Generalized capillary-rise models: existence and fast solvers in integral Hölder spaces

Abstract

We study a class of nonlinear Volterra integral equations that generalize the classical capillary rise models, allowing for nonsmooth kernels and nonlinearities. To accommodate such generalities, we work in two families of function spaces: spaces with prescribed modulus of continuity and integral Hölder spaces. We establish existence results for solutions within the integral Hölder space framework. Furthermore, we analyze the behavior of linear interpolation in these spaces and provide, for the first time, sharp error estimates, demonstrating their optimality. Building on this foundation, we propose a piecewise linear collocation method tailored to solutions in integral Hölder spaces and prove its convergence. For problems admitting smoother solutions, we develop an efficient spectral collocation scheme based on Legendre nodes. Finally, several numerical experiments illustrate the theoretical results and highlight the performance of the proposed methods.