.

math.AP

Wildfire in a Narrow Gully: A Geometric Reduction Approach

We consider a bushfire model in a gully. The biological scenario under consideration involves flammable fuel (trees, leaves, etc.) concentrated within the gully, surrounded by rocky hillslopes containing little or no burnable material. The mathematical formulation of the problem is a nonlocal evolution equation of parabolic type. The nonlocality arises from an ignition mechanism that becomes active when the temperature reaches the ignition threshold and is modeled via a kernel interaction with limitrophe areas. The rocky hillsides of the gully impose insulating boundary conditions of Neumann type, while the entrance and exit of the gully are modeled by (not necessarily homogeneous) Dirichlet boundary data, corresponding to prescribed environmental temperatures on the gully's terminals. Given the geometry of the domain, in the asymptotic regime of a narrow gully the model undergoes a dimensional reduction and can be analyzed through a geometric equation posed along the (not necessarily straight) axis of the gully. The reduced equation is supplemented with inner and outer Dirichlet boundary conditions (with no Neumann condition remaining in the limit). The analysis relies on the use of Fermi coordinates to capture the potentially curvilinear geometry of the gully, as well as on parabolic estimates tailored to the specific equation in order to properly account for the ignition interactions. These estimates are delicate, as the domain degenerates and the boundary conditions vary in the limit. To overcome these difficulties, we develop a bespoke reflection technique that provides uniform bounds and enables the passage to the limit.

math.AP

Maximum principles and spectral analysis for the superposition of operators of fractional order

We consider a "superposition operator" obtained through the continuous superposition of operators of mixed fractional order, modulated by a signed Borel finite measure defined over the set $[0, 1]$. The relevance of this operator is rooted in the fact that it incorporates special and significant cases of interest, like the mixed operator $-Δ+ (-Δ)^s$, the (possibly) infinite sum of fractional Laplacians and allows to consider operators carrying a "wrong sign". We first outline weak and strong maximum principles for this type of operators. Then, we complete the spectral analysis for the related Dirichlet eigenvalue problem started in [DPLSV25b].

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Long-range phase coexistence models with degenerate potentials

This survey offers an overview of recent advances in nonlocal phase transition problems, modeled by Ginzburg--Landau type energies of the form \[ \frac{1}{4}\iint_{\R^{2n}\setminus (\R^n \setminus Ω)^2} \frac{|u(x)-u(y)|^2}{|x-y|^{n+2s}}\,dx\,dy \;+\; \int_ΩW(u(x))\,dx. \] Here,~$W$ is a smooth and possibly \textit{degenerate} double well potential, with a polynomial control on its second derivatives near the wells. The emphasis is on qualitative properties of minimizers and critical points of the energy functional.

math.AP

Stability and Self-Organized Patterns in Coupled Ecohydrological--Fire Dynamics: A Model of Vegetation--Rainfall--Bushfire Interactions

This paper investigates the conditions for the stability and emergence of patterns in a new three-component reaction-diffusion system. The system describes the coexistence and interaction of water reservoirs, vegetation, and bushfire activity in a given ecosystem. We perform a detailed stability analysis to determine the parameter space where an unstable homogeneous equilibrium becomes stable with respect to spatially nonuniform perturbations. We also use diffusion to generate traveling trains in the form of periodic orbits of the linearized system. These orbits are remnants of an unstable equilibrium in the absence of diffusion and arise from a nonsingular eigenvalue crossing of the imaginary axis, while a third eigenvalue remains real and negative, thereby ensuring linear stability for monocromatic waves. These phenomena differ from ``classical'' Turing and Hopf bifurcations, as the model does not involve distinct ``activators'' and ``inhibitors'', and the effects observed are not the byproduct of diffusion with necessarily differing speeds. Also, differently from the classical Turing pattern, the role of diffusion in this context is to stabilize, rather than destabilize, homogeneous equilibria. We also consider the case of plant competition, showing a suitable form of Turing instability for slow-frequency oscillations in a small rainfall regime.

math.AP

Fredholm alternative for a general class of nonlocal operators

We develop a Fredholm alternative for a fractional elliptic operator~$\mathcal{L}$ of mixed order built on the notion of fractional gradient. This operator constitutes the nonlocal extension of the classical second order elliptic operators with measurable coefficients treated by Neil Trudinger in~\cite{trudinger}. We build~$\mathcal{L}$ by weighing the order~$s$ of the fractional gradient over a measure (which can be either continuous, or discrete, or of mixed type). The coefficients of~$\mathcal{L}$ may also depend on~$s$, giving this operator a possibly non-homogeneous structure with variable exponent. These coefficients can also be either unbounded, or discontinuous, or both. A suitable functional analytic framework is introduced and investigated and our main results strongly rely on some custom analysis of appropriate functional spaces.

math.AP

Optimal decay of heteroclinic solutions of the fractional Allen-Cahn equation with a degenerate potential

We refine the asymptotic estimates for minimizers of a class of nonlocal energy functionals of the form \[ \frac{1}{4} \iint_{\R^{2n} \setminus (\R^n \setminus Ω)^2} \snr{u(x) - u(y)}^2 K(x - y) \,dx\,dy + \int_ΩW(u(x)) \,dx, \] as originally studied in~\cite{DPDV}, and we prove the optimality of our improved bounds. Here, $W$ denotes a possibly \emph{degenerate} oscillatory double-well potential, satisfying a polynomial control on its second derivative near the wells. The kernel~$K$ belongs to a broad class of measurable functions and is modeled on the one of the fractional Laplacian.

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