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Dallas Albritton

Publications and source records attributed to Dallas Albritton.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Boundary layers and vanishing diffusivity in run-and-tumble models

A notable feature of confined active matter systems is the tendency for motile particles to accumulate near solid boundaries. In various linear models with no-flux boundary conditions, this accumulation is realized through the development of sharp boundary layers at small particle diffusivity $\kappa$. In this paper, we present the first rigorous investigation of nonlinear boundary layers in the context of confined active matter. Specifically, we consider a family of 1D run-and-tumble models with nonlinear advection and tumbling on the half-line $\mathbb{R}_+$. We rigorously prove the vanishing diffusivity limit with quantitative convergence rates. In the limiting system, the boundary mass enters as a new variable which solves a nonlinear ODE, coupled to the PDE through a dynamic boundary condition. Interestingly, the nonlinearity on the boundary at $\kappa = 0$ cannot be obtained without reference to the boundary layer analysis at $\kappa \ll 1$. Numerically, these models exhibit rich behavior, including phase transition and hysteresis in the boundary layer.

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arXiv2025

Sharp uniform-in-diffusivity mixing rates for passive scalars in parallel shear flows

We consider the advection-diffusion equation describing the evolution of a passive scalar in a background shear flow. We prove the optimal uniform-in-diffusivity mixing rate $\| f \|_{H^{-1}} \lesssim \langle t \rangle^{-1/(N+1)}$, $t \geq 0$, where $N$ is the maximal order of vanishing of the derivative $b'(y)$ of the shear profile, e.g., $N=1$ for plane Pouseille flow. Our proof is based on the description of the solution in terms of resolvents and involves pointwise estimates on the resolvent kernel. In the non-degenerate case, we further give a rigorous asymptotic description of generic solutions in terms of shear layers localized around the critical points. This verifies formal asymptotics in [McLaughlin-Camassa-Viotti, \textit{Physics of Fluids}, 22(11), 2010].

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arXiv2025

Vanishing viscosity non-unique solutions to the forced 2D Euler Equations

The forced 2D Euler equations exhibit non-unique solutions with vorticity in $L^p$, $p > 1$, whereas the corresponding Navier-Stokes solutions are unique. We investigate whether the inviscid limit $\nu \to 0^+$ from the forced 2D Navier-Stokes to Euler equations is a selection principle capable of "resolving" the non-uniqueness. We focus on solutions in a neighborhood of the non-uniqueness scenario discovered by Vishik; specifically, we incorporate viscosity $\nu$ and consider $O(\varepsilon)$ size perturbations of the initial datum. We discover a uniqueness threshold $\varepsilon \sim \nu^{\kappa_{\rm c}}$, below which the vanishing viscosity solution is unique and radial, and at which there are viscous solutions converging to non-unique, non-radial solutions.

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arXiv2025

Rods in flows: the PDE theory of immersed elastic filaments

We investigate a family of curve evolution equations approximating the motion of a Kirchhoff rod immersed in a low Reynolds number fluid. The rod is modeled as a framed curve whose energy consists of the bending energy of the curve and the twisting energy of the frame. The equations we consider may be realized as gradient flows of the rod energy under a certain anisotropic metric coming from resistive force theory. Ultimately, our goal is to provide a comprehensive treatment of the PDE theory of immersed rod dynamics. We begin by analyzing the problem without the frame, in which case the evolution is globally well-posed and solutions asymptotically converge to Euler elasticae. Next, in the planar setting, we demonstrate the existence of large time-periodic solutions forced by intrinsic curvature relevant to undulatory swimming. Finally, the majority of the paper is devoted to the evolution of an immersed Kirchhoff rod in 3D, which involves a strong coupling between the curve and frame. Under a physically reasonable assumption on the curvature, solutions exist globally-in-time and asymptotically converge to rod equilibria.

