Initial-boundary value problems for discrete evolution equations: discrete linear Schrodinger and integrable discrete nonlinear Schrodinger equations

We present a method to solve initial-boundary value problems for linear and integrable nonlinear differential-difference evolution equations. The method is the discrete version of the one developed by A. S. Fokas to solve initial-boundary value problems for linear and integrable nonlinear partial differential equations via an extension of the inverse scattering transform. The method takes advantage of the Lax pair formulation for both linear and nonlinear equations, and is based on the simultaneous spectral analysis of both parts of the Lax pair. A key role is also played by the global algebraic relation that couples all known and unknown boundary values. Even though additional technical complications arise in discrete problems compared to continuum ones, we show that a similar approach can also solve initial-boundary value problems for linear and integrable nonlinear differential-difference equations. We demonstrate the method by solving initial-boundary value problems for the discrete analogue of both the linear and the nonlinear Schrodinger equations, comparing the solution to those of the corresponding continuum problems. In the linear case we also explicitly discuss Robin-type boundary conditions not solvable by Fourier series. In the nonlinear case we also identify the linearizable boundary conditions, we discuss the elimination of the unknown boundary datum, we obtain explicitly the linear and continuum limit of the solution, and we write down the soliton solutions.Comment: 41 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Inverse Problem

Characteristic Evolution and Matching

I review the development of numerical evolution codes for general relativity based upon the characteristic initial value problem. Progress in characteristic evolution is traced from the early stage of 1D feasibility studies to 2D axisymmetric codes that accurately simulate the oscillations and gravitational collapse of relativistic stars and to current 3D codes that provide pieces of a binary black hole spacetime. Cauchy codes have now been successful at simulating all aspects of the binary black hole problem inside an artificially constructed outer boundary. A prime application of characteristic evolution is to extend such simulations to null infinity where the waveform from the binary inspiral and merger can be unambiguously computed. This has now been accomplished by Cauchy-characteristic extraction, where data for the characteristic evolution is supplied by Cauchy data on an extraction worldtube inside the artificial outer boundary. The ultimate application of characteristic evolution is to eliminate the role of this outer boundary by constructing a global solution via Cauchy-characteristic matching. Progress in this direction is discussed.Comment: New version to appear in Living Reviews 2012. arXiv admin note: updated version of arXiv:gr-qc/050809

Transonic Flows with Shocks Past Curved Wedges for the Full Euler Equations

We establish the existence, stability, and asymptotic behavior of transonic flows with a transonic shock past a curved wedge for the steady full Euler equations in an important physical regime, which form a nonlinear system of mixed-composite hyperbolic-elliptic type. To achieve this, we first employ the coordinate transformation of Euler-Lagrange type and then exploit one of the new equations to identify a potential function in Lagrangian coordinates. By capturing the conservation properties of the Euler system, we derive a single second-order nonlinear elliptic equation for the potential function in the subsonic region so that the transonic shock problem is reformulated as a one-phase free boundary problem for a second-order nonlinear elliptic equation with the shock-front as a free boundary. One of the advantages of this approach is that, given the shock location or quivalently the entropy function along the shock-front downstream, all the physical variables can expressed as functions of the gradient of the potential function, and the downstream asymptotic behavior of the potential function at the infinite exit can be uniquely determined with uniform decay rate. To solve the free boundary problem, we employ the hodograph transformation to transfer the free boundary to a fixed boundary, while keeping the ellipticity of the second-order equations, and then update the entropy function to prove that it has a fixed point. Another advantage in our analysis here is in the context of the real full Euler equations so that the solutions do not necessarily obey Bernoulli's law with a uniform Bernoulli constant, that is, the Bernoulli constant is allowed to change for different fluid trajectories.Comment: 35 pages, 2 figures in Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems, 36 (2016

