PDEs Seminar (Fall 2007)

 Organizer: Wilfrid Gangbo

 

Meets Tuesdays at 3:00 pm in Skiles 255 unless otherwise indicated

08/28/07  

Speaker: Prof.  Paul Rabinowitz,     University of Wisconsin, Madison

Title: Single and multitransition solutions for a class of nonlinear elliptic PDE's

Abstract: The equation -(Lapacian)u + F_u(x,u) = 0, x in R^n where F is 1-periodic in its arguments, provides a simple model for the study of phase transition behavior. We will survey recent existence results for solutions displaying transition behavior, namely spatial homoclinics and heteroclinics, and will discuss the methods used to obtain these results.

08/30/07  


Special additional seminar on THURSDAY:
Speaker:
Prof.  Helena McGahagan,     University of California, Santa Barbara

Title: Exponentially Decaying Solutions of Schrodinger Equations

Abstract: Are there solutions of the one-dimensional variable coefficient Schrodinger equation that are square integrable 
with an exponential weight? If we consider the initial value problem, there is certainly data for which the solution does not have this exponential decay at any later time. Instead, this talk will show how to construct such solutions by solving a non-standard boundary value problem, as well as discuss why we might want to do so! This construction relies strongly on a new commutator estimate for the projections onto the positive and negative frequencies.

09/04/07  

Speaker: Prof. Ronghua Pan ,     Georgia Tech.

Title: On contact waves for Jin-Xin relaxation model

Abstract:  We first construct contact waves for Jin-Xin relaxation model. Such wave is approximating the corresponding contact discontinuity of equilibrium conservation laws. We then prove the contact waves are nonlinear stable under small initial perturbation.


 

09/11/07  Prof. Ronghua Pan ,     Georgia Tech. ( I will be away. Someone else chairs that day)

09/18/07 Prof. Ronghua Pan ,     Georgia Tech.  ( I will be away. Someone else chairs that day)

09/25/07  

Speaker: Prof. M. Feldman ,     University of Wisconsin, Madison 

Title: Existence and regularity of solutions to shock reflection problem 

Abstract:  We show existence of global solutions to regular shock reflection problem for potential flow. We reduce the shock reflection problem to a free boundary problem for a nonlinear elliptic equation, with ellipticity degenerate near a part of the fixed boundary (the sonic line), and discuss the methods and estimates used to solve this problem. We also discuss optimal regularity of solutions near the sonic line.

10/02/07  

Speaker: Changyou Wang,    University of Kentucky, Lexington   

Title: Asymptotic behavior of infinity harmonic functions near an isolated singularity

Abstract: I will discuss an asymptotic behavior of the infinity harmonic function near a non-removable isolated

singular point. More precisely, it is asymptotically a cone near the singularity. This is a joint work with Yifeng Yu and Ovidiu Savin.


10/09/07  (Fall 2007 Recess: No talk)


10/16/07  

Speaker: Prof. Walter Strauss,    Brown University   

Title:  Steady Water Waves: Theory and Computation

Abstract:  Consider a classical 2D gravity wave (studied by Euler, Poisson, Cauchy, Airy, Stokes, Levi-Civita,...)  with an arbitrary vorticity function. Assume such a wave is traveling at a constant speed over a flat bed. Using local and global bifurcation theory, one can prove that there exist many such waves of large amplitude.  I will outline the existence proof and also exhibit some recent computations of the waves using numerical continuation.  The computations illustrate certain relationships between the amplitude, energy and mass flux of the waves.  If the vorticity is sufficiently large, the first stagnation point of the wave occurs not at the crest (as with the much-studied irrotational flows) but on the bed directly below the crest or else in the interior of the fluid.


