arXiv subjects

Thomas Alazard

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Alazard.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Functional inequalities and strong Lyapunov functionals for free surface flows in fluid dynamics

This paper is motivated by the study of Lyapunov functionals for four equations describing free surface flows in fluid dynamics: the Hele-Shaw and Mullins-Sekerka equations together with their lubrication approximations, the Boussinesq and thin-film equations. We identify new Lyapunov functionals, including some which decay in a convex manner (these are called strong Lyapunov functionals). For the Hele-Shaw equation and the Mullins-Sekerka equation, we prove that the $L^2$-norm of the free surface elevation and the area of the free surface are Lyapunov functionals, together with parallel results for the thin-film and Boussinesq equations. The proofs combine exact identities for the dissipation rates with functional inequalities. For the thin-film and Boussinesq equations, we introduce a Sobolev inequality of independent interest which revisits some known results and exhibits strong Lyapunov functionals. For the Hele-Shaw and Mullins-Sekerka equations, we introduce a functional which controls the $L^2$-norm of three-half spatial derivative. Under a mild smallness assumption on the initial data, we show that the latter quantity is also a Lyapunov functional for the Hele-Shaw equation, implying that the area functional is a strong Lyapunov functional. Precise lower bounds for the dissipation rates are established, showing that these Lyapunov functionals are in fact entropies. Other quantities are also studied such as Lebesgue norms or the Boltzmann's entropy.

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arXiv2020

Convexity and the Hele-Shaw equation

Walter Craig's seminal works on the water-waves problem established the importance of several exact identities: Zakharov's hamiltonian formulation, shape derivative formula for the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator, normal forms transformations. In this paper, we introduce several identities for the Hele-Shaw equation which are inspired by his nonlinear approach. Firstly, we study convex changes of unknowns and obtain a large class of strong Lyapounov functions; in addition to be non-increasing, these Lyapounov functions are convex functions of time. The analysis relies on a simple elliptic formulation of the Hele-Shaw equation, which is of independent interest. Then we study the role of convexity to control the spatial derivatives of the solutions. We consider the evolution equation for the Rayleigh-Taylor coefficient $a$ (this is a positive function proportional to the opposite of the normal derivative of the pressure at the free surface). Inspired by the study of entropies for elliptic or parabolic equations, we consider the special function $φ(x)=x\log x$ and find that $φ(1/\sqrt{a})$ is a sub-solution of a well-posed equation. As an application, we give another proof of the maximum principe for $1/a$ obtained with Nicolas Meunier and Didier Smets.

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arXiv2020

Lyapunov functions, Identities and the Cauchy problem for the Hele-Shaw equation

This article is devoted to the study of the Hele-Shaw equation. We introduce an approach inspired by the water-wave theory. Starting from a reduction to the boundary, introducing the Dirichlet to Neumann operator and exploiting various cancellations, we exhibit parabolic evolution equations for the horizontal and vertical traces of the velocity on the free surface. This allows to quasi-linearize the equations in a very simple way. By combining these exact identities with convexity inequalities, we prove the existence of hidden Lyapunov functions of different natures. We also deduce from these identities and previous works on the water wave problem a simple proof of the well-posedness of the Cauchy problem. The analysis contains two side results of independent interest. Firstly, we give a principle to derive estimates for the modulus of continuity of a PDE under general assumptions on the flow. Secondly we prove a convexity inequality for the Dirichlet to Neumann operator.

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arXiv2019

A Morawetz inequality for gravity-capillary water waves at low Bond number

This paper is devoted to the 2D gravity-capillary water waves equations in their Hamiltonian formulation, addressing the general question of proving Morawetz inequalities. We continue the analysis initiated in our previous work, where we have established local energy decay estimates for gravity waves. Here we add surface tension and prove a stronger estimate with a local regularity gain, akin to the smoothing effect for dispersive equations. Our main result holds globally in time and holds for genuinely nonlinear waves, since we are only assuming some very mild uniform Sobolev bounds for the solutions. Furthermore, it is uniform both in the infinite depth limit and the zero surface tension limit.

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arXiv2019

Paralinearization of the Muskat equation and application to the Cauchy problem

We paralinearize the Muskat equation to extract an explicit parabolic evolution equation having a compact form. This result is applied to give a simple proof of the local well-posedness of the Cauchy problem for rough initial data, in homogeneous Sobolev spaces $\dot{H}^1(\mathbb{R})\cap \dot{H}^s(\mathbb{R})$ with $s>3/2$. This paper is essentially self-contained and does not rely on general results from paradifferential calculus.

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arXiv2018

A Morawetz inequality for water waves

We consider gravity water waves in two space dimensions, with finite or infinite depth. Assuming some uniform scale invariant Sobolev bounds for the solutions, we prove local energy decay (Morawetz) estimates globally in time. Our result is uniform in the infinite depth limit.

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arXiv2016

Stabilization of the water-wave equations with surface tension

This paper is devoted to the stabilization of the water-wave equations with surface tension through of an external pressure acting on a small part of the free surface. It is proved that the energy decays to zero exponentially in time, provided that the external pressure is given by the normal component of the velocity at the free surface multiplied by an appropriate cut-off function.

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arXiv2016

Stabilization of gravity water waves

This paper is devoted to the stabilization of the incompressible Euler equation with free surface. We study the damping of two-dimensional gravity waves by an absorbing beach where the water-wave energy is dissipated by using the variations of the external pressure.

