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Vincenzo Sciacca

Publications and source records attributed to Vincenzo Sciacca.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

A Damage-Driven Model for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: Early-Stage Dynamics and Invasion Thresholds

We introduce a spatially extended mathematical model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy based on a damage-driven paradigm, in which immune recruitment is triggered by tissue injury. The model is formulated as a reaction--diffusion--chemotaxis system describing the interaction between healthy tissue, damaged fibers, immune cells and inflammatory signals. We establish the global well-posedness of the system and investigate the early-stage dynamics through linearization around the healthy equilibrium. Our analysis shows that diffusion does not induce Turing instabilities, so that spatial heterogeneity cannot arise from diffusion-driven mechanisms. Instead, disease progression occurs through invasion processes. We derive explicit conditions for the onset of invasion, interpreted as an effective damage reproduction threshold and characterize the minimal propagation speed of pathological fronts, showing that the dynamics is governed by a pulled-front mechanism. Numerical simulations support the analytical results and confirm the transition between decay and invasion. These results provide a mathematical framework for early-stage disease progression and indicate that spatial spreading arise from the expansion of localized damage rather than from intrinsic pattern-forming mechanisms.

math-ph↗

Nonclassical Turing instabilities induced by superdiffusive transport in FitzHugh-Nagumo dynamics

We investigate diffusion-driven instabilities in a FitzHugh-Nagumo reaction-diffusion system with superdiffusive transport, modeled by fractional Laplacian operators with different diffusion orders for the activator and the inhibitor. A linear stability analysis yields explicit expressions for the instability threshold and the critical wavenumber and shows that superdiffusion modifies the band of unstable modes and the characteristic spatial scale of emerging patterns. We show that the threshold depends only on the ratio of the fractional exponents and on the kinetic parameters, while the spatial scale is controlled by the diffusion orders and the domain size. When the diffusion orders differ, spatial instabilities may occur even in regimes where the activator diffuses faster than the inhibitor, due to the combined effect of diffusion rates, anomalous scaling and system size. This leads to instability mechanisms that depart from the classical activator-inhibitor framework. A weakly nonlinear analysis near threshold provides the amplitude equation governing nonlinear saturation and reveals that superdiffusion promotes subcritical behavior. We also analyze the interaction between stationary and oscillatory instabilities near Turing-Hopf codimension-two points. All analytical results are supported by numerical simulations.

nlin.PS↗

Long time behavior for a dissipative shallow water model

We consider the two-dimensional shallow water model derived by Levermore and Sammartino (Nonlinearity 14,2001), describing the motion of an incompressible fluid, confined in a shallow basin, with varying bottom topography. We construct the approximate inertial manifolds for the associated dynamical system and estimate its order. Finally, considering the whole domain R^2 and under suitable conditions on the time dependent forcing term, we prove the L^2 asymptotic decay of the weak solutions.

math.AP↗

A spectral approach to a constrained optimization problem for the Helmholtz equation in unbounded domains

We study some convergence issues for a recent approach to the problem of transparent boundary conditions for the Helmholtz equation in unbounded domains. The approach is based on the minimization on an integral functional which arises from an integral formulation of the radiation condition at infinity. In this Letter, we implement a Fourier-Chebyschev collocation method and show that this approach reduce the computational cost significantly. As a consequence, we give numerical evidence of some convergence estimates available in literature and we study the robustness of the algorithm at low and mid-high frequencies.

math.NA↗

Viscous-Inviscid Interactions in a Boundary-Layer Flow Induced by a Vortex Array

In this paper we investigate the asymptotic validity of boundary layer theory. For a flow induced by a periodic row of point-vortices, we compare Prandtl's solution to Navier-Stokes solutions at different $Re$ numbers. We show how Prandtl's solution develops a finite time separation singularity. On the other hand Navier-Stokes solution is characterized by the presence of two kinds of viscous-inviscid interactions between the boundary layer and the outer flow. These interactions can be detected by the analysis of the enstrophy and of the pressure gradient on the wall. Moreover we apply the complex singularity tracking method to Prandtl and Navier-Stokes solutions and analyze the previous interactions from a different perspective.

math-ph↗

Analysis of complex singularities in high-Reynolds-number Navier-Stokes solutions

