arXiv subjects

Adrian Muntean

Publications and source records attributed to Adrian Muntean.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Boundary-Driven Anisotropic Coarsening in Conserved Phase Separation

Universal scaling in phase separation is typically assumed to be isotropic in systems with conserved dynamics. Here we show that boundary forcing alone can break this dynamical scaling symmetry, leading to anisotropic coarsening, with different effective global growth laws observed parallel and perpendicular to the boundary. We consider a ternary mixture with two conserved components and a passive species undergoing surface evaporation, which provides a simple setting to investigate this effect. In this case, evaporation leads to a progressive mass loss and to the formation of macroscopic concentration gradients, which, in turn, drive anisotropic coarsening, with different effective growth laws observed parallel and perpendicular to the boundary. At the same time, bulk regions appear to retain the standard Model B scaling, suggesting that the observed anisotropy is mainly induced by boundary fluxes rather than by changes in the intrinsic dynamics. Our results indicate that boundary conditions can play an important role in breaking scaling symmetry and may offer a way to influence coarsening behavior in nonequilibrium phase separation.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2026

Optimal control problem for a nonlinear nonlocal evolution system describing an interacting ternary mixture with an evaporating component: 2D case with bulk evaporation

We present an optimal control problem to guide the selection of morphology classes arising in organic solar cells. The study focuses on phase separation processes in polymer solvent mixtures, with particular attention to solvent evaporation as a mechanism to arrest morphology formation. We establish the existence of optimal controls and analyze the Frechet derivative of the control to state mapping. Finally, we derive the first order necessary optimality condition via the corresponding adjoint system.

math.OC↗

arXiv2026

A mathematical model for colloids deposition in porous media combined with a moving boundary at the microscale: Solvability and numerical simulation

We study a reaction-diffusion model posed on two distinct spatial scales that accounts for diffusion, aggregation, fragmentation, and deposition of populations of colloidal particles within a porous material. In this model, the macroscopic transport of the particles is described by an effective equation whose transport coefficients are determined by cell problems posed on the underlying pore scale. The internal pore geometry can change over time due to deposition or detachment of colloidal particles. We represent the evolving microstructure as solid cores whose phase boundaries can grow or shrink over time. As deposition progresses, neighbouring growing cores may come into contact, leading to local clogging of the pore space. We investigate how such evolving microstructures influence the effective transport and storage properties of porous layers. We establish basic analytical results concerning the weak solvability of the resulting multiscale evolution problem, which takes the form of a strongly non-linear parabolic system, in the non-clogging regime. For the numerical approximation of weak solutions we propose a two-scale finite element discretization. Numerical experiments illustrate how local clogging affects the effective dispersion tensor and quantify the resulting trade-off between transport efficiency and storage capacity.

math.AP↗

arXiv2026

Lack of uniqueness for an elliptic equation with nonlinear and nonlocal drift posed on a torus

We study a nonlinear and nonlocal elliptic equation posed on the flat torus. While constant solutions always exist, we show that uniqueness fails in general. Using spectral analysis and the Crandall--Rabinowitz bifurcation theorem, we prove the existence of branches of non-constant periodic solutions bifurcating from constant states. This result is qualitative and non-constructive. Using a conceptually different argument, we construct explicit multiple solutions for a specific one--dimensional formulation of our target problem.

math.AP↗

arXiv2025

Orthogonal Procrustes problem preserves correlations in synthetic data

Synthetic data generation is increasingly used in applications involving privacy preservation, data sharing, and data scarcity. In many situations, preserving the dependence structure of the original data is of central interest. In this work, we propose a lightweight postprocessing methodology for synthetic tabular data based on the Orthogonal Procrustes problem. Starting from an already generated synthetic dataset, our approach constructs the closest dataset that restores the Pearson correlation structure of the original data. On the theoretical side, we show that preserving Pearson correlation is equivalent to the action of linear orthogonal maps in the centered-data subspace, and then deploy the Orthogonal Procrustes problem. However, in order for this to hold, we first establish a result ensuring that applying the Orthogonal Procrustes step remains in the aforementioned subspace under suitable assumptions. Applications to several datasets and synthetic data generators illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. In particular, the numerical experiments indicate that the correlation structure can be restored while largely preserving the individual feature distributions, the geometry of the data, and the performance of downstream classification tasks.

stat.ME↗

arXiv2025

A hybrid model of sulphation reactions: stochastic particles in a random continuum environment

We present a hybrid stochastic-continuum model to study the sulphation of calcium carbonate and the consequent formation of gypsum, a key phenomenon driving marble deterioration. While calcium carbonate and gypsum are continuous random fields evolving according to random ordinary differential equations, the dynamics of sulfuric acid particles follows It\^o-type stochastic differential equations. The particle evolution incorporates both strong repulsion between particles via the Lennard-Jones potential, and non-local interactions with the continuum environment. The particle-continuum coupling is also achieved through the chemical reaction, modeled as a Poisson counting process. We simulate the spatiotemporal evolution of this corrosion process using the Euler-Maruyama algorithm with varying initial data combined with finite elements to take care of the spatial discretization. Despite symmetric initial data, our simulations highlight an uneven progression of corrosion due to the stochastic influences in the model.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2025

