Well-posedness of the plasma-vacuum interface problem

We consider the free boundary problem for the plasma-vacuum interface in ideal compressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). In the plasma region the flow is governed by the usual compressible MHD equations, while in the vacuum region we consider the pre-Maxwell dynamics for the magnetic field. At the free-interface, driven by the plasma velocity, the total pressure is continuous and the magnetic field on both sides is tangent to the boundary. The plasma-vacuum system is not isolated from the outside world, because of a given surface current on the fixed boundary that forces oscillations. Under a suitable stability condition satisfied at each point of the initial interface, stating that the magnetic fields on either side of the interface are not collinear, we show the existence and uniqueness of the solution to the nonlinear plasma-vacuum interface problem in suitable anisotropic Sobolev spaces. The proof is based on the results proved in the companion paper arXiv:1112.3101, about the well-posedness of the homogeneous linearized problem and the proof of a basic a priori energy estimate. The proof of the resolution of the nonlinear problem given in the present paper follows from the analysis of the elliptic system for the vacuum magnetic field, a suitable tame estimate in Sobolev spaces for the full linearized equations, and a Nash-Moser iteration.Comment: 58 page

Characteristic boundary value problems: estimates from H1 to L2

Motivated by the study of certain non linear free-boundary value problems for hyperbolic systems of partial differential equations arising in Magneto-Hydrodynamics, in this paper we show that an a priori estimate of the solution to certain boundary value problems, in the conormal Sobolev space H1_tan, can be transformed into an L2 a priori estimate of the same problem

Stability of the linearized MHD-Maxwell free interface problem

We consider the free boundary problem for the plasma-vacuum interface in ideal compressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). In the plasma region, the flow is governed by the usual compressible MHD equations, while in the vacuum region we consider the Maxwell system for the electric and the magnetic fields, in order to investigate the well-posedness of the problem, in particular in relation with the electric field in vacuum. At the free interface, driven by the plasma velocity, the total pressure is continuous and the magnetic field on both sides is tangent to the boundary. Under suitable stability conditions satisfied at each point of the plasma-vacuum interface, we derive a basic a priori estimate for solutions to the linearized problem. The proof follows by a suitable secondary symmetrization of the Maxwell equations in vacuum and the energy method. An interesting novelty is represented by the fact that the interface is characteristic with variable multiplicity, so that the problem requires a different number of boundary conditions, depending on the direction of the front velocity (plasma expansion into vacuum or viceversa). To overcome this difficulty, we recast the vacuum equations in terms of a new variable which makes the interface characteristic of constant multiplicity. In particular, we don't assume that plasma expands into vacuum.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1112.310

Existence of approximate current-vortex sheets near the onset of instability

The paper is concerned with the free boundary problem for 2D current-vortex sheets in ideal incompressible magneto-hydrodynamics near the transition point between the linearized stability and instability. In order to study the dynamics of the discontinuity near the onset of the instability, Hunter and Thoo have introduced an asymptotic quadratically nonlinear integro-differential equation for the amplitude of small perturbations of the planar discontinuity. The local-in-time existence of smooth solutions to the Cauchy problem for such amplitude equation was already proven, under a suitable stability condition. However, the solution found there has a loss of regularity (of order two) from the initial data. In the present paper, we are able to obtain an existence result of solutions with optimal regularity, in the sense that the regularity of the initial data is preserved in the motion for positive times

Data dependence for the amplitude equation of surface waves

We consider the amplitude equation for nonlinear surface wave solutions of hyperbolic conservation laws. This is an asymptotic nonlocal, Hamiltonian evolution equation with quadratic nonlinearity. For example, this equation describes the propagation of nonlinear Rayleigh waves, surface waves on current-vortex sheets in incompressible MHD and on the incompressible plasma-vacuum interface. The local-in-time existence of smooth solutions to the Cauchy problem for the amplitude equation in noncanonical variables was shown in a previous article. In the present paper we prove the continuous dependence in strong norm of solutions on the initial data. This completes the proof of the well-posedness of the problem in the classical sense of Hadamard

Weak stability of the plasma-vacuum interface problem

We consider the free boundary problem for the two-dimensional plasma-vacuum interface in ideal compressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). In the plasma region, the flow is governed by the usual compressible MHD equations, while in the vacuum region we consider the Maxwell system for the electric and the magnetic fields. At the free interface, driven by the plasma velocity, the total pressure is continuous and the magnetic field on both sides is tangent to the boundary. We study the linear stability of rectilinear plasma-vacuum interfaces by computing the Kreiss-Lopatinskii determinant of an associated linearized boundary value problem. Apart from possible resonances, we obtain that the piecewise constant plasma-vacuum interfaces are always weakly linearly stable, independently of the size of tangential velocity, magnetic and electric fields on both sides of the characteristic discontinuity. We also prove that solutions to the linearized problem obey an energy estimate with a loss of regularity with respect to the source terms, both in the interior domain and on the boundary, due to the failure of the uniform Kreiss-Lopatinskii condition, as the Kreiss-Lopatinskii determinant associated with this linearized boundary value problem has roots on the boundary of the frequency space. In the proof of the a priori estimates, a crucial part is played by the construction of symmetrizers for a reduced differential system, which has poles at which the Kreiss-Lopatinskii condition may fail simultaneously.Comment: 38 page

A Higher-Order Hardy-Type Inequality in Anisotropic Sobolev Spaces

We prove a higher-order inequality of Hardy type for functions in anisotropic Sobolev spaces that vanish at the boundary of the space domain. This is an important calculus tool for the study of initial-boundary-value problems of symmetric hyperbolic systems with characteristic boundary

Nonlinear Stability of Relativistic Vortex Sheets in Three-Dimensional Minkowski Spacetime

We are concerned with the nonlinear stability of vortex sheets for the relativistic Euler equations in three-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. This is a nonlinear hyperbolic problem with a characteristic free boundary. In this paper, we introduce a new symmetrization by choosing appropriate functions as primary unknowns. A necessary and sufficient condition for the weakly linear stability of relativistic vortex sheets is obtained by analyzing the roots of the Lopatinski\u{\i} determinant associated to the constant coefficient linearized problem. Under this stability condition, we show that the variable coefficient linearized problem obeys an energy estimate with a loss of derivatives. The construction of certain weight functions plays a crucial role in absorbing error terms caused by microlocalization. Based on the weakly linear stability result, we establish the existence and nonlinear stability of relativistic vortex sheets under small initial perturbations by a Nash--Moser iteration scheme.Comment: 105 pages; to appear in: Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 201

Regularity of weakly well posed hyperbolic mixed problems with characteristic boundary

We study the mixed initial-boundary value problem for a linear hyperbolic system with characteristic boundary of constant multiplicity. We assume the problem to be “weakly” well posed, in the sense that a unique L^2-solution exists, for sufficiently smooth data, and obeys an a priori energy estimate with a finite loss of conormal regularity. This is the case of problems that do not satisfy the uniform Kreiss–Lopatinskiı̆ condition in the hyperbolic region of the frequency domain. Under the assumption of the loss of one conormal derivative we obtain the regularity of solutions, in the natural framework of weighted anisotropic Sobolev spaces, provided the data are sufficiently smooth