10/25/07  ( Note the unusual date: thursday at 3pm instead of tuesday at 3pm)

Speaker: Prof. Eric Carlen,    Georgia Tech and Rutgers University   

Title: The porous medium equation and the rate of relaxation for the critical case in the Keller--Segal model

Abstract:  We present joint work with Adrien Blanchet and Jose Carrillo on the solutions of the  Keller--Segal model in the critical mass case. We use an "entropy function" coming from the theory of entropy--entropy dissipation the porous medium equation, and show how this can be used to quantify the rate of approach to equilibrium for the Keller--Segal model for initial data for which the "entropy function" is initially finite. All such initial data have an infinite second moment, as do the equilibrium solutions, and so these results complement the recent investigation by Blanchet, Carrillo and Massmoudi for initial data with finite second moment (for which no rate information has yet been obtained.) We shall also discuss several functional inequalities that are used here, and may be of interest in other applications as well.



10/30/07  

Speaker: Prof. Michael Loss,   Georgia Tech   

Title:  The sharp constant in the Hardy-Sobolev-Maz'ya inequality

Abstract:  The Hardy-Sobolev-Maz'ya inequality is a sharpening of the Hardy as well as the Sobolev inequality for the upper half space. This talk concerns the sharp constants in this inequality. While in four and higher dimensions the sharp constants are attained but not known, it may come as a surprise that in three dimensions the sharp constants can be calculated but are not attained. Some ideas of the relatively simple proof are presented. It uses duality arguments and Lieb's sharp constant in the Hardy-Littlewood-Sobolev inequality. This is joint work with Rafael Benguria and Rupert Frank.   

 

11/06/07  

Speaker: Alexis Vasseur,    University of Texas, Austin   

Title: Drift diffusion equations with fractional diffusion and the quasi-geostrophic equation

Abstract:  Motivated by the critical dissipative quasi-geostrophic equation, we prove that drift-diffusion equations with L2 initial data and minimal assumptions on the drift are locally Holder continuous. As an application we show that solutions of the quasi-geostrophic equation with initial L2 data and critical diffusion are locally smooth for any space dimension. This problem was proposed by previous authors as a toy problem for the global regularity of solutions to 3D Navier-Stokes equations. 


11/13/07  

Speaker: Robert McCann,    University of Toronto   

Title: Curvature, continuity and uniqueness of optimal transportation maps

Abstract:  Despite years of study, surprisingly little is understood about the optimal transportation of a mass distribution from one manifold to another, where optimality is measured against a cost function on the product space. I shall present a uniqueness criterion subsuming all previous criteria, yet which is among the very first to apply to smooth costs on compact manifolds, and only then when the topology is simple. I shall review the regularity theory of Ma, Trudinger, Wang and Loeper for optimal maps, and the counterexamples of Loeper, before explaining my surprising discovery with Young-Heon Kim (University of Toronto) that this theory is based on a hidden pseudo-Riemannian structure, which leads to a simple direct proof of a key result in the theory, and opens several new research directions.



11/20/07  

Speaker: Irene Fonseca,    Carnegie Mellon University   

Title: Surfactants in Foam Stability : a Phase Field Model

Abstract:  The role of surfactants in stabilizing the formation of bubbles in foams is studied using a phase-field model The analysis is centered on a van der Walls-Cahn-Hilliard-type energy with an added term accounting for the interplay between the presence of a surfactant density and the creation of interfaces. In particular, it is concluded that the surfactant segregates to the interfaces, and that the prescription of the distribution of surfactant will dictate the locus of interfaces, what is in agreement with experimentation.






PDEs Seminar (Spring 2008)

 Organizer: W. Gangbo and M. Westdickenberg



01/15/08

Speaker: Vladimir Sverak,    University of Minnesota, MN   

Title: Liouville theorems for the Navier-Stokes equations

Abstract: The classical Liouville theorem for the heat equation says that any bounded solution defined in all space and for all negative times is constant. We will investigate the validity of a suitable version of this statement for the Navier-Stokes equations and discuss its connection to the regularity theory. Although the main questions arising in this context seem to be out of reach of the present-day methods, it is still possible to prove some partial results and formulate some plausible conjectures.


01/22/08

Speaker: Emmanuele DiBenedetto,    Vanderbilt University   

Title: Forward Backward and Elliptic Harnack Estimates for Singular Parabolic Equations

Abstract:  Non--Negative solutions of singular parabolic equations including p-Laplacian and porous medium type are shown to satisfy Harnack estimates roughly speaking ''at all time levels''  as opposed to solution of non-singular equations where
Harnack estimate are only forward in time.