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arXiv2024

Kinetic shock profiles for the Landau equation

The physical quantities in a gas should vary continuously across a shock. However, the physics inherent in the compressible Euler equations is insufficient to describe the width or structure of the shock. We demonstrate the existence of weak shock profiles to the kinetic Landau equation, that is, traveling wave solutions with Maxwellian asymptotic states whose hydrodynamic quantities satisfy the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions. These solutions serve to capture the structure of weak shocks at the kinetic level. Previous works considered only the Boltzmann equation with hard sphere and angular cut-off potentials.

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arXiv2023

Linear and nonlinear instability of vortex columns

We consider vortex column solutions $v = V(r) e_\theta + W(r) e_z$ to the $3$D Euler equations. We give a mathematically rigorous construction of the countable family of unstable modes discovered by Liebovich and Stewartson (J. Fluid Mech. 126, 1983) via formal asymptotic analysis. The unstable modes exhibit $O(1)$ growth rates and concentrate on a ring $r= r_0$ asymptotically as the azimuthal and axial wavenumbers $n, \alpha \to \infty$ with a fixed ratio. We construct these so-called ring modes with an inner-outer gluing procedure. Finally, we prove that each linear instability implies nonlinear instability for vortex columns. In particular, our analysis yields nonlinear instability for the Batchelor trailing line vortex $V(r) :=\frac{q}{r} (1-\mathrm{e}^{-r^2})$ and $W(r) :=\mathrm{e}^{-r^2}$ when $0<q <\log 2 / \sqrt{1-\log 2} \approx 1.251$.

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arXiv2023

Remarks on the Complex Euler Equations

We consider a complexification of the Euler equations introduced by \v{S}ver\'ak which conserves energy. We prove that these complex Euler equations are nonlinearly ill-posed below analytic regularity and, moreover, we exhibit solutions which lose analyticity in finite time. Our examples are complex shear flows and, hence, one-dimensional. This motivates us to consider fully nonlinear systems in one spatial dimension which are non-hyperbolic near a constant equilibrium. We prove nonlinear ill-posedness and finite-time singularity for these models. Our approach is to construct an infinite-dimensional unstable manifold to capture the high frequency instability at the nonlinear level.

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arXiv2023

Sharp bounds on enstrophy growth for viscous scalar conservation laws

We prove sharp bounds on the enstrophy growth in viscous scalar conservation laws. The upper bound is, up to a prefactor, the enstrophy created by the steepest viscous shock admissible by the $L^\infty$ and total variation bounds and viscosity. This answers a conjecture by D. Ayala and B. Protas (\emph{Physica D}, 2011), based on numerical evidence, for the viscous Burgers equation.

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arXiv2022

Non-uniqueness of Leray solutions to the hypodissipative Navier-Stokes equations in two dimensions

We exhibit non-unique Leray solutions of the forced Navier-Stokes equations with hypodissipation in two dimensions. Unlike the solutions constructed in \cite{albritton2021non}, the solutions we construct live at a supercritical scaling, in which the hypodissipation formally becomes negligible as $t \to 0^+$. In this scaling, it is possible to perturb the Euler non-uniqueness scenario of Vishik \cite{Vishik1,Vishik2} to the hypodissipative setting at the nonlinear level. Our perturbation argument is quasilinear in spirit and circumvents the spectral theoretic approach to incorporating the dissipation in \cite{albritton2021non}.

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arXiv2022

Gluing non-unique Navier-Stokes solutions

We construct non-unique Leray solutions of the forced Navier-Stokes equations in bounded domains via gluing methods. This demonstrates a certain locality and robustness of the non-uniqueness discovered by the authors in [1].

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arXiv2022

On the stabilizing effect of swimming in an active suspension

We consider a kinetic model of an active suspension of rod-like microswimmers. In certain regimes, swimming has a stabilizing effect on the suspension. We quantify this effect near homogeneous isotropic equilibria $\overline{\psi} = \text{const}$. Notably, in the absence of particle (translational and orientational) diffusion, swimming is the only stabilizing mechanism. On the torus, in the non-diffusive regime, we demonstrate linear Landau damping up to the stability threshold predicted in the applied literature. With small diffusion, we demonstrate nonlinear stability of arbitrary equilibrium values for pullers (front-actuated swimmers) and enhanced dissipation for both pullers and pushers (rear-actuated swimmers) at small concentrations. On the whole space, we prove nonlinear stability of the vacuum equilibrium due to generalized Taylor dispersion.

