The thesis develops two families of numerical methods, based upon new rational approximations to the matrix exponential function, for solving second-order parabolic partial differential equations. These methods are L-stable, third- and fourth-order accurate in space and time, and do not require the use of complex arithmetic. In these methods second-order spatial derivatives are approximated by new difference approximations. Then parallel algorithms are developed and tested on one-, two- and three-dimensional heat equations, with constant coefficients, subject to homogeneous boundary conditions with discontinuities between initial and boundary conditions. The schemes are seen to have high accuracy. A family of cubic polynomials, with a natural number dependent coefficients, is also introduced. Each member of this family has real zeros. Third- and fourth-order methods are also developed for one-dimensional heat equation subject to time-dependent boundary conditions, approximating the integral term in a new way, and tested on a variety of problems from the literature.

No description available.

<p dir="ltr">In this thesis, we provide an application of a Bochner type formula of Siu and Sampson; our main result is as follows [1]: If { M_t } t∈∆ is a polarized family of compact Kähler manifolds over the open unit disk ∆, if N is a Riemannian manifold satisfying the curvature condition: R^N (X, Y, X, Y) ≤ 0 for X, Y ∈ T_C N, and if { φ_t: M_t → N } t∈∆ is a smooth family of pluriharmonic maps, then the Dirichlet energy E( φ_t ) is a subharmonic function of t ∈ ∆. We also investigate the two natural questions: Under what conditions is the energy E( φ_t ) strictly subharmonic? What type of families { φ_t } t∈∆ have constant energy? Some of our answers generalize the results of Tromba [2] and Toledo [3], which concern the case where M_t are compact Riemann surfaces. We conclude this thesis with a discussion of examples of subharmonicity of the energy.</p>

This thesis concerns the boundary behavior of solutions to parabolic equations. It consists of a comprehensive summary and four scientific papers. The equations concerned are different generalizations of the heat equation. Paper I concerns the solutions to non-linear parabolic equations with linear growth. For non-negative solutions that vanish continuously on the lateral boundary of an NTA cylinder the following main results are established: a backward Harnack inequality, the doubling property for the Riesz measure associated with such solutions, and the Hölder continuityof the quotient of two such solutions up to the boundary. Paper 2 concerns the solutions to linear degenerate parabolic equations, where the degeneracy is controlled by a Muckenhoupt weight of class 1+2/n. For non-negative solutions that vanish continuously on the lateral boundary of an NTA cylinder the following main results are established: a backward Harnack inequality, the doubling property for the parabolic measure, and the Hölder continuity of the quotient of two such solutions up to the boundary. Paper 3 concerns a fractional heat equation. The first main result is that a solution to the fractional heat equation in Euclidean space of dimension n can be extended as a solution to a certain linear degenerate parabolic equation in the upper half space of dimension n+1. The second main result is the Hölder continuity of quotients of two non-negative solutions that vanish continuously on the latteral boundary of a Lipschitz domain. Paper 4 concerns the solutions to uniformly parabolic linear equations with complex coefficients. The first main result is that under certain assumptions on the opperator the bounds for the single layer potentials associated to the opperator are bounded. The second main result is that these bounds always hold if the opperator is realvalued and symmetric.

Cette thèse est constituée de trois parties. Dans la première partie, on s’intéresse au problème de trace au bord d’une solution positive de l’équation (E1) - Δu + g(∇u) = 0 dans un domaine borné Ω. Si g(r) ≥ rq avec q > 1, on prouve que toute solution positive de (E1)admet une trace au bord considérée comme une mesure de Borel régulière. Si g(r) = rq avec1 < q < qc = N+1/N , on montre l’existence d’une solution positive dont la trace au bord est une mesure de Borel régulière. Si g(r) = rq avec qc ≤ q < 2, on établit une condition nécessaire de résolution en terme de capacité de Bessel C2-q/q ,q’ . On étudie aussi des ensembles éliminables au bord pour des solutions modérées et sigma-modérées. La deuxième partie est consacrée à étudier la limite, lorsque k → ∞, de solutions d’équation ∂tu - Δu + f(u) = 0 dans ℝN × (0,∞) avec donnée initiale kδ0. On prouve qu’il existe essentiellement trois types de comportement possible et démontre un résultat général d’existence de trace initiale et quelques résultats d’unicité et de non-unicité de solutions dont la donnée initiale n’est pas bornée. Dans la troisième partie, on considère l’équation ∂tu - Δu + f(u) = 0 dans ℝN × (0,∞) où p > 1. Si p > 2N/N+1, on fournit une condition suffisante portant sur f pour l’existence et l’unicité des solutions fondamentales et on étudie la limite lorsque k → ∞. On donne aussi de nouveaux résultats de non-unicité de solutions avec donnée initiale non bornée. Si p ≥ 2, on prouve que toute solution positive admet une trace initiale dans la classe des mesures de Borel régulières positives. Finalement on applique les résultats ci-dessus au cas f(u) = uα lnβ(u + 1) avec α,β > 0. / This thesis is divided into three parts. In the first part, we study the boundary trace of positive solutions of the equation (E1) - Δu + g(∇u) = 0 in a bounded domain . When g(r) ≥ rq with q > 1, we prove that any positive function of (E1) admits a boundary trace which is an outer regular Borel measure. When g(r) ≥ rq with 1 < q < qc = N+1/N, we prove the existence of a positive solution with a general outer regular Borel measure as boundary trace.When g(r) ≥ rq with qc ≤ q < 2, we establish a necessary condition for solvability in term of the Bessel capacity C2-q/q ,q’ . We also study boundary removable sets for moderate and sigma-moderate solutions. The second part is devoted to investigate the limit, when k → ∞, of the solutions of ∂tu - Δu + f(u) = 0 in ℝN × (0,∞) with initial data kδ0. We prove that there exist essentially three types of possible behaviour and provide a new and more general construction of the initial trace and some uniqueness and non-uniqueness results for solutions with unbounded initial data. In the third part, we consider the equation ∂tu - Δu + f(u) = 0 in ℝN × (0,∞) where p > 1. If p > 2N/N+1we provide a sufficient condition on f for existence and uniqueness of the fundamental solutions and we study their limit when k → ∞. We also give new results dealing with non uniqueness for the initial value problem with unbounded initial data. If p ≥ 2, we prove that any positive solution admits an initial trace in the class of positive Borel measures. Finally we apply the above results to the case f(u) = uα lnβ(u + 1) with α,β > 0.