Write . If is a classical solution, multiply by a smooth function and apply the divergence theorem. The Neumann boundary condition removes the boundary term and gives
The density of smooth functions in a Sobolev space and boundedness of the coefficients extend this identity to every , so is a weak solution.
Conversely, take to be a test function compactly supported in . The weak formulation says
The fundamental lemma of the calculus of variations gives the equation in . Under the regularity implicit in the stated notion of a classical solution, it holds pointwise. Applying integration by parts again with arbitrary leaves
where is the trace operator. Traces of smooth functions can be chosen arbitrarily on the boundary, so the boundary fundamental lemma of the calculus of variations gives . Thus is a classical solution.
For , the function is the th weak derivative when
for every test function . This is the integration by parts identity with no boundary term and agrees with the ordinary derivative whenever is classically differentiable.
For , the first-order Sobolev space is
with norm, for example,
Functions equal almost everywhere represent the same Sobolev element.
For , call a weak solution when, for every ,
This follows by multiplying the equation by a test function and applying integration by parts in time and space; includes the term because the original transport operator is not in divergence form.
If is , test functions supported away from show that as a distributional identity, hence pointwise. Integrating this pointwise equation by parts in the weak identity leaves
Arbitrary boundary test functions and the fundamental lemma of the calculus of variations give . Thus a weak solution is the unique classical solution from part a.
Write the Inviscid Burgers equation in conservation form as
A bounded function is a weak solution with initial datum when
for every compactly supported test function .
Across a straight discontinuity , integration by parts on its two sides shows that the boundary terms cancel exactly when the Rankine-Hugoniot condition holds:
when . For every , define
The three jumps have left and right states , , and , so their Rankine-Hugoniot speeds are respectively , , and , exactly the speeds of the displayed lines. Hence each satisfies the weak equation away from the origin and across every jump. Moreover, its nonzero support at time has length , so in as ; its initial datum is therefore zero in the weak identity.
The zero function and all the distinct functions are bounded weak solutions with the same zero initial datum. Thus weak solutions are not unique. The central jump from to is an expansion shock, which an entropy condition would exclude.
For the p-energy
the first variation in the direction is
An integration by parts therefore gives the Euler-Lagrange equation
which is the p-Laplacian equation. In the notation of the question one takes .
For , the principal coefficient matrix is
Its eigenvalue in directions orthogonal to is , while its eigenvalue parallel to is . The coefficients are away from , and the condition number there is at most . On every region where , this gives uniform ellipticity with constants depending on , , and . At all principal eigenvalues vanish, so the operator is degenerate there and is not strictly elliptic on a domain containing a critical point.
First choose a test function . The weak formulation and integration by parts give
The fundamental lemma of the calculus of variations implies pointwise because and is continuous. The Dirichlet boundary condition on already follows from and continuity of .
For arbitrary , Green's first identity and the interior equation now reduce the weak identity to
The traces of smooth members of can be chosen freely on compact subsets of . Another application of the fundamental lemma of the calculus of variations, now on the boundary, gives pointwise on . Hence is a classical solution of the complete mixed boundary value problem.
For every compactly supported test function on , define a weak solution by the identity
The extra appears because . This identity is obtained from the linear transport equation by integration by parts in time and space.
Conversely, if and have the stated regularity, choosing test functions supported away from shows in the distributional sense that . Continuity makes the equation pointwise. Integrating that pointwise equation by parts in the displayed identity leaves
for all boundary test functions. The fundamental lemma of the calculus of variations gives , so is a classical solution.
Because is a divergence-free vector field, the product rule gives
The integral of a divergence over the periodic domain vanishes. Hence integration by parts yields
This is the skew-symmetry of incompressible transport.
Let and multiply the vorticity equation by , first for an odd power as in the hint. Periodic integration by parts and give
The diffusion term is nonnegative, while the Holder inequality bounds the right-hand side by . Consequently
On the finite-volume torus, norms increase to the essential supremum as . Hence the damped-vorticity maximum estimate gives
For , the change of variables gives
For , use and integration by parts:
The boundary term vanishes: at zero, and the exponential decay dominates the power at infinity. These estimates also establish convergence of the improper integrals used above.
Let be the difference of two sufficiently regular solutions of the wave equation with the prescribed data. By linearity, has zero initial displacement, zero initial velocity, and homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. Define its wave energy by
For , differentiation under the integral sign and integration by parts yield
The boundary term vanishes because at both fixed endpoints implies there. The zero initial data give , so for all times. Thus is spatially constant, and its zero boundary values give . This proves uniqueness for the undamped wave equation.
Choose the positive weights
These are the volumetric heat capacities. The heat equations and integration by parts give
The exterior boundary terms vanish because the temperatures there are zero. At the thermal interface, the remaining term is
by continuity of temperature and heat flux. Hence the weighted energy estimate is
Both weights are positive, so . Zero initial temperatures give , forcing for all . Each temperature therefore vanishes throughout its slab. Applying this argument to a difference also proves uniqueness for arbitrary common initial data in this thermal interface problem.
For separation of variables, put and set . The boundary conditions are , . Multiplying by and using integration by parts gives
A nonzero solution therefore has : the zero case forces constant, and then forces . Writing , the eigenfunctions and their temporal factors are
These sine functions are orthogonal on , with squared norm . Expanding the initial condition and multiplying by gives, using the permitted interchange of the sum and integral,
Here and . Thus the Fourier series solution is
The exponential decay permits differentiation of the series for , and each term satisfies both boundary conditions. At it is the mixed-end Fourier expansion of .
