A Comment on the Flow and Heat Transfer Past a Permeable Stretching/Shrinking Surface in a Porous Medium: Brinkman Model

An analytical solution is presented for the boundary-layer flow and heat transfer over a permeable stretching/shrinking surface embedded in a porous medium using the Brinkman model. The problem is seen to be characterized by the Prandtl number $Pr$ , a mass flux parameter $s$ , with $s>0$ for suction, $s=0$ for an impermeable surface, and $s<0$ for blowing, a viscosity ratio parameter $M$ , the porous medium parameter $\Lambda $ and a wall velocity parameter $\lambda $ . The analytical solution identifies critical values which agree with those previously determined numerically (Bachok et al. Proceedings of the fifth International Conference on Applications of Porous Media, 2013) and shows that these critical values, and the consequent dual solutions, can arise only when there is suction through the wall, $s>0$ .     

Towards the Development of an Evolution Equation for Flame Turbulence Interaction in Premixed Turbulent Combustion

Flame turbulence interaction is one of the leading order terms in the scalar dissipation \(\left (\widetilde {\varepsilon }_{c}\right )\) transport equation [35] and is thus an important phenomenon in premixed turbulent combustion. Swaminathan and Grout [36] and Chakraborty and Swaminathan [15, 16] have shown that the effect of strain rate on the transport of \(\widetilde {\varepsilon }_{c}\) is dominated by the interaction between the fluctuating scalar gradients and the fluctuating strain rate, denoted here by \(\overline {\rho }\widetilde {\Delta }_{c}= \overline {\rho {\alpha }\nabla c^{\prime \prime }S_{ij}^{\prime \prime }\nabla c^{\prime \prime }}\) ; this represents the flame turbulence interaction. In order to obtain an accurate representation of this phenomenon, a new evolution equation for \(\widetilde {\Delta }_{c}\) has been proposed. This equation gives a detailed insight into flame turbulence interaction and provides an alternative approach to model the important physics represented by \(\widetilde {\Delta }_{c}\) . The \(\widetilde {\Delta }_{c}\) evolution equation is derived in detail and an order of magnitude analysis is carried out to determine the leading order terms in the \(\widetilde {\Delta }_{c}\) evolution equation. The leading order terms are then studied using a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of premixed turbulent flames in the corrugated flamelet regime. It is found that the behaviour of \(\widetilde {\Delta }_{c}\) is determined by the competition between the source terms (pressure gradient and the reaction rate), diffusion/dissipation processes, turbulent strain rate and the dilatation rate. Closures for the leading order terms in \(\widetilde {\Delta }_{c}\) evolution equation have been proposed and compared with the DNS data.     

Slow Entropy for Noncompact Sets and Variational Principle

This paper defines and discusses the dimension notion of topological slow entropy of any subset for \({{\mathbb {Z}}}^d-\) actions. Also, the notion of measure-theoretic slow entropy for \({\mathbb {Z}}^d-\) actions is presented, which is modified from Brin and Katok (Geometric Dynamics, Springer, Berlin 1983). Relations between Bowen topological entropy Bowen (Trans Am Math, 184:125–136, 1973), and topological slow entropy are studied in this paper, and several examples of the topological slow entropy in a symbolic system are given. Specifically, a variational principle is proved.     

Analytical Validation of a Continuum Model for Epitaxial Growth with Elasticity on Vicinal Surfaces

Within the context of heteroepitaxial growth of a film onto a substrate, terraces and steps self-organize according to misfit elasticity forces. Discrete models of this behavior were developed by Duport et al. (J Phys I 5:1317–1350, 1995) and Tersoff et al. (Phys Rev Lett 75:2730–2733, 1995). A continuum limit of these was in turn derived by Xiang (SIAM J Appl Math 63:241–258, 2002) (see also the work of Xiang and Weinan Phys Rev B 69:035409-1–035409-16, 2004; Xu and Xiang SIAM J Appl Math 69:1393–1414, 2009). In this paper we formulate a notion of weak solution to Xiang’s continuum model in terms of a variational inequality that is satisfied by strong solutions. Then we prove the existence of a weak solution.     