Invariance properties of the solution operator for measure-valued semilinear transport equations

We provide conditions under which we prove for measure-valued transport equations with non-linear reaction term in the space of finite signed Radon measures, that positivity is preserved, as well as absolute continuity with respect to Lebesgue measure, if the initial condition has that property. Moreover, if the initial condition has $L^p$ regular density, then the solution has the same property.

math.AP↗

arXiv2024

Mathematics for energy systems: Methods, modeling strategies, and simulation

We offer an insight into our mathematical endeavors, which aim to advance the foundational understanding of energy systems in a broad context, encompassing facets such as charge transport, energy storage, markets, and collective behavior. Our working techniques include a combination of well-posed mathematical models (both deterministic and stochastic), mathematical analysis arguments (mostly concerned with model dimension reduction and averaging, periodic homogenization), and simulation tools (numerical approximation techniques, computational statistics, high-performance computing).

math.GM↗

arXiv2024

Global random walk for one-dimensional one-phase Stefan-type moving-boundary problems: Simulation results

This work presents global random walk approximations of solutions to one-dimensional Stefan-type moving-boundary problems. We are particularly interested in the case when the moving boundary is driven by an explicit representation of its speed. This situation is usually referred to in the literature as moving-boundary problem with kinetic condition. As a direct application, we propose a numerical scheme to forecast the penetration of small diffusants into a rubber-based material. To check the quality of our results, we compare the numerical results obtained by global random walks either using the analytical solution to selected benchmark cases or relying on finite element approximations with a priori known convergence rates. It turns out that the global random walk concept can be used to produce good quality approximations of the weak solutions to the target class of problems.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

Precomputing approach for a two-scale phase transition model

In this study, we employ analytical and numerical techniques to examine a phase transition model with moving boundaries. The model displays two relevant spatial scales pointing out to a macroscopic phase and a microscopic phase, interacting on disjoint inclusions. The shrinkage or the growth of the inclusions is governed by a modified Gibbs-Thomson law depending on the macroscopic temperature, but without accessing curvature information. We use the Hanzawa transformation to transform the problem onto a fixed reference domain. Then a fixed-point argument is employed to demonstrate the well-posedness of the system for a finite time interval. Due to the model's nonlinearities and the macroscopic parameters, which are given by differential equations that depend on the size of the inclusions, the problem is computationally expensive to solve numerically. We introduce a precomputing approach that solves multiple cell problems in an offline phase and uses an interpolation scheme afterward to determine the needed parameters. Additionally, we propose a semi-implicit time-stepping method to resolve the nonlinearity of the problem. We investigate the errors of both the precomputing and time-stepping procedures and verify the theoretical results via numerical simulations.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

Pattern formation in three-state systems: Towards understanding morphology formation in the presence of evaporation

Inspired by experimental evidence collected when processing thin films from ternary solutions made of two solutes, typically polymers, and one solvent, we computationally study the morphology formation of domains obtained in three-state systems using both a lattice model and a continuum counterpart. The lattice-based approach relies on the Blume-Capel nearest neighbor model with bulk conservative Kawasaki dynamics, whereas as continuum system we consider a coupled system of evolution equations that is derived as hydrodynamic limit when replacing the nearest neighbor interaction in the lattice case by a suitable Kac potential. We explore how the obtained morphology depends on the solvent content in the mixture. In particular, we study how these scenarios change when the solvent is allowed to evaporate.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

A hybrid approach to model reduction of Generalized Langevin Dynamics

We consider a classical model of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics accounting for non-Markovian effects, which is referred to as the Generalized Langevin Equation in the literature. We derive reduced Markovian descriptions obtained through the neglection of inertial terms and/or heat bath variables. The adopted reduction scheme relies on the framework of the Invariant Manifold method, which allows to retain the slow degrees of freedom from a multiscale dynamical system. Our approach is also rooted on the Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem, which helps preserve the proper dissipative structure of the reduced dynamics. We highlight the appropriate time scalings introduced within our procedure, and also prove the commutativity of selected reduction paths.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

Thermo-Elasticity Problems with Evolving Microstructures

We consider the mathematical analysis and homogenization of a moving boundary problem posed for a highly heterogeneous, periodically perforated domain. More specifically, we are looking at a one-phase thermo-elasticity system with phase transformations where small inclusions, initially periodically distributed, are growing or shrinking based on a kinetic under-cooling-type law and where surface stresses are created based on the curvature of the phase interface. This growth is assumed to be uniform in each individual cell of the the perforated domain. After transforming to the initial reference configuration (utilizing the Hanzawa transformation), we use the contraction mapping principle to show the existence of a unique solution for a possibly small but $\varespilon$-independent time interval ($\varespilon$ is here the scale of heterogeneity). In the homogenization limit, we discover a macroscopic thermo-elasticity problem which is strongly non-linearly coupled (via an internal parameter called height function) to local changes in geometry. As a direct byproduct of the mathematical analysis work, we present an alternative equivalent formulation which lends itself to an effective precomputing strategy that is very much needed as the limit problem is computationally expensive.

