Penn State University

We propose a modulated free energy which combines of the method previously developed by the speaker together with the modulated energy introduced by S. Serfaty. This modulated free energy may be understood as introducing appropriate weights in the relative entropy  to cancel the more singular terms involving the divergence of the flow. This modulated free energy allows to treat singular interactions of gradient-flow type and allows potentials with large smooth part, small attractive singular part and large repulsive singular part. As an example, a full rigorous derivation (with quantitative estimates) of some chemotaxis models, such as Patlak-Keller-Segel system in the subcritical regimes, is obtained.

Abstract: John Roe was a much admired figure in topology and noncommutative geometry, and the creator of the C*-algebraic approach to coarse geometry. John died in 2018 at the age of 58. My aim in the first part of the lecture will be to explain in very general terms the major themes in John’s work, and illustrate them by presenting one of his best-known results, the partitioned manifold index theorem. After the break I shall describe a later result, about relative eta invariants, that has inspired an area of research that is still very active.

Assumed Knowledge: First part: basic familiarity with C*-algebras, plus a little topology. Second part: basic familiarity with K-theory for C*-algebras.

In this talk, we propose a model describing the growth of tree stems and vine, taking into account also the presence of external obstacles. The system evolution is described by an integral differential equation which becomes discontinuous when the stem hits the obstacle. The stem feels the obstacle reaction not just at the tip, but along the whole stem. This fact represents one of the main challenges to overcome, since it produces a cone of possible reactions which is not normal with respect to the obstacle. However, using the geometric structure of the problem and optimal control tools, we are able to prove existence and uniqueness of the solution for the integral differential equation under natural assumptions on the initial data.

I will present two recent results concerning the stability of boundary layer asymptotic expansions of solutions of Navier-Stokes with small viscosity. First, we show that the linearization around an arbitrary stationary shear flow admits an unstable eigenfunction with small wave number, when viscosity is sufficiently small. In boundary-layer variables, this yields an exponentially growing sublayer near the boundary and hence instability of the asymptotic expansions, within an arbitrarily small time, in the inviscid limit. On the other hand, we show that the Prandtl asymptotic expansions hold for certain steady flows. Our proof involves delicate construction of approximate solutions (linearized Euler and Prandtl layers) and an introduction of a new positivity estimate for steady Navier-Stokes. This in particular establishes the inviscid limit of steady flows with prescribed boundary data up to order of square root of small viscosity. This is a joint work with Emmanuel Grenier and Yan Guo.

We study minimizers of the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) functional \[E_\epsilon(u):=\frac{1}{2}\int_A |\nabla u|^2 + \frac{1}{4\epsilon^2} \int_A(1-|u|^2)^2\] for a complex-valued order parameter $u$ (with no magnetic field). This functional is of fundamental importance in the theory of superconductivity and superuidity; the development of these theories led to three Nobel prizes. For a $2D$ domain $A$ with holes we consider “semistiff” boundary conditions: a Dirichlet condition for the modulus $|u|$, and a homogeneous Neumann condition for the phase $\phi = \mathrm{arg}(u)$. The principal

result of this work (with V. Rybalko) is a proof of the existence of stable local minimizers with vortices (global minimizers do not exist). These vortices are novel in that they approach the boundary and have bounded energy as $\epsilon\to0$.

In contrast, in the well-studied Dirichlet (“stiff”) problem for the GL PDE, the vortices remain distant from the boundary and their energy blows up as

$\epsilon\to 0$. Also, there are no stable minimizers to the homogeneous Neumann (“soft”) problem with vortices.

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Next, we discuss more recent results (with V. Rybalko and O. Misiats) on global minimizers of the full GL functional (with magnetic field) subject to semi-stiff boundary conditions. Here, we show the existence of global minimizers with vortices for both simply and doubly connected domains and describe the location of their vortices.

Professor Qiang Du will go over some work on modelling interface/microstructures with curvature dependent energies and also the effect of elasticity on critical nuclei morphology.