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arXiv2021

Localized smoothing and concentration for the Navier-Stokes equations in the half space

We establish a local-in-space short-time smoothing effect for the Navier-Stokes equations in the half space. The whole space analogue, due to Jia and \v{S}ver\'ak [J\v{S}14], is a central tool in two of the authors' recent work on quantitative $L^3_x$ blow-up criteria [BP21]. The main difficulty is that the non-local effects of the pressure in the half space are much stronger than in the whole space. As an application, we demonstrate that the critical $L^3_x$ norm must concentrate at scales $\sim \sqrt{T^* - t}$ in the presence of a Type I blow-up.

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arXiv2021

Instability and nonuniqueness for the $2d$ Euler equations in vorticity form, after M. Vishik

In this expository work, we present Vishik's theorem on non-unique weak solutions to the two-dimensional Euler equations on the whole space, \[ \partial_t \omega + u \cdot \nabla \omega = f \, , \quad u = \frac{1}{2\pi} \frac{x^\perp}{|x|^2} \ast \omega \, , \] with initial vorticity $\omega_0 \in L^1 \cap L^p$ and $f \in L^1_t (L^1 \cap L^p)_x$, $p < \infty$. His theorem demonstrates, in particular, the sharpness of the Yudovich class. An important intermediate step is the rigorous construction of an unstable vortex, which is of independent physical and mathematical interest. We follow the strategy of Vishik but allow ourselves certain deviations in the proof and substantial deviations in our presentation, which emphasizes the underlying dynamical point of view.

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arXiv2021

Non-uniqueness of Leray solutions of the forced Navier-Stokes equations

In the seminal work [39], Leray demonstrated the existence of global weak solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations in three dimensions. We exhibit two distinct Leray solutions with zero initial velocity and identical body force. Our approach is to construct a `background' solution which is unstable for the Navier-Stokes dynamics in similarity variables; its similarity profile is a smooth, compactly supported vortex ring whose cross-section is a modification of the unstable two-dimensional vortex constructed by Vishik in [43,44]. The second solution is a trajectory on the unstable manifold associated to the background solution, in accordance with the predictions of Jia and \v{S}ver\'ak in [32,33]. Our solutions live precisely on the borderline of the known well-posedness theory.

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arXiv2021

Remarks on sparseness and regularity of Navier-Stokes solutions

The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we give a simple proof that sufficiently sparse Navier--Stokes solutions do not develop singularities. This provides an alternative to the approach of \cite{Grujic2013}, which is based on analyticity and the `harmonic measure maximum principle'. Second, we analyze the claims in \cite{algebraicreduction,grujic2019asymptotic} that \emph{a priori} estimates on the sparseness of the vorticity and higher velocity derivatives reduce the 'scaling gap' in the regularity problem.

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arXiv2021

Regularity properties of passive scalars with rough divergence-free drifts

We present sharp conditions on divergence-free drifts in Lebesgue spaces for the passive scalar advection-diffusion equation \[ \partial_t \theta - \Delta \theta + b \cdot \nabla \theta = 0 \] to satisfy local boundedness, a single-scale Harnack inequality, and upper bounds on fundamental solutions. We demonstrate these properties for drifts $b$ belonging to $L^q_t L^p_x$, where $\frac{2}{q} + \frac{n}{p} < 2$, or $L^p_x L^q_t$, where $\frac{3}{q} + \frac{n-1}{p} < 2$. For steady drifts, the condition reduces to $b \in L^{\frac{n-1}{2}+}$. The space $L^1_t L^\infty_x$ of drifts with `bounded total speed' is a borderline case and plays a special role in the theory. To demonstrate sharpness, we construct counterexamples whose goal is to transport anomalous singularities into the domain `before' they can be dissipated.

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