We prove that there is a unique way to construct a geometric scale of Hilbert spaces interpolating between two given spaces. We investigate what properties of operators, other than boundedness, are preserved by interpolation. We show that self-adjointness is, but subnormality and Krein subnormality are not. On the way to this last result, we establish a representation theorem for cyclic Krein subnormal operators.

Let Ω⊂ℝ^{$n$}be an arbitrary open set. We characterize the space$W$^{1,1}_{loc}(Ω) using variants of the classical area and coarea formulas. We use these characterizations to obtain a norm approximation and trace theorems for functions in the space$W$^{1,1}(ℝ^{$n$}).

The analysis of the vestibular system (VS) is an important research topic in medical image analysis. VS is a sensory structure in the inner ear for the perception of spatial orientation. It is believed several diseases, such as the Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS), are due to the impairment of the VS function. The morphology of the VS is thus of great research significance. A major challenge is that the VS is a genus-3 surface. The high-genus topology of the VS poses great challenges to find accurate pointwise correspondences between the surfaces and whereby perform accurate shape analysis. In this paper, we present a method to obtain the landmark constrained diffeomorphic registration between the VS surfaces based on the quasi-conformal theory. Given a set of corresponding landmarks on the VS surfaces, a diffeomorphism between the VS surfaces that matches the features consistently can be obtained. The basic idea is to iteratively search for an admissible Beltrami coefficient, which is associated to our desired landmark matching registration. With the obtained surface registrations, vertex-wise morphometric analysis can be carried out. Two types of geometric features are used for shape comparison. One is the collection of homotopic loops on each canals of the VS, which can be used to measure the local thickness of the canals. From the homotopic loops, centerlines can be extracted. By examining the deviations of the centerlines from the best fit planes, bendings of the canals can be detected. The second geometric feature is the minimal surface enclosed by the homotopic loop. From the minimal surfaces of each homotopic loops, cross-sectional area of the canals can be evaluated. To study the local shape difference more comprehensively, a complete shape index, which is defined using the Beltrami coefficients and surface curvatures, is used. We test proposed registration method on 15 VS of normal control subjects and 12 VS of patients suffering from AIS. Experimental results show the efficacy and accuracy of the proposed algorithm to compute the VS surface registration. Shape analysis has also been carried out using the proposed geometric features and shape index, which reveals shape differences in the posterior canal between normal and diseased AIS groups.

Wave propagation problems arise in a wide range of applications. The energy conserving property is one of the guiding principles for numerical algorithms, in order to minimize the phase or shape errors after long time integration. In this paper, we develop and analyze a local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method for solving the wave equation. We prove optimal error estimates, superconvergence toward a particular projection of the exact solution, and the energy conserving property for the semi-discrete formulation. The analysis is extended to the fully discrete LDG scheme, with the centered second-order time discretization (the leap-frog scheme). Our numerical experiments demonstrate optimal rates of convergence and superconvergence. We also show that the shape of the solution, after long time integration, is well preserved due to the energy conserving property.

We study the solvability problem for the multidimensional Riccati equation −∇$u$=|∇$u$|^{q}+ω, where$q$>1 and ω is an arbitrary nonnegative function (or measure). We also discuss connections with the classical problem of the existence of positive solutions for the Schrödinger equation −Δ$u$−ω$u$=0 with nonnegative potential ω. We establish explicit criteria for the existence of global solutions on$R$^{n}in terms involving geometric (capacity) estimates or pointwise behavior of Riesz potentials, together with sharp pointwise estimates of solutions and their gradients. We also consider the corresponding nonlinear Dirichlet problem on a bounded domain, as well as more general equations of the type$−Lu=f(x, u, ∇u)$+ω where, and$L$is a uniformly elliptic operator.