Spectral Dynamics of the Velocity Gradient Field in Restricted Flows.pdf

SPECTRAL DYNAMICS OF THE VELOCITY GRADIENT FIELD IN RESTRICTED FLOWS 1 HAILIANG LIU AND EITAN TADMOR 0 0 2 c e Abstract. We study the velocity gradients of the fundamental Eulerian equation, ∂ u+ t D u ∇u = F , which shows up in different contexts dictated by the different modeling of 3 F ’s. To this end we utilize a basic description for the spectral dynamics of ∇u, expressed in terms of the (possibly complex) eigenvalues, λ = λ(∇u), which are governed by the ] Ricatti-like equation λt + u ∇λ + λ2 = l, ∇F r. P A We focus our investigation on four prototype models associated with different forcing F , ranging from simple linear damping and a viscous dusty medium models to the main . h thrust of the paper — the restricted models of Euler/Navier-Stokes equations and Euler- t Poisson equations. a m In particular, we address the question of the time regularity for these models, that is, [ whether they admit a finite time breakdown, a global smooth solution, or an intermedi- ate scenario of critical threshold phenomena where global regularity depends on initial 1 configurations. v Using the spectral dynamics as our essential tool in these investigations, we obtain 5 1 a simple form of a critical threshold for the linear damping model and we identify the 0 2D vanishing viscosity limit for the viscous irrotational dusty medium model. Moreover, 2 for the n-dimensional restri