Asymptotic symmetries of three dimensional gravity and the membrane paradigm

The asymptotic symmetry group of three-dimensional (anti) de Sitter space is the two dimensional conformal group with central charge $c=3\ell/2G$. Usually the asymptotic charge algebra is derived using the symplectic structure of the bulk Einstein equations. Here, we derive the asymptotic charge algebra by a different route. First, we formulate the dynamics of the boundary as a 1+1-dimensional dynamical system. Then we realize the boundary equations of motion as a Hamiltonian system on the dual Lie algebra, $\mathfrak{g}^*$, of the two-dimensional conformal group. Finally, we use the Lie-Poisson bracket on $\mathfrak{g}^*$ to compute the asymptotic charge algebra. This streamlines the derivation of the asymptotic charge algebra because the Lie-Poisson bracket on the boundary is significantly simpler than the symplectic structure derived from the bulk Einstein equations. It also clarifies the analogy between the infinite dimensional symmetries of gravity and fluid dynamics.Comment: 15 page

Uniform convergence to equilibrium for granular media

We study the long time asymptotics of a nonlinear, nonlocal equation used in the modelling of granular media. We prove a uniform exponential convergence to equilibrium for degenerately convex and non convex interaction or confinement potentials, improving in particular results by J. A. Carrillo, R. J. McCann and C. Villani. The method is based on studying the dissipation of the Wasserstein distance between a solution and the steady state

Existence of Compactly Supported Global Minimisers for the Interaction Energy

The existence of compactly supported global minimisers for continuum models of particles interacting through a potential is shown under almost optimal hypotheses. The main assumption on the potential is that it is catastrophic, or not H-stable, which is the complementary assumption to that in classical results on thermodynamic limits in statistical mechanics. The proof is based on a uniform control on the local mass around each point of the support of a global minimiser, together with an estimate on the size of the "gaps" it may have. The class of potentials for which we prove existence of global minimisers includes power-law potentials and, for some range of parameters, Morse potentials, widely used in applications. We also show that the support of local minimisers is compact under suitable assumptions.Comment: Final version after referee reports taken into accoun

Numerical Study of a Particle Method for Gradient Flows

We study the numerical behaviour of a particle method for gradient flows involving linear and nonlinear diffusion. This method relies on the discretisation of the energy via non-overlapping balls centred at the particles. The resulting scheme preserves the gradient flow structure at the particle level, and enables us to obtain a gradient descent formulation after time discretisation. We give several simulations to illustrate the validity of this method, as well as a detailed study of one-dimensional aggregation-diffusion equations.Comment: 27 pages, 21 figure

A mass-transportation approach to a one dimensional fluid mechanics model with nonlocal velocity

We consider a one dimensional transport model with nonlocal velocity given by the Hilbert transform and develop a global well-posedness theory of probability measure solutions. Both the viscous and non-viscous cases are analyzed. Both in original and in self-similar variables, we express the corresponding equations as gradient flows with respect to a free energy functional including a singular logarithmic interaction potential. Existence, uniqueness, self-similar asymptotic behavior and inviscid limit of solutions are obtained in the space $\mathcal{P}_{2}(\mathbb{R})$ of probability measures with finite second moments, without any smallness condition. Our results are based on the abstract gradient flow theory developed in \cite{Ambrosio}. An important byproduct of our results is that there is a unique, up to invariance and translations, global in time self-similar solution with initial data in $\mathcal{P}_{2}(\mathbb{R})$, which was already obtained in \textrm{\cite{Deslippe,Biler-Karch}} by different methods. Moreover, this self-similar solution attracts all the dynamics in self-similar variables. The crucial monotonicity property of the transport between measures in one dimension allows to show that the singular logarithmic potential energy is displacement convex. We also extend the results to gradient flow equations with negative power-law locally integrable interaction potentials