This work is intended as both an introductory text and a reference book for those interested in studying several complex variables in the context of partial differential equations. Significant progress has been made in the study of Cauchy-Riemann and tangential Cauchy-Riemann operators; this progress greatly influenced the development of PDEs and several complex variables.

We study convolution groups generated by completely monotone sequences and completely monotone functions. Using a convolution group, we define a fractional calculus for a certain class of distributions. When acting on causal functions, this definition agrees with the traditional Riemann-Liouville definition for t>0 but includes some singularities at t=0 so that the group property holds. Using this group, we are able to extend the definition of Caputo derivatives of order in (0,1) to a certain class of locally integrable functions without using the first derivative. The group property allows us to de-convolve the fractional differential equations to integral equations with completely monotone kernels, which then enables us to prove the general Gronwall inequality (or comparison principle) with the most general conditions. This then opens the door of a priori energy estimates of fractional PDEs. Some other fundamental results for fractional ODEs are also established within this frame under very weak conditions. Besides, we also obtain some interesting results about completely monotone sequences.

We study homogenization of G-equation with a ow straining term (or the strain G-equation) in two dimensional periodic cellular ow. The strain G-equation is a highly non-coercive and non-convex level set Hamilton-Jacobi equation. The main objective is to investigate how the ow induced straining (the nonconvex term) in uences front propagation as the ow intensity A increases. Three distinct regimes are identified. When A is below the critical level, homogenization holds and the turbulent ame speed sT (effective Hamiltonian) is well-defined for any periodic ow with small divergence and is enhanced by the cellular ow as $s_T \ge O(A/logA)$. In the second regime where A is slightly above the critical value, homogenization breaks down, and $s_T$ is not well defined along any direction. Solutions become a mixture of fast moving part and a stagnant part. When $A$ is sufficiently large, the whole ame front ceases to propagate forward due to the flow induced straining. In particular, along directions $p = (1; 0)$ and $(0;1)$, $s_T$ is well-defined again with a value of zero (trapping). A partial homogenization result is also proved. If we consider a similar but relatively simpler Hamiltonian, the trapping occurs along all directions. The analysis is based on the two-player dierential game representation of solutions, selection of game strategies and trapping regions, and construction of connecting trajectories.

We consider the quintic generalized Korteweg–de Vries equation (gKdV) $$u_t + (u_{xx} + u^5)_x =0,$$ which is a canonical mass critical problem, for initial data in$H$^{1}close to the soliton. In earlier works on this problem, finite- or infinite-time blow up was proved for non-positive energy solutions, and the solitary wave was shown to be the universal blow-up profile, see [16], [26] and [20]. For well-localized initial data, finite-time blow up with an upper bound on blow-up rate was obtained in [18].

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 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.

We study the averaging of fronts moving with positive oscillatory normal velocity, which is periodic in space and stationary ergodic in time. The problem can be formulated as the homogenization of coercive level set Hamilton-Jacobi equations with spatio-temporal oscillations. To overcome the difficulties due to the oscillations in time and the linear growth of the Hamiltonian, we first study the long time averaged behavior of the associated reachable sets using geometric arguments. The results are new for higher than one dimensions even in the space-time periodic setting.

We consider the following mean field equation: $$\Delta_{g}v+\rho\left(\frac{h^*e^v}{\int_Mh^*e^v}-1\right)=4\pi\sum_{j=1}^N\alpha_j(\delta_{q_j}-1)$$ on M, where M is a compact Riemann surface with volume 1, $h^*$ is a positive $C^1$ function on M, and  $\alpha_j$ are constants satisfying $\alpha_j>-1$. In this paper, we derive the topological degree counting formula for noncritical values of $\rho$. We also give several applications of this formula, including existence of curvature +1 metric with conic singularities, doubly periodic solutions of electroweak theory, and a special case of self-gravitating strings.

We review the existence results of traveling wave solutions to the reaction-diffusion equations with periodic diffusion (convection) coefficients and combustion (bistable) nonlinearities. We prove that whenever traveling waves exist, the solutions of the initial value problem with either frontlike or pulselike data propagate with the constant effective speeds of traveling waves in all suitable directions. In the case of bistable nonlinearity and one space dimension, we give an example of nonexistence of traveling waves which causes quenching (localization) of wavefront propagation. Quenching (localization) only occurs when the variations of the media from their constant mean values are large enough. Our related numerical results also provide evidence for this phenomenon in the parameter regimes not covered by the analytical example. Finally, we comment on the role of the effective wave speeds in

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.

The Cauchy problem for the barotropic compressible Navier--Stokes equations on the whole two-dimensional space with vacuum as far field density is considered. When the shear viscosity is a positive constant and the bulk one is a power function of density with the power bigger than four-thirds, the global existence and uniqueness of strong and classical solutions is established. It should be remarked that there are no restrictions on the size of the data.

An analogue of the well-known $$ \frac{3}{{16}} $$ lower bound for the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian for a congruence hyperbolic surface is proven for a congruence tower associated with any non-elementary subgroup$L$of SL(2,$Z$). The proof in the case that the Hausdorff of the limit set of$L$is bigger than $$ \frac{1}{2} $$ is based on a general result which allows one to transfer such bounds from a combinatorial version to this archimedian setting. In the case that delta is less than $$ \frac{1}{2} $$ we formulate and prove a somewhat weaker version of this phenomenon in terms of poles of the corresponding dynamical zeta function. These “spectral gaps” are then applied to sieving problems on orbits of such groups.

We establish local higher integrability estimates for upper gradients of vector-valued parabolic quasi-minimizers in metric measure spaces, satisfying a doubling property and supporting a weak Poincaré inequality.