Embedded Surfaces of Arbitrary Genus Minimizing the Willmore Energy Under Isoperimetric Constraint

The isoperimetric ratio of an embedded surface in ${\mathbb{R}^3}$ is defined as the ratio of the area of the surface to power three to the squared enclosed volume. The aim of the present work is to study the minimization of the Willmore energy under fixed isoperimetric ratio when the underlying abstract surface has fixed genus ${g \geqq 0}$ . The corresponding problem in the case of spherical surfaces, that is g = 0, was recently solved by Schygulla (see Schygulla, Arch Ration Mech Anal 203:901–941, 2012) with different methods.     

Besov Space Regularity Conditions for Weak Solutions of the Navier–Stokes Equations

Consider a bounded domain ${{\Omega \subseteq \mathbb{R}^3}}$ with smooth boundary, some initial value ${{u_0 \in L^2_{\sigma}(\Omega )}}$ , and a weak solution u of the Navier–Stokes system in ${{[0,T) \times\Omega,\,0 < T \le \infty}}$ . Our aim is to develop regularity and uniqueness conditions for u which are based on the Besov space $$B^{q,s}(\Omega ):=\left\{v\in L^2_{\sigma}(\Omega ); \|v\|_{B^{q,s}(\Omega )} := \left(\int\limits^{\infty}_0 \left\|e^{-\tau A}v\right\|^s_q {\rm d} \tau\right)^{1/s}<\infty \right\}$$ with ${{2 < s < \infty,\,3 < q <\infty,\,\frac2{s}+\frac{3}{q} = 1}}$ ; here A denotes the Stokes operator. This space, introduced by Farwig et al. (Ann. Univ. Ferrara 55:89–110, 2009 and J. Math. Fluid Mech. 14: 529–540, 2012), is a subspace of the well known Besov space ${{{\mathbb{B}}^{-2/s}_{q,s}(\Omega )}}$ , see Amann (Nonhomogeneous Navier–Stokes Equations with Integrable Low-Regularity Data. Int. Math. Ser. pp. 1–28. Kluwer/Plenum, New York, 2002). Our main results on the regularity of u exploits a variant of the space ${{B^{q,s}(\Omega )}}$ in which the integral in time has to be considered only on finite intervals (0, δ ) with ${{\delta \to 0}}$ . Further we discuss several criteria for uniqueness and local right-hand regularity, in particular, if u satisfies Serrin’s limit condition ${{u\in L^{\infty}_{\text{loc}}([0,T);L^3_{\sigma}(\Omega ))}}$ . Finally, we obtain a large class of regular weak solutions u defined by a smallness condition ${{\|u_0\|_{B^{q,s}(\Omega )} \le K}}$ with some constant ${{K=K(\Omega, q)>0}}$ .     

Cosserat Operators of Higher Order

A higher order version of Cosserat Operators is introduced. With a compactness result (the proof of which we can only sketch here, for details see Riedl in Cosserat operators of higher order and applications, PhD thesis, University of Bayreuth, 2010) based on a regularization property of these operators we gain insight to invertibility of the operator div : ${\underline{H}^{m,q}_0 (G) \rightarrow H^{m-1,q}_{0,0} (G)}$ , where ${m \in \mathbb{N}, 1 < q < \infty}$ and ${G \subset \mathbb{R}^n}$ is a bounded domain with sufficiently smooth boundary. As an application, we get a very simple and effective method of treating higher order generalizations of Stokes’ system.     

