Critical points of inner functions, nonlinear partial differential equations, and an extension of Liouville's theorem

We establish an extension of Liouville's classical representation theorem for solutions of the partial differential equation $\Delta u=4 e^{2u}$ and combine this result with methods from nonlinear elliptic PDE to construct holomorphic maps with prescribed critical points and specified boundary behaviour. For instance, we show that for every Blaschke sequence $\{z_j\}$ in the unit disk there is always a Blaschke product with $\{z_j\}$ as its set of critical points. Our work is closely related to the Berger-Nirenberg problem in differential geometry.Comment: 21 page

Variational Integrators for Reduced Magnetohydrodynamics

Reduced magnetohydrodynamics is a simplified set of magnetohydrodynamics equations with applications to both fusion and astrophysical plasmas, possessing a noncanonical Hamiltonian structure and consequently a number of conserved functionals. We propose a new discretisation strategy for these equations based on a discrete variational principle applied to a formal Lagrangian. The resulting integrator preserves important quantities like the total energy, magnetic helicity and cross helicity exactly (up to machine precision). As the integrator is free of numerical resistivity, spurious reconnection along current sheets is absent in the ideal case. If effects of electron inertia are added, reconnection of magnetic field lines is allowed, although the resulting model still possesses a noncanonical Hamiltonian structure. After reviewing the conservation laws of the model equations, the adopted variational principle with the related conservation laws are described both at the continuous and discrete level. We verify the favourable properties of the variational integrator in particular with respect to the preservation of the invariants of the models under consideration and compare with results from the literature and those of a pseudo-spectral code.Comment: 35 page

Critical sets of bounded analytic functions, zero sets of Bergman spaces and nonpositive curvature

A classical result due to Blaschke states that for every analytic self-map $f$ of the open unit disk of the complex plane there exists a Blaschke product $B$ such that the zero sets of $f$ and $B$ agree. In this paper we show that there is an analogue statement for critical sets, i.e. for every analytic self-map $f$ of the open unit disk there is even an indestructible Blaschke product $B$ such that the critical sets of $f$ and $B$ coincide. We further relate the problem of describing the critical sets of bounded analytic functions to the problem of characterizing the zero sets of some weighted Bergman space as well as to the Berger-Nirenberg problem from differential geometry. By solving the Berger-Nirenberg problem for a special case we identify the critical sets of bounded analytic functions with the zero sets of the weighted Bergman space ${\cal A}_1^2$