Boundary value problems with nonsmooth and multivalued terms
Prof. Vasile Staicu
University of Aveiro, Portugal
Abstract
The aim of this course is to present some methods and tools used in the study of nonlinear boundary value problems involving multivalued maps and nonsmooth functions and illustrate those methods with some recent results concerning existence and multiplicity of solutions. The course will be given during the period April 26 – May 16, 2023, under the support of Visiting Professor Program of INdAM.
Outline
We start by introducing some notions of multivalued analysis: multivalued maps and their continuity. Then we introduce some elements of nonsmooth analysis that we use to develop nonsmooth critical point theory succeeded in extending a big part of the smooth theory to nonsmooth functionals: the main tool in the variational method for solving boundary value problems, which consists of trying to find solutions for a given boundary value problem by looking for stationary points of a real functional defined on a space of functions in which the solution of the boundary value problem is assumed to lie.
Degree theory is a basic tool of nonlinear analysis and produces powerful existence and multiplicity results for nonlinear boundary value problems. We present a generalization of Brouwer degree theory to multivalued perturbations of monotone type maps, developed in a joint paper with Aizicovici and Papageorgiou (Mem. Amer. Math. Soc., 196, 2008). Then we consider a nonlinear Dirichlet problem with nonsmooth potential (hemivariational inequality) and use variational method to prove two constant sign solutions (one positive and another negative) and then by using degree theoretical approach we prove the existence of a third one, nontrivial solution, distinct from the previous two.
We present several existence and multiplicity results, with sign information for the solutions of nonlinear boundary value problems driven by the Laplacian, the p-Laplacian and then try to extend such results to nonlinear boundary value problems driven by fractional order differential operators and to nonlocal pseudo-differential inclusions, possibly including obstacles or constraints. It is reasonable to expect that the pairing of nonlocal diffusion operators and set-valued reaction will provide a more realistic model for applications to such problems as quantum mechanics, image restoration, and financial mathematics, which typically present a high degree of uncertainty, rather than elliptic equations with smooth, single-valued reactions.
Schedule
27/4 11-13 28/4 9-11 2/5 11-13 5/5 9-11 9/5 11-13 11/5 11-13 12/5 9-11 16/5 11-13 (room F)
References
Vasile Staicu, Lecture Notes, 2023
Open questions will be considered and analyzed with the Ph. D. students.