How to get a conservative well-posed linear system out of thin air. Part II. Controllability and stability

Published versio

Cross-shaped and Degenerate Singularities in an Unstable Elliptic Free Boundary Problem

We investigate singular and degenerate behavior of solutions of the unstable free boundary problem $$\Delta u = -\chi_{\{u>0\}} .$$ First, we construct a solution that is not of class $C^{1,1}$ and whose free boundary consists of four arcs meeting in a {\em cross}-shaped singularity. This solution is completely unstable/repulsive from above and below which would make it hard to get by the usual methods, and even numerics is non-trivial. We also show existence of a degenerate solution. This answers two of the open questions in a recent paper by R. Monneau-G.S. Weiss

Self-propagating High temperature Synthesis (SHS) in the high activation energy regime

We derive the precise limit of SHS in the high activation energy scaling suggested by B.J. Matkowksy-G.I. Sivashinsky in 1978 and by A. Bayliss-B.J. Matkowksy-A.P. Aldushin in 2002. In the time-increasing case the limit turns out to be the Stefan problem for supercooled water with spatially inhomogeneous coefficients. Although the present paper leaves open mathematical questions concerning the convergence, our precise form of the limit problem suggest a strikingly simple explanation for the numerically observed pulsating waves