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Susan Friedlander

Publications and source records attributed to Susan Friedlander.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

A continuous model for turbulent energy cascade

In this paper we introduce a new PDE model in frequency space for the inertial energy cascade that reproduces the classical scaling laws of Kolmogorov's theory of turbulence. Our point of view is based upon studying the energy flux through a continuous range of scales rather than the discrete set of dyadic scales. The resulting model is a variant of Burgers equation on the half line with a boundary condition which represents a constant energy input at integral scales. The viscous dissipation is modeled via a damping term. We show existence of a unique stationary solution, both in the viscous and inviscid cases, which replicates the classical dissipation anomaly in the limit of vanishing viscosity. A survey of recent developments in the deterministic approach to the laws of turbulence, and in particular, to Onsager's conjecture is given.

math.AP

On the supercritically diffusive magneto-geostrophic equations

We address the well-posedness theory for the magento-geostrophic equation, namely an active scalar equation in which the divergence-free drift velocity is one derivative more singular than the active scalar. In the presence of supercritical fractional diffusion given by (-Δ)^γ, where 0<γ<1, we discover that for γ>1/2 the equations are locally well-posed, while for γ<1/2 they are ill-posed, in the sense that there is no Lipschitz solution map. The main reason for the striking loss of regularity when γgoes below 1/2 is that the constitutive law used to obtain the velocity from the active scalar is given by an unbounded Fourier multiplier which is both even and anisotropic. Lastly, we note that the anisotropy of the constitutive law for the velocity may be explored in order to obtain an improvement in the regularity of the solutions when the initial data and the force have thin Fourier support, i.e. they are supported on a plane in frequency space. In particular, for such well-prepared data one may prove the local existence and uniqueness of solutions for all values of γ\in (0,1).

math.AP

On the ill/well-posedness and nonlinear instability of the magneto-geostrophic equations

We consider an active scalar equation that is motivated by a model for magneto-geostrophic dynamics and the geodynamo. We prove that the non-diffusive equation is ill-posed in the sense of Hadamard in Sobolev spaces. In contrast, the critically diffusive equation is well-posed. In this case we give an example of a steady state that is nonlinearly unstable, and hence produces a dynamo effect in the sense of an exponentially growing magnetic field.

math.AP

Global well-posedness for an advection-diffusion equation arising in magneto-geostrophic dynamics

We use De Giorgi techniques to prove Hölder continuity of weak solutions to a class of drift-diffusion equations, with $L^2$ initial data and divergence free drift velocity that lies in $L_{t}^{\infty}BMO_{x}^{-1}$. We apply this result to prove global regularity for a family of active scalar equations which includes the advection-diffusion equation that has been proposed by Moffatt in the context of magnetostrophic turbulence in the Earth's fluid core.

math.AP

Higher regularity of Holder continuous solutions of parabolic equations with singular drift velocities

Motivated by an equation arising in magnetohydrodynamics, we prove that Holder continuous weak solutions of a nonlinear parabolic equation with singular drift velocity are classical solutions. The result is proved using the space-time Besov spaces introduced by Chemin and Lerner, combined with energy estimates, without any minimality assumption on the Holder exponent of the weak solutions.

math.AP

The vanishing viscosity limit for a dyadic model

A dyadic shell model for the Navier-Stokes equations is studied in the context of turbulence. The model is an infinite nonlinearly coupled system of ODEs. It is proved that the unique fixed point is a global attractor, which converges to the global attractor of the inviscid system as viscosity goes to zero. This implies that the average dissipation rate for the viscous system converges to the anomalous dissipation rate for the inviscid system (which is positive) as viscosity goes to zero. This phenomenon is called the dissipation anomaly predicted by Kolmogorov's theory for the actual Navier-Stokes equations.

math.AP

An inviscid dyadic model of turbulence: the fixed point and Onsager's conjecture

Properties of an infinite system of nonlinearly coupled ordinary differential equations are discussed. This system models some properties present in the equations of motion for an inviscid fluid such as the skew symmetry and the 3-dimensional scaling of the quadratic nonlinearity. It is proved that the system with forcing has a unique equilibrium and that every solution blows up in finite time in $H^{5/6}$-norm. Onsager's conjecture is confirmed for the model system.

math.AP

An inviscid dyadic model of turbulence: the global attractor

Properties of an infinite system of nonlinearly coupled ordinary differential equations are discussed. This system models some properties present in the equations of motion for an inviscid fluid such as the skew symmetry and the 3-dimensional scaling of the quadratic nonlinearity. In a companion paper [6] it is proved that every solution for the system with forcing blows up in finite time in the Sobolev $H^{5/6}$ norm. In this present paper, it is proved that after the blow-up time all solutions stay in $H^s$, $s<5/6$ for almost all time and the energy dissipates. Moreover, it is proved that the unique equilibrium is an exponential global attractor.

math.AP

The unstable spectrum of the Navier-Stokes operator in the limit of vanishing viscosity

A general class of linear advective PDEs, whose leading order term is of viscous dissipative type, is considered. It is proved that beyond the limit of the essential spectrum of the underlying inviscid operator, the eigenvalues of the viscous operator, in the limit of vanishing viscosity, converge precisely to those of the inviscid operator. The general class of PDEs includes the equations of incompressible fluid dynamics. Hence eigenvalues of the Navier-Stokes operator converge in the inviscid limit to the eigenvalues of the Euler operator beyond the essential spectrum.

math.AP

Nonlinear instability for the Navier-Stokes equations

It is proved, using a bootstrap argument, that linear instability implies nonlinear instability for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in $L^p$ for all $p \in (1,\infty)$ and any finite or infinite domain in any dimension $n$.

math.AP