It is a classical result of Sobolev spaces that any $H^1$ function has a well-defined $H^{1/2}$ trace on the boundary of a sufficient regular domain. We discuss its recent extensions given in \cite{TiDu16} in some heterogeneously localized nonlocal function spaces. The new trace theorems are stronger and more general than the classical result. They can be established essentially for all functions having only square integrability away from the boundary or in any compact subset of interior domain. Yet, the heterogeneous localization offers the necessary regularity precisely at the boundary to have well-defined traces. A consequence is that we may study associated Dirichlet type boundary value problems, as well as the coupling of local and nonlocal equations through co-dimension-1 interfaces. %Their derivations not only involve various extensions of classical inequalities but also %require new techniques absent from traditional approaches.

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We introduce a model concerning radiational gaseous stars and establish the existence theory of stationary solutions to the free boundary problem of hydrostatic equations describing the radiative equilibrium. We also establish in the spherically symmetric case the local well-posedness of the moving boundary problem of the corresponding Navier--Stokes--Fourier--Poisson system and construct a priori estimates of strong and classical solutions. Our results explore the vacuum behavior of density and temperature near the free boundary for the equilibrium and capture such degeneracy in the evolutionary problem.

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In this paper we prove some results concerning stability of hypersurfaces in the four dimensional Euclidean space with zero scalar curvature. First we prove there is no complete stable hypersurface with zero scalar curvature, polynomial growth of integral of the mean curvature, and with the Gauss-Kronecker curvature bounded away from zero. We conclude this paper giving a sufficient condition for a regular domain to be stable in terms of the mean and the Gauss-Kronecker curvatures of the hypersurface and the radius of the smallest extrinsic ball which contains the domain.

In this paper we study classification of homogeneous solutions to the stationary Euler equation with locally finite energy. Written in the form $\bu = \n^\perp \Psi$, $\Psi(r,\th) = r^{\l} \psi(\th)$, for $\l >0$, we show that only trivial solutions exist in the range $0<\l<1/2$, i.e. parallel shear and rotational flows. In other cases many new solutions are exhibited that have hyperbolic, parabolic and elliptic structure of streamlines. In particular, for $\l>9/2$ the number of different non-trivial elliptic solutions is equal to the cardinality of the set $(2,\sqrt{2\l}) \cap \N$. The case $\l = 2/3$ is relevant to Onsager's conjecture. We underline the reasons why no anomalous dissipation of energy occurs for such solutions despite their critical Besov regularity $1/3$.

We deal with a stationary problem of a reaction–diffusion system with a conservation law under the Neu-mann boundary condition. It is shown that the stationary problem turns to be the Euler–Lagrange equation of an energy functional with a mass constraint. When the domain is the finite interval (0, 1), we investigate the asymptotic profile of a strictly monotone minimizer of the energy as d, the ratio of the diffusion coef-ficient of the system, tends to zero. In view of a logarithmic function in the leading term of the potential, we get to a scaling parameter κsatisfying the relation ε:=√d=√logκ/κ2. The main result shows that a sequence of minimizers converges to a Dirac mass multiplied by the total mass and that by a scaling with κthe asymptotic profile exhibits a parabola in the nonvanishing region. We also prove the existence of an unstable monotone solution when the mass is small.

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We consider an elliptic pseudo-differential equation with a highly oscillating linear potential modeled as a stationary ergodic random field. The random field is a function composed with a centered long-range correlated Gaussian process. In the limiting of vanishing correlation length, the heterogeneous solution converges to a deterministic solution obtained by averaging the random potential. We characterize the deterministic and stochastic correctors. With proper rescaling, the mean-zero stochastic corrector converges to a Gaussian random process in probability and weakly in the spatial variables. In addition, for two prototype equations involving the Laplacian and the fractional Laplacian operators, we prove that the limit holds in distribution in some Hilbert spaces. We also determine the size of the deterministic corrector when it is larger than the stochastic corrector. Depending on the correlation structure of the random field and on the singularities of the Green’s function, we show that either the deterministic or the random part of the corrector dominates.

In analogy with the classical Minkowski problem, necessary and sufficient conditions are given to assure that a given measure on the unit sphere is the cone-volume measure of the unit ball of a finite dimensional Banach space.

The paper aims at analytically exhibiting for the first time the fundamental mechanisms underlying the fact that effective biological tissue electrical properties and their frequency dependence reflect the tissue composition and physiology. For doing so, a homogenization theory is derived to describe the effective admittivity of cell suspensions. A new formula is reported for dilute cases that gives the frequency-dependent effective admittivity with re- spect to the membrane polarization. Different microstructures are shown to be distinguish- able via spectroscopic measurements of the overall admittivity using the spectral properties of the membrane polarization. The Debye relaxation times associated with the membrane polarization tensor are shown to be able to give the microscopic structure of the medium. A natural measure of the admittivity anisotropy is introduced and its dependence on the frequency of applied current is derived. A Maxwell-Wagner-Fricke formula is given for concentric circular cells, and the results can be extended to the random cases. A randomly deformed periodic medium is also considered and a new formula is derived for the overall admittivity of a dilute suspension of randomly deformed cells.

For the free surface problem of the highly subsonic heat-conducting inviscid flow in 2-D and 3-D, a priori estimates for geometric quantities of free surfaces, such as the second fundamental form and the injectivity radius of the normal exponential map, and the Sobolev norms of fluid variables are proved by investigating the coupling of the boundary geometry and the interior solutions. An interesting feature for the free surface problem studied in this paper is the loss of one more derivative than the problem of incompressible Euler equations for which a geometric approach was introduced by Christodoulou and Lindblad in [11]. Due to the loss of one more derivative and loss of symmetry of equations, the geometric approach in [11] needs to be substantially developed by exploring the interaction of large variation of temperature, heat-conduction, non-zero divergence of the fluid velocity and the evolution of free surfaces.