Non-minimality of corners in subriemannian geometry

We give a short solution to one of the main open problems in subriemannian geometry. Namely, we prove that length minimizers do not have corner-type singularities. With this result we solve Problem II of Agrachev's list, and provide the first general result toward the 30-year-old open problem of regularity of subriemannian geodesics.Comment: 11 pages, final versio

Weighted analytic regularity in polyhedra

International audienceWe explain a simple strategy to establish analytic regularity for solutions of second order linear elliptic boundary value problems. The abstract framework presented here helps to understand the proof of analytic regularity in polyhedral domains given in "http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00454133" the authors' paper published in Math. Models Methods Appl. Sci. 22 (8) (2012). We illustrate this strategy by considering problems set in smooth domains, in corner domains and in polyhedra

Corner and finger formation in Hele--Shaw flow with kinetic undercooling regularisation

We examine the effect of a kinetic undercooling condition on the evolution of a free boundary in Hele--Shaw flow, in both bubble and channel geometries. We present analytical and numerical evidence that the bubble boundary is unstable and may develop one or more corners in finite time, for both expansion and contraction cases. This loss of regularity is interesting because it occurs regardless of whether the less viscous fluid is displacing the more viscous fluid, or vice versa. We show that small contracting bubbles are described to leading order by a well-studied geometric flow rule. Exact solutions to this asymptotic problem continue past the corner formation until the bubble contracts to a point as a slit in the limit. Lastly, we consider the evolving boundary with kinetic undercooling in a Saffman--Taylor channel geometry. The boundary may either form corners in finite time, or evolve to a single long finger travelling at constant speed, depending on the strength of kinetic undercooling. We demonstrate these two different behaviours numerically. For the travelling finger, we present results of a numerical solution method similar to that used to demonstrate the selection of discrete fingers by surface tension. With kinetic undercooling, a continuum of corner-free travelling fingers exists for any finger width above a critical value, which goes to zero as the kinetic undercooling vanishes. We have not been able to compute the discrete family of analytic solutions, predicted by previous asymptotic analysis, because the numerical scheme cannot distinguish between solutions characterised by analytic fingers and those which are corner-free but non-analytic

Energy-corrected FEM and explicit time-stepping for parabolic problems

The presence of corners in the computational domain, in general, reduces the regularity of solutions of parabolic problems and diminishes the convergence properties of the finite element approximation introducing a so-called "pollution effect". Standard remedies based on mesh refinement around the singular corner result in very restrictive stability requirements on the time-step size when explicit time integration is applied. In this article, we introduce and analyse the energy-corrected finite element method for parabolic problems, which works on quasi-uniform meshes, and, based on it, create fast explicit time discretisation. We illustrate these results with extensive numerical investigations not only confirming the theoretical results but also showing the flexibility of the method, which can be applied in the presence of multiple singular corners and a three-dimensional setting. We also propose a fast explicit time-stepping scheme based on a piecewise cubic energy-corrected discretisation in space completed with mass-lumping techniques and numerically verify its efficiency

Shape identification in inverse medium scattering problems with a single far-field pattern

Consider time-harmonic acoustic scattering from a bounded penetrable obstacle $D\subset \mathbb R^N$ embedded in a homogeneous background medium. The index of refraction characterizing the material inside $D$ is supposed to be H\"older continuous near the corners. If $D\subset \mathbb R^2$ is a convex polygon, we prove that its shape and location can be uniquely determined by the far-field pattern incited by a single incident wave at a fixed frequency. In dimensions $N \geq 3$, the uniqueness applies to penetrable scatterers of rectangular type with additional assumptions on the smoothness of the contrast. Our arguments are motivated by recent studies on the absence of non-scattering wavenumbers in domains with corners. As a byproduct, we show that the smoothness conditions in previous corner scattering results are only required near the corners

On Regularity of Abnormal Subriemannian Geodesics

We prove the smoothness of abnormal minimizers of subriemannian manifolds of step 3 with a nilpotent basis. We prove that rank 2 Carnot groups of step 4 admit no strictly abnormal minimizers. For any subriemannian manifolds of step less than 7, we show all abnormal minimizers have no corner type singularities, which partly generalize the main result of Leonardi-Monti.Comment: This paper has been withdrawn by the author due to a crucial computation error in (F_t^1)_sta

Weighted Sobolev spaces and regularity for polyhedral domains

We prove a regularity result for the Poisson problem $-\Delta u = f$, u |\_{\pa \PP} = g on a polyhedral domain \PP \subset \RR^3 using the \BK\ spaces \Kond{m}{a}(\PP). These are weighted Sobolev spaces in which the weight is given by the distance to the set of edges \cite{Babu70, Kondratiev67}. In particular, we show that there is no loss of \Kond{m}{a}--regularity for solutions of strongly elliptic systems with smooth coefficients. We also establish a "trace theorem" for the restriction to the boundary of the functions in \Kond{m}{a}(\PP)