10,410 research outputs found

    Additive noise effects in active nonlinear spatially extended systems

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    We examine the effects of pure additive noise on spatially extended systems with quadratic nonlinearities. We develop a general multiscale theory for such systems and apply it to the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation as a case study. We first focus on a regime close to the instability onset (primary bifurcation), where the system can be described by a single dominant mode. We show analytically that the resulting noise in the equation describing the amplitude of the dominant mode largely depends on the nature of the stochastic forcing. For a highly degenerate noise, in the sense that it is acting on the first stable mode only, the amplitude equation is dominated by a pure multiplicative noise, which in turn induces the dominant mode to undergo several critical state transitions and complex phenomena, including intermittency and stabilisation, as the noise strength is increased. The intermittent behaviour is characterised by a power-law probability density and the corresponding critical exponent is calculated rigorously by making use of the first-passage properties of the amplitude equation. On the other hand, when the noise is acting on the whole subspace of stable modes, the multiplicative noise is corrected by an additive-like term, with the eventual loss of any stabilised state. We also show that the stochastic forcing has no effect on the dominant mode dynamics when it is acting on the second stable mode. Finally, in a regime which is relatively far from the instability onset, so that there are two unstable modes, we observe numerically that when the noise is acting on the first stable mode, both dominant modes show noise-induced complex phenomena similar to the single-mode case

    Defects and boundary layers in non-Euclidean plates

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    We investigate the behavior of non-Euclidean plates with constant negative Gaussian curvature using the F\"oppl-von K\'arm\'an reduced theory of elasticity. Motivated by recent experimental results, we focus on annuli with a periodic profile. We prove rigorous upper and lower bounds for the elastic energy that scales like the thickness squared. In particular we show that are only two types of global minimizers -- deformations that remain flat and saddle shaped deformations with isolated regions of stretching near the edge of the annulus. We also show that there exist local minimizers with a periodic profile that have additional boundary layers near their lines of inflection. These additional boundary layers are a new phenomenon in thin elastic sheets and are necessary to regularize jump discontinuities in the azimuthal curvature across lines of inflection. We rigorously derive scaling laws for the width of these boundary layers as a function of the thickness of the sheet

    Stationary solutions of liquid two-layer thin film models

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    We investigate stationary solutions of a thin-film model for liquid two-layer flows in an energetic formulation that is motivated by its gradient flow structure. The goal is to achieve a rigorous understanding of the contact-angle conditions for such two-layer systems. We pursue this by investigating a corresponding energy that favors the upper liquid to dewet from the lower liquid substrate, leaving behind a layer of thickness hh_*. After proving existence of stationary solutions for the resulting system of thin-film equations we focus on the limit h0h_*\to 0 via matched asymptotic analysis. This yields a corresponding sharp-interface model and a matched asymptotic solution that includes logarithmic switch-back terms. We compare this with results obtained using Γ\Gamma-convergence, where we establish existence and uniqueness of energetic minimizers in that limit

    The Inviscid Limit and Boundary Layers for Navier-Stokes Flows

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    The validity of the vanishing viscosity limit, that is, whether solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations modeling viscous incompressible flows converge to solutions of the Euler equations modeling inviscid incompressible flows as viscosity approaches zero, is one of the most fundamental issues in mathematical fluid mechanics. The problem is classified into two categories: the case when the physical boundary is absent, and the case when the physical boundary is present and the effect of the boundary layer becomes significant. The aim of this article is to review recent progress on the mathematical analysis of this problem in each category.Comment: To appear in "Handbook of Mathematical Analysis in Mechanics of Viscous Fluids", Y. Giga and A. Novotn\'y Ed., Springer. The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co
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