Hölder Continuity and Injectivity of Optimal Maps

Consider transportation of one distribution of mass onto another, chosen to optimize the total expected cost, where cost per unit mass transported from x to y is given by a smooth function c(x, y). If the source density f ⁺(x) is bounded away from zero and infinity in an open region ${U' \subset \mathbf{R}^n}$ , and the target density f ^?(y) is bounded away from zero and infinity on its support ${\overline{V} \subset \mathbf{R}^n}$ , which is strongly c-convex with respect to U′, and the transportation cost c satisfies the ${\mathbf{A3}_{\rm w}}$ condition of Trudinger and Wang (Ann Sc Norm Super Pisa Cl Sci 5, 8(1):143–174, 2009), we deduce the local Hölder continuity and injectivity of the optimal map inside U′ (so that the associated potential u belongs to ${C^{1,\alpha}_{loc}(U')}$ ). Here the exponent α > 0 depends only on the dimension and the bounds on the densities, but not on c. Our result provides a crucial step in the low/interior regularity setting: in a sequel (Figalli et al., J Eur Math Soc (JEMS), 1131–1166, 2013), we use it to establish regularity of optimal maps with respect to the Riemannian distance squared on arbitrary products of spheres. Three key tools are introduced in the present paper. Namely, we first find a transformation that under ${\mathbf{A3}_{\rm w}}$ makes c-convex functions level-set convex (as was also obtained independently from us by Liu (Calc Var Partial Diff Eq 34:435–451, 2009)). We then derive new Alexandrov type estimates for the level-set convex c-convex functions, and a topological lemma showing that optimal maps do not mix the interior with the boundary. This topological lemma, which does not require ${\mathbf{A3}_{\rm w}}$ , is needed by Figalli and Loeper (Calc Var Partial Diff Eq 35:537–550, 2009) to conclude the continuity of optimal maps in two dimensions. In higher dimensions, if the densities f ^± are Hölder continuous, our result permits continuous differentiability of the map inside U′ (in fact, ${C^{2,\alpha}_{loc}}$ regularity of the associated potential) to be deduced from the work of Liu et al. (Comm Partial Diff Eq 35(1):165–184, 2010).     

Weak Solutions of the Navier–Stokes Equations for Compressible Flows in a Half-Space with No-Slip Boundary Conditions

We consider the Navier–Stokes equations for the motion of compressible, viscous flows in a half-space ${\mathbb{R}^n_+,}$ n =  2,  3, with the no-slip boundary conditions. We prove the existence of a global weak solution when the initial data are close to a static equilibrium. The density of the weak solution is uniformly bounded and does not contain a vacuum, the velocity is Hölder continuous in (x, t) and the material acceleration is weakly differentiable. The weak solutions of this type were introduced by D. Hoff in Arch Ration Mech Anal 114(1):15–46, (1991), Commun Pure and Appl Math 55(11):1365–1407, (2002) for the initial-boundary value problem in ${\Omega = \mathbb{R}^n}$ and for the problem in ${\Omega = \mathbb{R}^n_+}$ with the Navier boundary conditions.     

The Rot-Div System in Exterior Domains

The goal of this paper is to reconsider the classical elliptic system rot v =  f, div v =  g in simply connected domains with bounded connected boundaries (bounded and exterior sets). The main result shows solvability of the problem in the maximal regularity regime in the L _p -framework taking into account the optimal/minimal requirements on the smoothness of the boundary. A generalization for the Besov spaces is studied, too, for \({{\bf f} \in \dot B^s_{p,q}(\Omega)}\) for \({-1+\frac 1p < s < \frac 1p}\) . As a limit case we prove the result for \({{\bf f} \in \dot B^0_{3,1}(\Omega)}\) , provided the boundary is merely in \({B^{2-1/3}_{3,1}}\) . The dimension three is distinguished due to the physical interpretation of the system. In other words we revised and extended the classical results of Friedrichs (Commun Pure Appl Math 8;551–590, 1955) and Solonnikov (Zap Nauch Sem LOMI 21:112–158, 1971).     

Scaling the normal stresses in concentrated non-colloidal suspensions of spheres

We have collected six sets of results for the ratio of the second normal stress difference to the shear stress $(N_{2}/\tau )$ in non-colloidal suspensions of spheres in Newtonian matrices. They all show a near-cubic dependence on the volume fraction $\varphi $ in the range $0.1 < \varphi < 0.5$ , in contrast to the square law predictions of Brady and Morris (J Fluid Mech 348:103–139, 1997) for dilute suspensions. We suggest that the difference can be resolved by using a dependence on the square of the effective volume fraction $\varphi _{\textrm e}$ , and good agreement is then found.     

