Uniqueness results for unbounded solutions of first order nonlinear differential-functional equations (Q1320470)

The uniqueness of solutions of first order functional differential equations of the form \[ D_ t z(t,x) = f \bigl( t,x,z (t,x), z_{(t,x)},\;D_ x z(t,x) \bigr), \;z(t,x) = \varphi (t,x), \;(t,x) \in [-\tau_ 0,0] \times \mathbb{R}^ n \tag{1} \] is studied here. The interest is in unbounded solutions and for this it is necessary to introduce a class of functions \({\mathcal H}\) consisting of functions \(H \in C ([-\tau_ 0,a] \times \mathbb{R}^ n\), \((0,\infty))\) which are continuously differentiable nondecreasing in \(t \in [-\tau_ 0,a]\) for all \(x \in \mathbb{R}^ n\) and such that \(x_ i D_{x_ i} H(t,x) \geq 0\). Moreover, a subclass \({\mathcal H}_ 0 ({\mathcal L}; L_ 0,L_ 1,L_ 2)\) of \({\mathcal H}\) of functions \(H\) satisfying \[ D_ t H(t,x) \geq (L_ 0 + L_ 1) H(t,x) + {\mathcal L} (t,x) \| H_{(t,x)} \| + L_ 2 \| D_ x H(t,x) \| \] is defined, where \(L_ 0\), \(L_ 1\), \(L_ 2 \geq 0\) and \({\mathcal L}\) is continuous and nonnegative. The main theorem is a maximum principle and states (essentially) that if \(f\) is Lipschitz then \(\| u_ 1 - u_ 2 \|_{(t)} \leq \| u_ 1 - u_ 2 \|_ 0\), \(t \in [0,a]\), where \(u_ 1\) and \(u_ 2\) are solutions of (1) for which \(| u_ i (t,x) | \leq \varepsilon_ i (t,x) H_ i(t,x)\) for some \(H \in {\mathcal H}\) and \(\varepsilon \to 0\) as \(\| x \| \to \infty\). Here, \[ \| u \|_ t = \sup \biggl\{ \bigl | u(s,y) \bigr | H^{-1} (s,y) : (s,y) \in [-\tau_ 0,a] \times \mathbb{R}^ n,\;s \leq t \biggr\}. \]