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arXiv2015

Boundary observability of gravity water waves

Consider a three-dimensional fluid in a rectangular tank, bounded by a flat bottom, vertical walls and a free surface evolving under the influence of gravity. We prove that one can estimate its energy by looking only at the motion of the points of contact between the free surface and the vertical walls. The proof relies on the multiplier technique, the Craig-Sulem-Zakharov formulation of the water-wave problem, a Pohozaev identity for the Dirichlet to Neumann operator, previous results about the Cauchy problem and computations inspired by the analysis done by Benjamin and Olver of the conservation laws for water waves.

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arXiv2015

Control of water waves

We prove local exact controllability in arbitrary short time of the two-dimensional incompressible Euler equation with free surface, in the case with surface tension. This proves that one can generate arbitrary small amplitude periodic gravity-capillary water waves by blowing on a localized portion of the free surface of a liquid.

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arXiv2014

Gravity capillary standing water waves

The paper deals with the 2D gravity-capillary water waves equations in their Hamiltonian formulation, addressing the question of the nonlinear interaction of a plane wave with its reflection off a vertical wall. The main result is the construction of small amplitude, standing (namely periodic in time and space, and not travelling) solutions of Sobolev regularity, for almost all values of the surface tension coefficient, and for a large set of time-frequencies. This is an existence result for a quasi-linear, Hamiltonian, reversible system of two autonomous pseudo-PDEs with small divisors. The proof is a combination of different techniques, such as a Nash-Moser scheme, microlocal analysis, and bifurcation analysis.

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arXiv2014

On the Cauchy problem for gravity water waves

We are interested in the system of gravity water waves equations without surface tension. Our purpose is to study the optimal regularity thresholds for the initial conditions. In terms of Sobolev embeddings, the initial surfaces we consider turn out to be only of~$C^{3/2+ε}$-class for some $ε>0$ and consequently have unbounded curvature, while the initial velocities are only Lipschitz. We reduce the system using a paradifferential approach.

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arXiv2014

Cauchy theory for the gravity water waves system with non localized initial data

In this article, we develop the local Cauchy theory for the gravity water waves system, for rough initial data which do not decay at infinity. We work in the context of $L^2$-based uniformly local Sobolev spaces introduced by Kato. We prove a classical well-posedness result (without loss of derivatives). Our result implies also a local well-posedness result in Hölder spaces (with loss of $d/2$ derivatives). As an illustration, we solve a question raised by Boussinesq on the water waves problem in a canal. We take benefit of an elementary observation to show that the strategy suggested by Boussinesq does indeed apply to this setting.

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arXiv2014

Strichartz estimates and the Cauchy problem for the gravity water waves equations

This paper is devoted to the proof of a well-posedness result for the gravity water waves equations, in arbitrary dimension and in fluid domains with general bottoms, when the initial velocity field is not necessarily Lipschitz. Moreover, for two-dimensional waves, we can consider solutions such that the curvature of the initial free surface does not belong to $L^2$. The proof is entirely based on the Eulerian formulation of the water waves equations, using microlocal analysis to obtain sharp Sobolev and Hölder estimates. We first prove tame estimates in Sobolev spaces depending linearly on Hölder norms and then we use the dispersive properties of the water-waves system, namely Strichartz estimates, to control these Hölder norms.

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arXiv2013

Strichartz estimates for gravity water waves

We prove Strichartz estimates for gravity water waves, in arbitrary dimension and in fluid domains with general bottoms. We consider rough solutions such that, initially, the first order derivatives of the velocity field are not controlled in $L^\infty$-norm, or the initial free surface has a curvature not controlled in $L^2$-norm.

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arXiv2013

Sobolev estimates for two dimensional gravity water waves

Our goal in this paper is to apply a normal forms method to estimate the Sobolev norms of the solutions of the water waves equation. We construct a paradifferential change of unknown, without derivatives losses, which eliminates the part of the quadratic terms that bring non zero contributions in a Sobolev energy inequality. Our approach is purely Eulerian: we work on the Craig-Sulem-Zakharov formulation of the water waves equation. In addition to these Sobolev estimates, we also prove $L^2$-estimates for the $\partial_x^αZ^β$-derivatives of the solutions of the water waves equation, where $Z$ is the Klainerman vector field $t\partial_t +2x\partial_x$. These estimates are used in another paper where we prove a global existence result for the water waves equation with smooth, small, and decaying at infinity Cauchy data, and we obtain an asymptotic description in physical coordinates of the solution, which shows that modified scattering holds. The proof of this global in time existence result relies on the simultaneous bootstrap of some Hölder and Sobolev a priori estimates for the action of iterated Klainerman vector fields on the solutions of the water waves equation. The present paper contains the proof of the Sobolev part of that bootstrap.

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arXiv2013

Global solutions and asymptotic behavior for two dimensional gravity water waves

This paper is devoted to the proof of a global existence result for the water waves equation with smooth, small, and decaying at infinity Cauchy data. We obtain moreover an asymptotic description in physical coordinates of the solution, which shows that modified scattering holds. The proof is based on a bootstrap argument involving $L^2$ and $L^\infty$ estimates. The $L^2$ bounds are proved in a companion paper of this article. They rely on a normal forms paradifferential method allowing one to obtain energy estimates on the Eulerian formulation of the water waves equation. We give here the proof of the uniform bounds, interpreting the equation in a semi-classical way, and combining Klainerman vector fields with the description of the solution in terms of semi-classical lagrangian distributions. This, together with the $L^2$ estimates of the companion paper, allows us to deduce our main global existence result.

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arXiv2012

The water waves equations: from Zakharov to Euler

Starting form the Zakharov/Craig-Sulem formulation of the water-waves equations, we prove that one can define a pressure term and hence obtain a solution of the classical Euler equations. It is proved that these results hold in rough domains, under minimal assumptions on the regularity to ensure, in terms of Sobolev spaces, that the solutions are $C^1$.

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