Type-I intermittency with discontinuous reinjection probability density in a truncation model of the derivative nonlinear Schrödinger equation

In previous papers, the type-I intermittent phenomenon with continuous reinjection probability density (RPD) has been extensively studied. However, in this paper type-I intermittency considering discontinuous RPD function in one-dimensional maps is analyzed. To carry out the present study the analytic approximation presented by del Río and Elaskar (Int. J. Bifurc. Chaos 20:1185–1191, 2010) and Elaskar et al. (Physica A. 390:2759–2768, 2011) is extended to consider discontinuous RPD functions. The results of this analysis show that the characteristic relation only depends on the position of the lower bound of reinjection (LBR), therefore for the LBR below the tangent point the relation \(\left\langle l \right\rangle \propto \varepsilon ^{-1/2}\) , where \(\varepsilon \) is the control parameter, remains robust regardless the form of the RPD, although the average of the laminar phases \(\left\langle l \right\rangle \) can change. Finally, the study of discontinuous RPD for type-I intermittency which occurs in a three-wave truncation model for the derivative nonlinear Schrodinger equation is presented. In all tests the theoretical results properly verify the numerical data.     

Dynamics and Control at Feedback Vertex Sets. I: Informative and Determining Nodes in Regulatory Networks

We consider systems of differential equations which model complex regulatory networks by a graph structure of dependencies. We show that the concepts of informative nodes (Mochizuki and Saito, J Theor Biol 266:323–335, 2010) and determining nodes (Foias and Temam, Math Comput 43:117–133, 1984) coincide with the notion of feedback vertex sets from graph theory. As a result we can determine the long-time dynamics of the entire network from observations on only a feedback vertex set. We also indicate how open loop control at a feedback vertex set, only, forces the remaining network to stably follow prescribed stable or unstable trajectories. We present three examples of biological networks which motivated this work: a specific gene regulatory network of ascidian cell differentiation (Imai et al., Science 312:1183–1187, 2006), a signal transduction network involving the epidermal growth factor in mammalian cells (Oda et al., Mol Syst Biol 1:1–17, 2005), and a mammalian gene regulatory network of circadian rhythms (Mirsky et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:11107–11112, 2009). In each example the required observation set is much smaller than the entire network. For further details on biological aspects see the companion paper (Mochizuki et al., J Theor Biol, 2013, in press). The mathematical scope of our approach is not limited to biology. Therefore we also include many further examples to illustrate and discuss the broader mathematical aspects.     

Pointwise Bounds for the Solutions of the Smoluchowski Equation with Diffusion

We prove various decay bounds on solutions (f _n : n > 0) of the discrete and continuous Smoluchowski equations with diffusion. More precisely, we establish pointwise upper bounds on n ^? f _n in terms of a suitable average of the moments of the initial data for every positive ?. As a consequence, we can formulate sufficient conditions on the initial data to guarantee the finiteness of ${L^p(\mathbb{R}^d \times [0, T])}$ norms of the moments ${X_a(x, t) := \sum_{m\in\mathbb{N}}m^a f_m(x, t)}$ , ( ${\int_0^{\infty} m^a f_m(x, t)dm}$ in the case of continuous Smoluchowski’s equation) for every ${p \in [1, \infty]}$ . In previous papers [11] and [5] we proved similar results for all weak solutions to the Smoluchowski’s equation provided that the diffusion coefficient d(n) is non-increasing as a function of the mass. In this paper we apply a new method to treat general diffusion coefficients and our bounds are expressed in terms of an auxiliary function ${\phi(n)}$ that is closely related to the total increase of the diffusion coefficient in the interval (0, n].     

On the Rigorous Derivation of the 3D Cubic Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation with a Quadratic Trap

We consider the dynamics of the three-dimensional N-body Schrödinger equation in the presence of a quadratic trap. We assume the pair interaction potential is N ^3β-1 V(N ^β x). We justify the mean-field approximation and offer a rigorous derivation of the three-dimensional cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS) with a quadratic trap. We establish the space-time bound conjectured by Klainerman and Machedon (Commun Math Phys 279:169–185, 2008) for ${\beta \in (0, 2/7]}$ by adapting and simplifying an argument in Chen and Pavlovi? (Annales Henri Poincaré, 2013) which solves the problem for ${\beta \in (0, 1/4)}$ in the absence of a trap.     

