Laplacian Growth and Whitham Equations of Soliton Theory

The Laplacian growth (the Hele-Shaw problem) of multi-connected domains in the case of zero surface tension is proven to be equivalent to an integrable systems of Whitham equations known in soliton theory. The Whitham equations describe slowly modulated periodic solutions of integrable hierarchies of nonlinear differential equations. Through this connection the Laplacian growth is understood as a flow in the moduli space of Riemann surfaces.Comment: 33 pages, 7 figures, typos corrected, new references adde

Laplacian Growth, Elliptic Growth, and Singularities of the Schwarz Potential

The Schwarz function has played an elegant role in understanding and in generating new examples of exact solutions to the Laplacian growth (or "Hele- Shaw") problem in the plane. The guiding principle in this connection is the fact that "non-physical" singularities in the "oil domain" of the Schwarz function are stationary, and the "physical" singularities obey simple dynamics. We give an elementary proof that the same holds in any number of dimensions for the Schwarz potential, introduced by D. Khavinson and H. S. Shapiro [17] (1989). A generalization is also given for the so-called "elliptic growth" problem by defining a generalized Schwarz potential. New exact solutions are constructed, and we solve inverse problems of describing the driving singularities of a given flow. We demonstrate, by example, how \mathbb{C}^n - techniques can be used to locate the singularity set of the Schwarz potential. One of our methods is to prolong available local extension theorems by constructing "globalizing families". We make three conjectures in potential theory relating to our investigation

Bubble break-off in Hele-Shaw flows : Singularities and integrable structures

Bubbles of inviscid fluid surrounded by a viscous fluid in a Hele-Shaw cell can merge and break-off. During the process of break-off, a thinning neck pinches off to a universal self-similar singularity. We describe this process and reveal its integrable structure: it is a solution of the dispersionless limit of the AKNS hierarchy. The singular break-off patterns are universal, not sensitive to details of the process and can be seen experimentally. We briefly discuss the dispersive regularization of the Hele-Shaw problem and the emergence of the Painlev\'e II equation at the break-off.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures; typo correcte

A Duality Exact Sequence for Legendrian Contact Homology

We establish a long exact sequence for Legendrian submanifolds L in P x R, where P is an exact symplectic manifold, which admit a Hamiltonian isotopy that displaces the projection of L off of itself. In this sequence, the singular homology H_* maps to linearized contact cohomology CH^* which maps to linearized contact homology CH_* which maps to singular homology. In particular, the sequence implies a duality between the kernel of the map (CH_*\to H_*) and the cokernel of the map (H_* \to CH^*). Furthermore, this duality is compatible with Poincare duality in L in the following sense: the Poincare dual of a singular class which is the image of a in CH_* maps to a class \alpha in CH^* such that \alpha(a)=1. The exact sequence generalizes the duality for Legendrian knots in Euclidean 3-space [24] and leads to a refinement of the Arnold Conjecture for double points of an exact Lagrangian admitting a Legendrian lift with linearizable contact homology, first proved in [6].Comment: 57 pages, 10 figures. Improved exposition and expanded analytic detai

Weak vorticity formulation for the incompressible Euler equations in domains with boundary

In this article we examine the interaction of incompressible 2D flows with compact material boundaries. Our focus is the dynamic behavior of the circulation of velocity around boundary components and the possible exchange between flow vorticity and boundary circulation in flows with vortex sheet initial data We begin by showing that the velocity can be uniquely reconstructed from the vorticity and boundary component circulations, which allows to recast 2D Euler evolution using vorticity and the circulations as dynamic variables. The weak form of this vortex dynamics formulation of the equations is called the weak vorticity formulation. The main result in this article is the equivalence between the weak velocity and weak vorticity formulations, without sign assumptions. Next, we focus on weak solutions obtained by mollifying initial data and passing to the limit, with the portion of vorticity singular with respect to the Lebesgue measure assumed to be nonnegative. For these solutions we prove that the circulations around each boundary component cannot be smaller than the initial data circulation, so that nonnegative vorticity may be absorbed by the boundary, but not produced by the boundary. In addition, we prove that if the weak solution conserves circulation at the boundary components it is a boundary coupled weak solution, a stronger version of the weak vorticity formulation. We prove existence of a weak solution which conserves circulation at the boundary components if the initial vorticity is integrable. In addition, we discuss the definition of the mechanical force which the flow exerts on material boundary components and its relation with conservation of circulation. Finally, we describe the corresponding results for a bounded domain with holes, and the adaptations required in the proofs.Comment: 37 page

Weak and strong fillability of higher dimensional contact manifolds

For contact manifolds in dimension three, the notions of weak and strong symplectic fillability and tightness are all known to be inequivalent. We extend these facts to higher dimensions: in particular, we define a natural generalization of weak fillings and prove that it is indeed weaker (at least in dimension five),while also being obstructed by all known manifestations of "overtwistedness". We also find the first examples of contact manifolds in all dimensions that are not symplectically fillable but also cannot be called overtwisted in any reasonable sense. These depend on a higher-dimensional analogue of Giroux torsion, which we define via the existence in all dimensions of exact symplectic manifolds with disconnected contact boundary.Comment: 68 pages, 5 figures. v2: Some attributions clarified, and other minor edits. v3: exposition improved using referee's comments. Published by Invent. Mat