The gained heat is the increase in internal energy. Since the paper specifies no cross-sectional area, first give the answer per unit cross-sectional area; multiply by for a rod of cross-sectional area . The initial temperature has integral , whereas . At this gives
Numerically . This is positive and less than the eventual gain , as expected from relaxation towards the uniform steady state.
For separation of variables, set , with . The side Neumann boundary conditions give . As in the standard Sturm-Liouville problem, integration by parts shows . The zero eigenvalue gives constant , and together with makes constant too.
For positive eigenvalues, the side conditions give , , . The top condition chooses the hyperbolic cosine factor . Normalize it to one at , obtaining
The orthogonality of integer Fourier modes and the permitted interchange of summation and integration give
For the remaining Fourier coefficients, integrate by parts twice. The sine boundary term vanishes, and with ,
The last integral vanishes because and is a positive integer. Thus : only even Fourier modes survive, as expected from reflection symmetry about . Writing gives
The factor involving hyperbolic cosine lies between zero and one on the closed rectangle. Comparison with proves uniform convergence, so the solution is continuous on the entire boundary and takes the prescribed bottom values. On every strip , the Fourier coefficients have additional exponential decay, allowing differentiation and verifying Laplace's equation and all three Neumann boundary conditions.
To justify the endpoint calculation in b, differentiate at , in the interior-edge sense:
Subtracting from the hyperbolic tangent leaves an absolutely convergent series. For the remaining part, the power series gives, by taking real parts at and then ,
The same formula follows as the limit of the differentiated interior solution, since its leading multiplier is . This establishes the boundary normal derivative used in b. It also explains why the failure of the corner compatibility condition for mixed boundary data affects first derivatives at the bottom corners without spoiling continuity of itself.
The homogeneous linear differential equation has general solution . For a particular solution, use variation of parameters with , and Wronskian one:
The double-angle formulas and integration by parts give
Substitution simplifies to . Absorb the last term into the homogeneous linear differential equation solution. Therefore
Indeed, applying to gives , and applying it to gives ; their difference divided by four is the required .
On the function is odd, so its mean and all its cosine Fourier coefficients vanish:
The assigned endpoint value does not affect these integrals. The product of the two odd functions and is even, hence the sine Fourier coefficients are
Two applications of integration by parts give
Therefore
The periodic extension has a jump discontinuity at every odd multiple of : its left and right limits are and . Its assigned value at each such point is . Thus it is odd away from these points, but it is not a globally odd function pointwise. The Fourier series will take the midpoint value zero at these jumps.
Subtract the constant steady state profile: set . Then
The last equation follows from Fourier's law and zero heat flux at the insulated end. For a nonzero separated solution , separation of variables gives
To see that for a nonzero eigenfunction, multiply the spatial equation by and use integration by parts:
Both boundary terms vanish. If the right side were zero, would be constant and would make it zero. Thus write with . Solving gives , and requires . The mixed Dirichlet-Neumann modes on an interval therefore have
The eigenvalues of are ; are their positive square roots. By superposition, with coefficients for which the resulting series and its required derivatives converge at positive times,
The eigenfunctions are orthogonal on and have squared norm . Expanding the initial excess temperature gives
Thus the requested temperature is
At the insulated endpoint cancels the alternating coefficient sign, leaving
Every summand is positive. The endpoint temperature never drops below ; it decreases towards as and starts at .
For completeness, the Sturm-Liouville eigenfunction expansion gives the initial profile in the sense. Here the coefficients are absolutely summable, so the Weierstrass M-test also gives uniform convergence on , and the initial values are recovered everywhere. For positive times the exponential factors justify all required termwise derivatives, giving a classical solution. There is, however, an initial incompatibility with a Neumann boundary condition at : the initial slope is , while the insulated Neumann boundary condition requires zero slope for . The temperature is continuous to the initial edge, but cannot extend continuously to that corner. One must not differentiate the initial series term by term at .
The function is an even function, so every Fourier sine coefficient is zero. Introduce the auxiliary integral
For a nonzero integer , integration by parts gives
Consequently
For , a product-to-sum formula yields
If , this becomes
The exceptional Fourier coefficient at must be evaluated before dividing by :
Thus the full Fourier series is
This equality holds on and by periodicity everywhere. Indeed the periodic extension is continuous at the joined endpoints, since both endpoint values are zero, and is piecewise smooth. The theorem on pointwise convergence of a piecewise smooth Fourier series therefore applies, including at the endpoints. The Fourier coefficients also decay as , making the resulting series absolutely and uniformly convergent.
Parametrize the surface of revolution by
An oriented vector surface area element is
Use the vector field , whose divergence is one. If this parametrization has the outward orientation on an enclosing surface, the divergence theorem gives
The second equality is integration by parts, using the endpoint values. For example this outward convention applies when the positive- branch lies above the negative- branch, for .
The stated regularity and endpoint conditions alone do not guarantee an embedded enclosing surface: branches can cross or coincide. Without an appropriate orientation assumption the flux formula is an algebraic signed volume. If “inside” is defined as the region between the two graph branches for each radius, its nonnegative geometric volume is instead
This explicitly handles a reversal or change in the order of the two branches.