On the Formulation of Continuum Thermodynamic Models for Solids as General Equations for Non-equilibrium Reversible-Irreversible Coupling

The purpose of this work is the comparison of some aspects of the formulation of material models in the context of continuum thermodynamics (e.g., ?ilhavý in The mechanics and thermodynamics of continuous media, Springer, Berlin, 1997) with their formulation in the form of a General Equation for Non-Equilibrium Reversible-Irreversible Coupling (GENERIC: e.g., Grmela and Öttinger in Phys. Rev. E 56: 6620–6632, 1997; Öttinger and Grmela in Phys. Rev. E 56: 6633–6655, 1997; Öttinger in Beyond equilibrium thermodynamics, Wiley, New York, 2005; Grmela in J. Non-Newton. Fluid Mech. 165: 980–998, 2010). A GENERIC represents a generalization of the Ginzburg-Landau model for the approach of non-equilibrium systems to thermodynamic equilibrium. Originally developed to formulate non-equilibrium thermodynamic models for complex fluids, it has recently been applied to anisotropic inelastic solids in a Eulerian setting (Hütter and Tervoort in J. Non-Newton. Fluid Mech. 152: 45–52, 2008; 53–65, 2008; Adv. Appl. Mech. 42: 254–317, 2009) as well as to damage mechanics (Hütter and Tervoort in Acta Mech. 201: 297–312, 2008). In the current work, attention is focused for simplicity on the case of thermoelastic solids with heat conduction and viscosity in a Lagrangian setting (e.g., ?ilhavý in The mechanics and thermodynamics of continuous media, Springer, Berlin, 1997, Chaps. 9–12). In the process, the relation of the two formulations to each other is investigated in detail. A particular point in this regard is the concept of dissipation and its model representation in both contexts.     

Experimental study on a heavy-gas cylinder accelerated by cylindrical converging shock waves

The Richtmyer–Meshkov instability behavior of a heavy-gas $(\text{ SF }_6)$ cylinder accelerated by a cylindrical converging shock wave is studied experimentally. A curved wall profile is well-designed based on the shock dynamics theory [Phys. Fluids, 22: 041701 (2010)] with an incident planar shock Mach number of 1.2 and a converging angle of $15^\circ $ in a $95\,\text{ mm }\times 95$ mm square cross-section shock tube. The $\text{ SF }_6$ cylinder mixed with the glycol droplets flows vertically through the test section and is illuminated horizontally by a laser sheet. The images obtained only one per run by an ICCD (intensified charge coupled device) combined with a pulsed Nd:YAG laser are first presented and the complete evolution process of the $\text{ SF }_6$ cylinder is then captured in a single test shot by a high-speed video camera combined with a high-power continuous laser. In this way, both the developments of the first counter-rotating vortex pair and the second counter-rotating vortex pair with an opposite rotating direction from the first one are observed. The experimental results indicate that the phenomena induced by the converging shock wave and the reflected shock formed from the center of convergence are distinct from those found in the planar shock case.     

Concerning the Existence of Classical Solutions to the Stokes System. On the Minimal Assumptions Problem

In this notes we consider the stationary Stokes system in a bounded, connected, three-dimensional smooth domain, with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition. Proofs also apply to the n-dimensional case, and to other boundary conditions, like Navier-slip ones. We say here that a solution is classical if all derivatives appearing in the equations are continuous up to the boundary. It is well known, for long time, that solutions of the Stokes system are classical if the external forces belong to the H?lder space \({C^{0,\; \lambda}(\bar{\Omega})}\) . It is also well known that, in general, solutions are not classical in the presence of continuous external forces. Hence, a very challenging problem is to find Banach spaces, strictly containing the H?lder spaces \({C^{0,\; \lambda}(\bar{\Omega})}\) such that solutions to the Stokes problem corresponding to forces in the above space are classical. We prove this result for external forces in a suitable functional space, denoted \({{\rm C}_*(\bar{\Omega})}\) , introduced in references Beirão da Veiga (On the solutions in the large of the two-dimensional flow of a non-viscous incompressible fluid, 1982) and Beirão da Veiga (J Differ Equ 54(3):373–389, 1984) in connection with the Euler equations.