arXiv subjects

Serena Dipierro

Publications and source records attributed to Serena Dipierro.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

(Non)local $Γ$-convergence

We present some long-range interaction models for phase coexistence which have recently appeared in the literature, recalling also their relation to classical interface and capillarity problems. In this note, the main focus will be on the $Γ$-convergence methods, emphasizing similarities and differences between the classical theory and the new trends of investigation. In doing so, we also obtain some new, more precise $Γ$-convergence results in terms of "interior" and "exterior" contributions. We also discuss the structural differences between $Γ$-limits and "pointwise" limits, especially concerning the "boundary terms".

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arXiv2019

Enhanced boundary regularity of planar nonlocal minimal graphs, and a butterfly effect

In this note, we showcase some recent results concerning the stickiness properties of nonlocal minimal graphs in the plane. To start with, the nonlocal minimal graphs in the plane enjoy an enhanced boundary regularity, since boundary continuity with respect to the external datum is sufficient to ensure differentiability across the boundary of the domain. As a matter of fact, the Hölder exponent of the derivative is in this situation sufficiently high to provide the validity of the Euler-Lagrange equation at boundary points as well. From this, using a sliding method, one also deduces that the stickiness phenomenon is generic for nonlocal minimal graphs in the plane, since an arbitrarily small perturbation of continuous nonlocal minimal graphs can produce boundary discontinuities (making the continuous case somehow "exceptional" in this framework).

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arXiv2019

Heteroclinic connections for nonlocal equations

We construct heteroclinic orbits for a strongly nonlocal integro-differential equation. Since the energy associated to the equation is infinite in such strongly nonlocal regime, the proof, based on variational methods, relies on a renormalized energy functional, exploits a perturbation method of viscosity type and develops a free boundary theory for a double obstacle problem of mixed local and nonlocal type. The description of the stationary positions for the atom dislocation function in a perturbed crystal, as given by the Peierls-Nabarro model, is a particular case of the result presented.

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arXiv2019

Decay estimates in time for classical and anomalous diffusion

We present a series of results focused on the decay in time of solutions of classical and anomalous diffusive equations in a bounded domain. The size of the solution is measured in a Lebesgue space, and the setting comprises time-fractional and space-fractional equations and operators of nonlinear type. We also discuss how fractional operators may affect long-time asymptotics.

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arXiv2019

Boundary properties of fractional objects: flexibility of linear equations and rigidity of minimal graphs

The main goal of this article is to understand the trace properties of nonlocal minimal graphs in~$\R^3$, i.e. nonlocal minimal surfaces with a graphical structure. We establish that at any boundary points at which the trace from inside happens to coincide with the exterior datum, also the tangent planes of the traces necessarily coincide with those of the exterior datum. This very rigid geometric constraint is in sharp contrast with the case of the solutions of the linear equations driven by the fractional Laplacian, since we also show that, in this case, the fractional normal derivative can be prescribed arbitrarily, up to a small error. We remark that, at a formal level, the linearization of the trace of a nonlocal minimal graph is given by the fractional normal derivative of a fractional Laplace problem, therefore the two problems are formally related. Nevertheless, the nonlinear equations of fractional mean curvature type present very specific properties which are strikingly different from those of other problems of fractional type which are apparently similar, but diverse in structure, and the nonlinear case given by the nonlocal minimal graphs turns out to be significantly more rigid than its linear counterpart.

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arXiv2019

Singularity formation in fractional Burgers' equations

The formation of singularities in finite time in non-local Burgers' equations, with time-fractional derivative, is studied in detail. The occurrence of finite time singularity is proved, revealing the underlying mechanism, and precise estimates on the blow-up time are provided. The employment of the present equation to model a problem arising in job market is also analyzed.

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arXiv2019

Alessio Figalli's contributions to nonlocal minimal surfaces

Alessio has produced in his very intense career an extraordinary number of outstanding results in an impressive variety of topics. Among the multifold research lines in which he acted as a trailblazer, the one focused on nonlocal minimal surfaces offered an excellent opportunity for Alessio to pioneer some of the first settlements in a brand new subject of investigation and pave the way to a broad spectrum of future research.

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arXiv2019

Time-fractional equations with reaction terms: fundamental solutions and asymptotics

We analyze the fundamental solution of a time-fractional problem, establishing existence and uniqueness in an appropriate functional space. We also focus on the one-dimensional spatial setting in the case in which the time-fractional exponent is equal to, or larger than, $\frac12$. In this situation, we prove that the speed of invasion of the fundamental solution is at least `almost of square root type', namely it is larger than~$ct^β$ for any given~$c>0$ and~$β\in\left(0,\frac12\right)$.

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arXiv2019

Unique continuation principles in cones under nonzero Neumann boundary conditions

We consider an elliptic equation in a cone, endowed with (possibly inhomogeneous) Neumann conditions. The operator and the forcing terms can also allow non-Lipschitz singularities at the vertex of the cone. In this setting, we provide unique continuation results, both in terms of interior and boundary points. The proof relies on a suitable Almgren-type frequency formula with remainders. As a byproduct, we obtain classification results for blow-up limits.

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arXiv2019

Pointwise gradient bounds for entire solutions of elliptic equations with non-standard growth conditions and general nonlinearities

We give pointwise gradient bounds for solutions of (possibly non-uniformly) elliptic partial differential equations in the entire Euclidean space. The operator taken into account is very general and comprises also the singular and degenerate nonlinear case with non-standard growth conditions. The sourcing term is also allowed to have a very general form, depending on the space variables, on the solution itself, on its gradient, and possibly on higher order derivatives if additional structural conditions are satisfied.

