Rotating Navier-Stokes Equations in $${\mathbb R}^{3}_{+}$$ with Initial Data Nondecreasing at Infinity: The Ekman Boundary Layer Problem

We prove time local existence and uniqueness of solutions to a boundary layer problem in a rotating frame around the stationary solution called the Ekman spiral. We choose initial data in the vector-valued homogeneous Besov space for 2 <  p <  ∞. Here the L ^p -integrability is imposed in the normal direction, while we may have no decay in tangential components, since the Besov space contains nondecaying functions such as almost periodic functions. A crucial ingredient is theory for vector-valued homogeneous Besov spaces. For instance we provide and apply an operator-valued bounded H ^∞-calculus for the Laplacian in for a general Banach space .     

Uniqueness and Nonuniqueness of Viscosity Solutions to Aronsson’s Equation

For a bounded domain and , assume that is convex and coercive, and that has no interior points. Then we establish the uniqueness of viscosity solutions to the Dirichlet problem of Aronsson’s equation:

Crack Initiation in Brittle Materials

In this paper we study the crack initiation in a hyper-elastic body governed by a Griffith-type energy. We prove that, during a load process through a time-dependent boundary datum of the type t → t g(x) and in the absence of strong singularities (e.g., this is the case of homogeneous isotropic materials) the crack initiation is brutal, that is, a big crack appears after a positive time t _i > 0. Conversely, in the presence of a point x of strong singularity, a crack will depart from x at the initial time of loading and with zero velocity. We prove these facts for admissible cracks belonging to the large class of closed one-dimensional sets with a finite number of connected components. The main tool we employ to address the problem is a local minimality result for the functional where , k > 0 and f is a suitable Carathéodory function. We prove that if the uncracked configuration u of Ω relative to a boundary displacement ψ has at most uniformly weak singularities, then configurations (uΓ, Γ) with small enough are such that .     

Resolvent Estimates and Maximal Regularity in Weighted L q -spaces of the Stokes Operator in an Infinite Cylinder

Let be an infinite cylinder of , n ≥ 3, with a bounded cross-section of C ^1,1-class. We study resolvent estimates and maximal regularity of the Stokes operator in for 1 < q, r < ∞ and for arbitrary Muckenhoupt weights ω ∈ A _r with respect to x′ ∈ Σ. The proofs use an operator-valued Fourier multiplier theorem and techniques of unconditional Schauder decompositions based on the -boundedness of the family of solution operators for a system in Σ parametrized by the phase variable of the one-dimensional partial Fourier transform. Supported by the Gottlieb Daimler- und Karl Benz-Stiftung, grant no. S025/02-10/03.     

A New Approach to the Fundamental Theorem of Surface Theory

The fundamental theorem of surface theory classically asserts that, if a field of positive-definite symmetric matrices (a _αβ ) of order two and a field of symmetric matrices (b _αβ ) of order two together satisfy the Gauss and Codazzi-Mainardi equations in a simply connected open subset ω of , then there exists an immersion such that these fields are the first and second fundamental forms of the surface , and this surface is unique up to proper isometries in . The main purpose of this paper is to identify new compatibility conditions, expressed again in terms of the functions a _αβ and b _αβ , that likewise lead to a similar existence and uniqueness theorem. These conditions take the form of the matrix equation

Well-Posedness of Nematic Liquid Crystal Flow in {L^{3}_{\rm uloc}(\mathbb{R}^3)}

In this paper, we establish the local well-posedness for the Cauchy problem of a simplified version of hydrodynamic flow of nematic liquid crystals in ${\mathbb{R}^3}$ for any initial data (u ₀, d ₀) having small ${L^{3}_{\rm uloc}}$ -norm of ${(u_{0}, \nabla d_{0})}$ . Here ${L^{3}_{\rm uloc}(\mathbb{R}^3)}$ is the space of uniformly locally L ³-integrable functions. For any initial data (u ₀, d ₀) with small ${\|(u_0, \nabla d_0)\|_{L^{3}(\mathbb{R}^3)}}$ , we show that there exists a unique, global solution to the problem under consideration which is smooth for t > 0 and has monotone deceasing L ³-energy for ${t \geqq 0}$ .     

Flow Visualization of Superbursts and of the Log-Layer in a DNS at $$ \operatorname{Re} _{\tau } = 950 $$

This paper uses direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent flow in a channel at (Del álamo, Jiménez, Zandonade, Moser J Fluid Mech 500:135–144, 2004) to provide a picture of the turbulent structures making large contributions to the Reynolds shear stress. Considerable work of this type has been done for the viscous wall region at smaller , for which a log-layer does not exist. Recent PIV measurements of turbulent velocity fluctuations in a plane parallel to the direction of flow have emphasized the dominant contribution of large scale structures in the outer flow. This prompted Hanratty and Papavassiliou (The role of wall vortices in producing turbulence. In: Panton, R.L. (ed) Self-sustaining Mechanism of Wall Turbulence. Computational Mechanics Publications, Southampton, pp. 83–108, 1997) to use DNS at to examine these structures in a plane perpendicular to the direction of flow. They identified plumes which extend from the wall to the center of a channel. The data at are used to explore these results further, to examine the structure of the log-layer, and to test present notions about the viscous wall layer.     