01/29/08

Speaker: Hwakil Kim,    Georgia Tech   

Title: Pertubation of Hamiltonian systems via the Moreau-Yosida approximation  

Abstract: The general theory of Hamiltonian ODE's for non-smooth Hamiltonian H, is well understood only in finite-dimensional spaces. In infinite-dimensional spaces such as manifolds or Hilbert spaces, very little appears to be known even at the level of existence of solutions. In this talk, following a work by Ambrosio and Gangbo, we propose a perturbation approach based on the Moreau-Yosida approximation, to solve the Hamiltonian system in the Wasserstein space. For the sake of illustration, we keep our focus on a specific example which appears in semigeostrophic systems. 

02/05/08  

Speaker: Zhiwu Lin,    University of Missouri-Columbia

Title: Unstable surface water waves

Abstract:  Consider 2D traveling solitary wave solutions of 2D irrotational surface water waves. The highest wave has a 120 degree angle at the crest, known by Stokes in the 1840s. It was found in the 1970s that the maxima of energy and the travel speed of solitary waves are not obtained at this highest wave. Under the assumption of non-existence of secondary bifurcation which is confirmed numerically, we prove linear instability of solitary waves which are higher than the wave of maximal energy and lower than the wave of maximal travel speed. It is also shown that there exist unstable waves approaching the highest wave. These unstable waves are of large amplitudes and this instability can lead to breaking of waves, for example when they approach beaches. I will also briefly describe the influence of vorticity on the bifurcation and stability of periodic traveling waves. The vorticity can be introduced by a background shear flow, that is, in a running water. We found that vorticity has a rather subtle influence on the water wave stability; an arbitrarily small vorticity can destroy the stability of irrotational water waves.


02/12/08  

Speaker: Li Chen,    Tsinghua, China and Havard University

Title: The zero-electron-mass limit in the hydrodynamic model (Euler-Poisson system)

Abstract:  The limit of vanishing electron mass to the Euler Poisson system with well and ill prepared initial data are both discussed in this talk. Although it has some relations to the incompressible limit of Euler equation, i.e. the limit velocity satisfies the incompressible Euler equations with damping, things are more complicated from the linear singular perturbation including the coupling with the Poisson equation. We first get a uniform local existence from energy estimates, where a singular term from potential need to be carefully done, then we analyze the structure of the linear perturbation to show the convergence.

02/19/08  

Speaker: Markus Keel,    University of Minnesota, MN   

Title: Free-

Abstract:  In this


02/26/08  

Speaker: Mike Cullen,   Met Office, Exeter, UK   

Title: Free-

Abstract:  In this


03/04/08

Speaker: Weizhu Bao,    National University of Singapore   

Title: Mathematical Analysis and Numerical Simulation of Bose-Einstein Condensation

Abstract:  In this talk, I review the mathematical results of the dynamcis of Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and present
some efficient and stable numerical methods to compute ground states and dynamics of BEC. As preparatory steps, we take the 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) with an angular momentum rotation, scale it to obtain a four-parameter model and show how to reduce it to 2D GPE in certain limiting regimes. Then we study numerically and asymptotically the ground states, excited states and quantized vortex states as well as their energy and chemical potential diagram in rotating BEC. Some very interesting numerical results are observed. Finally, we study numerically stability and interaction of quantized vortices in rotating BEC. Some interesting interaction patterns will be reported.


03/11/08

Speaker: Volker Elling,    University of Michigan   

Title: Free-

Abstract:  In this





04/08/08  

Speaker: Stefano Bianchini,    Sissa, Italy   

Title: Free-

Abstract:  In this


04/15/08  

Speaker: Peter Sternberg,    University of Indiana, Bloomington  

Title: Free-

Abstract:  In this

04/22/08  

Speaker: Dehua Wang,    University of Pittsburgh   

Title: Free-

Abstract:  In this




05/06/08  

Speaker: Gui-Qiang Chen,    Northwestern University   

Title: Free-

Abstract:  In this 

 



Please contact me to volunteer to talk or recommend speakers.


Homepage

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