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arXiv2019

Limit behaviour of a singular perturbation problem for the biharmonic operator

We study here a singular perturbation problem of biLaplacian type, which can be seen as the biharmonic counterpart of classical combustion models. We provide different results, that include the convergence to a free boundary problem driven by a biharmonic operator, as introduced in a previous paper of ours, and a monotonicity formula in the plane. For the latter result, an important tool is provided by an integral identity that is satisfied by solutions of the singular perturbation problem. We also investigate the quadratic behaviour of solutions near the zero level set, at least for small values of the perturbation parameter. Some counterexamples to the uniform regularity are also provided if one does not impose some structural assumptions on the forcing term.

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arXiv2019

Symmetry results for the solutions of a partial differential equation arising in water waves

This paper recalls some classical motivations in fluid dynamics leading to a partial differential equation which is prescribed on a domain whose boundary possesses two connected components, one endowed with a Dirichlet datum, and the other endowed with a Neumann datum. The problem can also be reformulated as a nonlocal problem on the component endowed with the Dirichlet datum. A series of recent symmetry results are presented and compared with the existing literature.

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arXiv2018

Heteroclinic connections and Dirichlet problems for a nonlocal functional of oscillation type

We consider an energy functional combining the square of the local oscillation of a one--dimensional function with a double well potential. We establish the existence of minimal heteroclinic solutions connecting the two wells of the potential. This existence result cannot be accomplished by standard methods, due to the lack of compactness properties. In addition, we investigate the main properties of these heteroclinic connections. We show that these minimizers are monotone, and therefore they satisfy a suitable Euler-Lagrange equation. We also prove that, differently from the classical cases arising in ordinary differential equations, in this context the heteroclinic connections are not necessarily smooth, and not even continuous (in fact, they can be piecewise constant). Also, we show that heteroclinics are not necessarily unique up to a translation, which is also in contrast with the classical setting. Furthermore, we investigate the associated Dirichlet problem, studying existence, uniqueness and partial regularity properties, providing explicit solutions in terms of the external data and of the forcing source, and exhibiting an example of discontinuous solution.

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arXiv2018

Local density of Caputo-stationary functions of any order

We show that any given function can be approximated with arbitrary precision by solutions of linear, time-fractional equations of any prescribed order. This extends a recent result by Claudia Bucur, which was obtained for time-fractional derivatives of order less than one, to the case of any fractional order of differentiation. In addition, our result applies also to the $ψ$-Caputo-stationary case, and it will provide one of the building blocks of a forthcoming paper in which we will establish general approximation results by operators of any order involving anisotropic superpositions of classical, space-fractional and time-fractional diffusions.

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arXiv2018

Local density of solutions of time and space fractional equations

We prove that any given function can be smoothly approximated by functions lying in the kernel of a linear operator involving at least one fractional component. The setting in which we work is very general, since it takes into account anomalous diffusion, with possible fractional components in both space and time. The operators studied comprise the case of the sum of classical and fractional Laplacians, possibly of different orders, in the space variables, and classical or fractional derivatives in the time variables. This type of approximation results shows that space-fractional and time-fractional equations exhibit a variety of solutions which is much richer and more abundant than in the case of classical diffusion.

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arXiv2018

Decay estimates for evolutionary equations with fractional time-diffusion

We consider an evolution equation whose time-diffusion is of fractional type and we provide decay estimates in time for the $L^s$-norm of the solutions in a bounded domain. The spatial operator that we take into account is very general and comprises classical local and nonlocal diffusion equations.

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arXiv2018

Positive powers of the Laplacian in the half-space under Dirichlet boundary conditions

We present explicit formulas for solutions to nonhomogeneous boundary value problems involving any positive power of the Laplacian in the half-space. For non-integer powers the operator becomes nonlocal and this requires a suitable extension of Dirichlet-type boundary conditions. A key ingredient in our proofs is a point inversion transformation which preserves harmonicity and allows us to use known results for the ball. We include uniqueness statements, regularity estimates, and describe the growth or decay of solutions at infinity and at the boundary.

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arXiv2018

Fattening and nonfattening phenomena for planar nonlocal curvature flows

We discuss fattening phenomenon for the evolution of planar curves according to their nonlocal curvature. More precisely, we consider a class of generalized curvatures which correspond to the first variation of suitable nonlocal perimeter functionals, defined in terms of an interaction kernel $K$, which is symmetric, nonnegative, possibly singular at the origin, and satisfies appropriate integrability conditions. We prove a general result about uniqueness of the geometric evolutions starting from regular sets with positive $K$-curvature and we discuss the fattening phenomenon for the evolution starting from the cross, showing that this phenomenon is very sensitive to the strength of the interactions. As a matter of fact, we show that the fattening of the cross occurs for kernels with sufficiently large mass near the origin, while for kernels that are sufficiently weak near the origin such a fattening phenomenon does not occur. We also provide some further results in the case of the fractional mean curvature flow, showing that strictly starshaped sets have a unique geometric evolution. Moreover, we exhibit two illustrative examples of closed nonregular curves, the first with a Lipschitz-type singularity and the second with a cusp-type singularity, given by two tangent circles of equal radius, whose evolution develops fattening in the first case, and is uniquely defined in the second, thus remarking the high sensitivity of the fattening phenomenon in terms of the regularity of the initial datum. The latter example is in striking contrast to the classical case of the (local) curvature flow, where two tangent circles always develop fattening. As a byproduct of our analysis, we provide also a simple proof of the fact that the cross is not a $K$-minimal set for the nonlocal perimeter functional associated to $K$.

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