math.AP↗

arXiv2024

A Bound Preserving Energy Stable Scheme for a Nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard Equation

We present a finite-volume based numerical scheme for a nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard equation which combines ideas from recent numerical schemes for gradient flow equations and nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard equations. The equation of interest is a special case of a previously derived and studied system of equations which describes phase separation in ternary mixtures. We prove the scheme is both energy stable and respects the analytical bounds of the solution. Furthermore, we present numerical demonstrations of the theoretical results using both the Flory-Huggins (FH) and Ginzburg-Landau (GL) free-energy potentials.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

Tunable correlation retention: A statistical method for generating synthetic data

We propose a method to generate statistically representative synthetic data from a given dataset. The main goal of our method is for the created data set to mimic the inter--feature correlations present in the original data, while also offering a tunable parameter to influence the privacy level. In particular, our method constructs a statistical map by using the empirical conditional distributions between the features of the original dataset. Part of the tunability is achieved by limiting the depths of conditional distributions that are being used. We describe in detail our algorithms used both in the construction of a statistical map and how to use this map to generate synthetic observations. This approach is tested in three different ways: with a hand calculated example; a manufactured dataset; and a real world energy-related dataset of consumption/production of households in Madeira Island. We evaluate the method by comparing the datasets using the Pearson correlation matrix with different levels of resolution and depths of correlation. These two considerations are being viewed as tunable parameters influencing the resulting datasets fidelity and privacy. The proposed methodology is general in the sense that it does not rely on the used test dataset. We expect it to be applicable in a much broader context than indicated here.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2024

Numerical Exploration of Nonlinear Dispersion Effects via a Strongly Coupled Two-scale System

The effective, fast transport of matter through porous media is often characterized by complex dispersion effects. To describe in mathematical terms such situations, instead of a simple macroscopic equation (as in the classical Darcy's law), one may need to consider two-scale boundary-value problems with full coupling between the scales where the macroscopic transport depends non-linearly on local (i.e. microscopic) drift interactions, which are again influenced by local concentrations. Such two-scale problems are computationally very expensive as numerous elliptic partial differential equations (cell problems) have to constantly be recomputed. In this work, we investigate such an effective two-scale model involving a suitable nonlinear dispersion term and explore numerically the behavior of its weak solutions. We introduce two distinct numerical schemes dealing with the same non-linear scale-coupling: (i) a Picard-type iteration and (ii) a time discretization decoupling. In addition, we propose a precomputing strategy where the calculations of cell problems are pushed into an offline phase. Our approach works for both schemes and significantly reduces computation times. We prove that the proposed precomputing strategy converges to the exact solution. Finally, we test our schemes via several numerical experiments that illustrate dispersion effects introduced by specific choices of microstructure and model ingredients.

math.NA↗

arXiv2023

Strongly Coupled Two-scale System with Nonlinear Dispersion: Weak Solvability and Numerical Simulation

We investigate a two-scale system featuring an upscaled parabolic dispersion-reaction equation intimately linked to a family of elliptic cell problems. The system is strongly coupled through a dispersion tensor, which depends on the solutions to the cell problems, and via the cell problems themselves, where the solution of the parabolic problem interacts nonlinearly with the drift term. This particular mathematical structure is motivated by a rigorously derived upscaled reaction-diffusion-convection model that describes the evolution of a population of interacting particles pushed by a large drift through an array of periodically placed obstacles (i.e., through a regular porous medium). We prove the existence and uniqueness of weak solutions to our system by means of an iterative scheme, where particular care is needed to ensure the uniform positivity of the dispersion tensor. Additionally, we use finite element-based approximations for the same iteration scheme to perform multiple simulation studies. Finally, we highlight how the choice of micro-geometry (building the regular porous medium) and of the nonlinear drift coupling affects the macroscopic dispersion of particles.

math.AP↗

arXiv2023

Phase separation and morphology formation in interacting ternary mixtures under evaporation: Well-posedness and numerical simulation of a non-local evolution system

We study a nonlinear coupled parabolic system with non-local drift terms modeling at the continuum level the inter-species interaction within a ternary mixture that allows the evaporation of one of the species. In the absence of evaporation, the proposed system coincides with the hydrodynamic limit of a stochastic interacting particle system of Blume-Capel-type driven by the Kawasaki dynamics. Similar governing dynamics are found in models used to study morphology formation in the design of organic solar cells, thin adhesive bands, and other applications. We investigate the well-posedness of the target system and present preliminary numerical simulations which incorporate evaporation into the model. We employ a finite volumes scheme to construct approximations of the weak solution and illustrate how the evaporation process can affect the shape and connectivity of the evolving-in-time morphologies.

math.AP↗