Global aspects of radiation memory

Gravitational radiation has a memory effect represented by a net change in the relative positions of test particles. Both the linear and nonlinear sources proposed for this radiation memory are of the "electric" type, or E mode, as characterized by the even parity of the polarization pattern. Although "magnetic" type, or B mode, radiation memory is mathematically possible, no physically realistic source has been identified. There is an electromagnetic counterpart to radiation memory in which the velocity of charged particles obtain a net "kick". Again, the physically realistic sources of electromagnetic radiation memory that have been identified are of the electric type. In this paper, a global null cone description of the electromagnetic field is applied to establish the non-existence of B mode radiation memory and the non-existence of E mode radiation memory due to a bound charge distribution.Comment: Final version to be published in Class. Quantum Gra

Front propagation into unstable states: Universal algebraic convergence towards uniformly translating pulled fronts

Fronts that start from a local perturbation and propagate into a linearly unstable state come in two classes: pulled and pushed. ``Pulled'' fronts are ``pulled along'' by the spreading of linear perturbations about the unstable state, so their asymptotic speed $v^*$ equals the spreading speed of linear perturbations of the unstable state. The central result of this paper is that the velocity of pulled fronts converges universally for time $t\to\infty$ like $v(t)=v^*-3/(2\lambda^*t) + (3\sqrt{\pi}/2) D\lambda^*/(D{\lambda^*}^2t)^{3/2}+O(1/t^2)$. The parameters $v^*$, $\lambda^*$, and $D$ are determined through a saddle point analysis from the equation of motion linearized about the unstable invaded state. The interior of the front is essentially slaved to the leading edge, and we derive a simple, explicit and universal expression for its relaxation towards $\phi(x,t)=\Phi^*(x-v^*t)$. Our result, which can be viewed as a general center manifold result for pulled front propagation, is derived in detail for the well known nonlinear F-KPP diffusion equation, and extended to much more general (sets of) equations (p.d.e.'s, difference equations, integro-differential equations etc.). Our universal result for pulled fronts thus implies independence (i) of the level curve which is used to track the front position, (ii) of the precise nonlinearities, (iii) of the precise form of the linear operators, and (iv) of the precise initial conditions. Our simulations confirm all our analytical predictions in every detail. A consequence of the slow algebraic relaxation is the breakdown of various perturbative schemes due to the absence of adiabatic decoupling.Comment: 76 pages Latex, 15 figures, submitted to Physica D on March 31, 1999 -- revised version from February 25, 200

Supersonic Flow onto Solid Wedges, Multidimensional Shock Waves and Free Boundary Problems

When an upstream steady uniform supersonic flow impinges onto a symmetric straight-sided wedge, governed by the Euler equations, there are two possible steady oblique shock configurations if the wedge angle is less than the detachment angle -- the steady weak shock with supersonic or subsonic downstream flow (determined by the wedge angle that is less or larger than the sonic angle) and the steady strong shock with subsonic downstream flow, both of which satisfy the entropy condition. The fundamental issue -- whether one or both of the steady weak and strong shocks are physically admissible solutions -- has been vigorously debated over the past eight decades. In this paper, we survey some recent developments on the stability analysis of the steady shock solutions in both the steady and dynamic regimes. For the static stability, we first show how the stability problem can be formulated as an initial-boundary value type problem and then reformulate it into a free boundary problem when the perturbation of both the upstream steady supersonic flow and the wedge boundary are suitably regular and small, and we finally present some recent results on the static stability of the steady supersonic and transonic shocks. For the dynamic stability for potential flow, we first show how the stability problem can be formulated as an initial-boundary value problem and then use the self-similarity of the problem to reduce it into a boundary value problem and further reformulate it into a free boundary problem, and we finally survey some recent developments in solving this free boundary problem for the existence of the Prandtl-Meyer configurations that tend to the steady weak supersonic or transonic oblique shock solutions as time goes to infinity. Some further developments and mathematical challenges in this direction are also discussed.Comment: 19 pages; 8 figures; accepted by Science China Mathematics on February 22, 2017 (invited survey paper). doi: 10.1007/s11425-016-9045-