Long-Time Asymptotics for the Navier-Stokes Equation in a Two-Dimensional Exterior Domain

We study the long-time behavior of infinite-energy solutions to the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in a two-dimensional exterior domain, with no-slip boundary conditions. The initial data we consider are finite-energy perturbations of a smooth vortex with small circulation at infinity, but are otherwise arbitrarily large. Using a logarithmic energy estimate and some interpolation arguments, we prove that the solution approaches a self-similar Oseen vortex as $t \to \infty$. This result was obtained in collaboration with Yasunori Maekawa (Kobe University).Comment: This is a non-technical presentation of the results obtained in arXiv:1202.4969, including simplified proofs and additional information on the convergence of vorticit

Orbital stability in the cubic defocusing NLS equation: II. The black soliton

Combining the usual energy functional with a higher-order conserved quantity originating from integrability theory, we show that the black soliton is a local minimizer of a quantity that is conserved along the flow of the cubic defocusing NLS equation in one space dimension. This unconstrained variational characterization gives an elementary proof of the orbital stability of the black soliton with respect to perturbations in $H^2(\mathbb{R})$.Comment: 19 pages, no figur

Diffusive Mixing of Stable States in the Ginzburg-Landau Equation

For the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation on the real line, we construct solutions which converge, as $x \to \pm\infty$, to periodic stationary states with different wave-numbers $\eta_\pm$. These solutions are stable with respect to small perturbations, and approach as $t \to +\infty$ a universal diffusive profile depending only on the values of $\eta_\pm$. This extends a previous result of Bricmont and Kupiainen by removing the assumption that $\eta_\pm$ should be close to zero. The existence of the diffusive profile is obtained as an application of the theory of monotone operators, and the long-time behavior of our solutions is controlled by rewriting the system in scaling variables and using energy estimates involving an exponentially growing damping term.Comment: 28 pages, LaTe

On the linear stability of vortex columns in the energy space

We investigate the linear stability of inviscid columnar vortices with respect to finite energy perturbations. For a large class of vortex profiles, we show that the linearized evolution group has a sub-exponential growth in time, which means that the associated growth bound is equal to zero. This implies in particular that the spectrum of the linearized operator is entirely contained in the imaginary axis. This contribution complements the results of a previous work, where spectral stability was established for the linearized operator in the enstrophy space.Comment: Major revision, including a complete rewriting of Section