We prove a Harnack inequality for positive harmonic functions on graphs which is similar to a classical result of Yau on Riemannian manifolds. Also, we prove a mean value inequality of nonnegative subharmonic functions on graphs.

Based on a global estimate of the heat kernel, some important inequalities such as Poincaré inequality and log-Sobolev inequality, furthermore a tight logarithm Sobolev inequality are presented on graphs, just under a positive curvature condition CDE'(n,K) with some K > 0. As consequences, we obtain exponential integrability of integrable Lipschitz functions and moment bounds at the same assumption on graphs.

We establish a new on-diagonal lower estimate of continuous-time heat kernels for large time on graphs. To achieve the goal, we first introduce an upper estimate of heat kernels in natural graph metric, then use the upper estimate and the volume growth condition to show the validity of the on-diagonal lower estimate.

Let G = (V, E) be a locally finite graph, whose measure μ(x) has positive lower bound, and Δ be the usual graph Laplacian. Applying the mountain-pass theorem due to Ambrosetti and Rabinowitz (1973), we establish existence results for some nonlinear equations, namely Δu + hu = f(x, u), x ∈ V. In particular, we prove that if h and f satisfy certain assumptions, then the above-mentioned equation has strictly positive solutions. Also, we consider existence of positive solutions of the perturbed equation Δu + hu = f(x, u) + ϵg. Similar problems have been extensively studied on the Euclidean space as well as on Riemannian manifolds.

Let G=(V,E) be a connected finite graph and Δ be the usual graph Laplacian. Using the calculus of variations and a method of upper and lower solutions, we give various conditions such that the Kazdan–Warner equation Δu=c−he^u has a solution on V, where c is a constant, and h:V→R is a function. We also consider similar equations involving higher order derivatives on graph. Our results can be compared with the original manifold case of Kazdan and Warner (Ann. Math. 99(1):14–47, 1974).

We study the effective fronts of first order front propagations in two dimensions (n=2) in the periodic setting. Using PDE-based approaches, we show that for every α∈(0,1), the class of centrally symmetric polygons with rational vertices and nonempty interior is admissible as effective fronts for given front speeds in C^{1,α}(T^2,(0,∞)). This result can also be formulated in the language of stable norms corresponding to periodic metrics in T^2. Similar results were known long time ago when n≥3 for front speeds in C^∞(T^n,(0,∞)). Due to topological restrictions, the two dimensional case is much more subtle. In fact, the effective front is C^1, which cannot be a polygon, for given C^{1,1}(T^2,(0,∞)) front speeds. Our regularity requirements on front speeds are hence optimal. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that polygonal effective fronts have been constructed in two dimensions.

We revisit the homogenization problem for the Poisson equation in periodically perforated domains with zero Neumann data at the boundary of the holes and prescribed Dirichlet data at the outer boundary. It is known that, if the periodicity of the holes goes to zero but their volume fraction remains fixed and positive, the limit problem is a Dirichlet boundary value problem posed in the domain without the holes, and the effective diffusion coefficients are non-trivially modified; if that volume fraction goes to zero instead, i.e. the holes are dilute, the effective operator remains the Laplacian (that is, unmodified). Our main results contain the study of a "continuity" in those effective models with respect to the volume fraction of the holes and some new convergence rates for homogenization in the dilute setting. Our method explores the classical two-scale expansion ansatz and relies on asymptotic analysis of the rescaled cell problems using layer potential theory.

This article is a sequel to our previous work [13] concerned with the derivation of high-order homogenized models for the Stokes equation in a periodic porous medium. We provide an improved asymptotic analysis of the coefficients of the higher order models in the low-volume fraction regime whereby the periodic obstacles are rescaled by a factor η which converges to zero. By introducing a new family of order k corrector tensors with a controlled growth as η→0 uniform in k∈\N, we are able to show that both the infinite order and the finite order models converge in a coefficient-wise sense to the three classical asymptotic regimes. Namely, we retrieve the Darcy model, the Brinkman equation or the Stokes equation in the homogeneous cubic domain depending on whether η is respectively larger, proportional to, or smaller than the critical size η_{crit}∼ϵ2/(d−2). For completeness, the paper first establishes the analogous results for the perforated Poisson equation, considered as a simplified scalar version of the Stokes system.

We investigate Lamé systems in periodically perforated domains, and establish quantitative homogenization results in the setting where the domain is clamped at the boundary of the holes. Our method is based on layer potentials and it provides a unified proof for various regimes of hole-cell ratios (the ratio between the size of the holes and the size of the periodic cells), and, more importantly, it yields natural correctors that facilitate error estimates. A key ingredient is the asymptotic analysis for the rescaled cell problems, and this is studied by exploring the convergence of the periodic layer potentials for the Lamé system to those in the whole space when the period tends to infinity.

We study the periodic homogenization of first order front propagations. Based on PDE methods, we provide a simple proof that, for n ≥ 3, the class of centrally symmetric polytopes with rational coordinates and nonempty interior is admissible as effective fronts, which was also established by I. Babenko and F. Balacheff [Sur la forme de la boule unit\'e de la norme stable unidimensionnelle, Manuscripta Math. 119 (2006) 347--358] and M. Jotz [Hedlund metrics and the stable norm, Diff. Geometry Appl. 27 (2009) 543--550] in the form of stable norms as an extension of G. A. Hedlund's classical result [Geodesics on a two-dimensional Riemannian manifold with periodic coefficients, Ann. Math. 33 (1932) 719--739]. Besides, we obtain the optimal convergence rate of the homogenization problem for this class.