Numerical solutions of the laminar Prandtl boundary-layer and Navier-Stokes equations are considered for the case of the two-dimensional uniform flow past an impulsively-started circular cylinder. We show how Prandtl's solution develops a finite time separation singularity. On the other hand Navier-Stokes solution is characterized by the presence of two kinds of viscous-inviscid interactions that can be detected by the analysis of the enstrophy and of the pressure gradient on the wall. Moreover we apply the complex singularity tracking method to Prandtl and Navier-Stokes solutions and analyze the previous interactions from a different perspective.

physics.flu-dyn↗

High Reynolds number Navier-Stokes solutions and boundary layer separation induced by a rectilinear vortex

We compute the solutions of Prandtl's and Navier-Stokes equations for the two dimensional flow induced by a rectilinear vortex interacting with a boundary in the half plane. For this initial datum Prandtl's equation develops, in a finite time, a separation singularity. We investigate the different stages of unsteady separation for Navier-Stokes solution at different Reynolds numbers $Re=10^3-10^5$, and we show the presence of a large-scale interaction between the viscous boundary layer and the inviscid outer flow. We also see a subsequent stage, characterized by the presence of a small-scale interaction, which is visible only for moderate-high Re numbers $Re=10^4-10^5$. We also investigate the asymptotic validity of boundary layer theory by comparing Prandtl's solution to Navier-Stokes solutions during the various stages of unsteady separation.

math-ph↗

Singularity formation for Prandtl's equations

We consider Prandtl's equations for the impulsively started disk and follow the process of the formation of the singularity in the complex plane using the singularity tracking method. We classify Van Dommelen and Shen's singularity as a cubic root singularity. We introduce a class of initial data which have a dipole singularity in the complex plane. These data are uniformly bounded in $H^1$ and lead to an earlier singularity formation. The presence of a small viscosity in the streamwise direction changes the behavior of the singularities.

math-ph↗

A computational method for the Helmholtz equation in unbounded domains based on the minimization of an integral functional

We study a new approach to the problem of transparent boundary conditions for the Helmholtz equation in unbounded domains. Our approach is based on the minimization of an integral functional arising from a volume integral formulation of the radiation condition. The index of refraction does not need to be constant at infinity and may have some angular dependency as well as perturbations. We prove analytical results on the convergence of the approximate solution. Numerical examples for different shapes of the artificial boundary and for non-constant indexes of refraction will be presented.

math.AP↗

Analytic solutions and Singularity formation for the Peakon b--Family equations

Using the Abstract Cauchy-Kowalewski Theorem we prove that the $b$-family equation admits, locally in time, a unique analytic solution. Moreover, if the initial data is real analytic and it belongs to $H^s$ with $s > 3/2$, and the momentum density $u_0 - u_{0,{xx}}$ does not change sign, we prove that the solution stays analytic globally in time, for $b\geq 1$. Using pseudospectral numerical methods, we study, also, the singularity formation for the $b$-family equations with the singularity tracking method. This method allows us to follow the process of the singularity formation in the complex plane as the singularity approaches the real axis, estimating the rate of decay of the Fourier spectrum.

math.AP↗

On the Bi-Hamiltonian Theory for the Harry Dym Equation

We describe how the Harry Dym equation fits into the the bi-Hamiltonian formalism for the Korteweg-de Vries equation and other soliton equations. This is achieved by means of a certain Poisson pencil constructed from two compatible Poisson structures. We obtain an analogue of the Kadomtsev-Petviashivili hierarchy whose reduction leads to the Harry Dym hierarchy. We call such system the HD-KP hierarchy. Then, we construct an infinite system of ordinary differential equations (in infinitely many variables) that is equivalent to the HD-KP hierarchy. Its role is analogous to the one played by the Central System for the Kadomtsev-Petviashivili hierarchy.

math-ph↗

On deformation of Poisson manifolds of hydrodynamic type

We study a class of deformations of infinite-dimensional Poisson manifolds of hydrodynamic type which are of interest in the theory of Frobenius manifolds. We prove two results. First, we show that the second cohomology group of these manifolds, in the Poisson-Lichnerowicz cohomology, is ``essentially'' trivial. Then, we prove a conjecture of B. Dubrovin about the triviality of homogeneous formal deformations of the above manifolds.

nlin.SI↗