Gradient flows without blow-up for Lefschetz thimbles

We propose new gradient flows that define Lefschetz thimbles and do not blow up in a finite flow time. We study analytic properties of these gradient flows, and confirm them by numerical tests in simple examples.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figures, (v2) conclusion part is expande

Iterated logarithms and gradient flows

We consider applications of the theory of balanced weight filtrations and iterated logarithms, initiated in arXiv:1706.01073, to PDEs. The main result is a complete description of the asymptotics of the Yang--Mills flow on the space of metrics on a holomorphic bundle over a Riemann surface. A key ingredient in the argument is a monotonicity property of the flow which holds in arbitrary dimension. The A-side analog is a modified curve shortening flow for which we provide a heuristic calculation in support of a detailed conjectural picture.Comment: 29 pages, comments encourage

Quasistatic nonlinear viscoelasticity and gradient flows

We consider the equation of motion for one-dimensional nonlinear viscoelasticity of strain-rate type under the assumption that the stored-energy function is $\lambda$-convex, which allows for solid phase transformations. We formulate this problem as a gradient flow, leading to existence and uniqueness of solutions. By approximating general initial data by those in which the deformation gradient takes only finitely many values, we show that under suitable hypotheses on the stored-energy function the deformation gradient is instantaneously bounded and bounded away from zero. Finally, we discuss the open problem of showing that every solution converges to an equilibrium state as time $t \to \infty$ and prove convergence to equilibrium under a nondegeneracy condition. We show that this condition is satisfied in particular for any real analytic cubic-like stress-strain function.Comment: 40 pages, 1 figur