The Semigeostrophic Equations Discretized in Reference and Dual Variables

We study the evolution of a system of n particles in . That system is a conservative system with a Hamiltonian of the form , where W ₂ is the Wasserstein distance and μ is a discrete measure concentrated on the set . Typically, μ(0) is a discrete measure approximating an initial L ^∞ density and can be chosen randomly. When d  =  1, our results prove convergence of the discrete system to a variant of the semigeostrophic equations. We obtain that the limiting densities are absolutely continuous with respect to the Lebesgue measure. When converges to a measure concentrated on a special d–dimensional set, we obtain the Vlasov–Monge–Ampère (VMA) system. When, d = 1 the VMA system coincides with the standard Vlasov–Poisson system.     

Lagrangian Approach to the Study of Level Sets: Application to a Free Boundary Problem in Climatology

We study the dynamics and regularity of level sets in solutions of the semilinear parabolic equation

Homogenization of Non-linear Scalar Conservation Laws

We study the limit as ε → 0 of the entropy solutions of the equation . We prove that the sequence u ^ε two-scale converges toward a function u(t, x, y), and u is the unique solution of a limit evolution problem. The remarkable point is that the limit problem is not a scalar conservation law, but rather a kinetic equation in which the macroscopic and microscopic variables are mixed. We also prove a strong convergence result in .     

Oscillating Solutions and Large ω-limit Sets in a Degenerate Parabolic Equation

The paper deals with positive solutions of the initial-boundary value problem for with zero Dirichlet data in a smoothly bounded domain . Here is positive on (0,∞) with f(0) = 0, and λ₁ is exactly the first Dirichlet eigenvalue of −Δ in Ω. In this setting, (*) may possess oscillating solutions in presence of a sufficiently strong degeneracy. More precisely, writing , it is shown that if then there exist global classical solutions of (*) satisfying and . Under the additional structural assumption , s > 0, this result can be sharpened: If then (*) has a global solution with its ω-limit set being the ordered arc that consists of all nonnegative multiples of the principal Laplacian eigenfunction. On the other hand, under the above additional assumption the opposite condition ensures that all solutions of (*) will stabilize to a single equilibrium.      

Convergence to Steady States of Solutions of Non-autonomous Heat Equations in $$\mathbb{R}^{N}$$

Under certain assumptions on f and g we prove that positive, global and bounded solutions u of the non-autonomous heat equation

Existence of a Solution “in the Large” for Ocean Dynamics Equations

For the system of equations describing the large-scale ocean dynamics, an existence and uniqueness theorem is proved “in the large”. This system is obtained from the 3D Navier–Stokes equations by changing the equation for the vertical velocity component u ₃ under the assumption of smallness of a domain in z-direction, and a nonlinear equation for the density function ρ is added. More precisely, it is proved that for an arbitrary time interval [0, T], any viscosity coefficients and any initial conditions

Radial Solutions and Phase Separation in a System of Two Coupled Schrödinger Equations

We consider the nonlinear elliptic system

Nonparabolic Asymptotic Limits of Solutions of the Heat Equation on $${\mathbb{R}}^N$$

In this paper, we construct solutions u(t,x) of the heat equation on such that has nontrivial limit points in as t → ∞ for certain values of μ > 0 and β > 1/2. We also show the existence of solutions of this type for nonlinear heat equations.      

Existence Theory by Front Tracking for General Nonlinear Hyperbolic Systems

We consider the Cauchy problem for a strictly hyperbolic, N × N quasilinear system in one-space dimension

Refined Jacobian Estimates and Gross–Pitaevsky Vortex Dynamics

We study the dynamics of vortices in solutions of the Gross–Pitaevsky equation in a bounded, simply connected domain with natural boundary conditions on ∂Ω. Previous rigorous results have shown that for sequences of solutions with suitable well-prepared initial data, one can determine limiting vortex trajectories, and moreover that these trajectories satisfy the classical ODE for point vortices in an ideal incompressible fluid. We prove that the same motion law holds for a small, but fixed , and we give estimates of the rate of convergence and the time interval for which the result remains valid. The refined Jacobian estimates mentioned in the title relate the Jacobian J(u) of an arbitrary function to its Ginzburg–Landau energy. In the analysis of the Gross–Pitaevsky equation, they allow us to use the Jacobian to locate vortices with great precision, and they also provide a sort of dynamic stability of the set of multi-vortex configurations.     

Non-autonomous 2D Navier–Stokes System with Singularly Oscillating External Force and its Global Attractor

We study the global attractor of the non-autonomous 2D Navier–Stokes (N.–S.) system with singularly oscillating external force of the form . If the functions g ₀(x, t) and g ₁ (z, t) are translation bounded in the corresponding spaces, then it is known that the global attractor is bounded in the space H, however, its norm may be unbounded as since the magnitude of the external force is growing. Assuming that the function g ₁ (z, t) has a divergence representation of the form where the functions (see Section 3), we prove that the global attractors of the N.–S. equations are uniformly bounded with respect to for all . We also consider the “limiting” 2D N.–S. system with external force g ₀(x, t). We have found an estimate for the deviation of a solution of the original N.–S. system from a solution u ⁰(x, t) of the “limiting” N.–S. system with the same initial data. If the function g ₁ (z, t) admits the divergence representation, the functions g ₀(x, t) and g ₁ (z, t) are translation compact in the corresponding spaces, and , then we prove that the global attractors converges to the global attractor of the “limiting” system as in the norm of H. In the last section, we present an estimate for the Hausdorff deviation of from of the form: in the case, when the global attractor is exponential (the Grashof number of the “limiting” 2D N.–S. system is small).