Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

Full-branch uniformly expanding maps and their long-time statistical quantities are commonly used as simple models in the study of chaotic dynamics, as well as being of their own mathematical interest. A wide range of algorithms for computing these quantities exist, but they are typically unspecialised to the high-order differentiability of many maps of interest, and so have a weak tradeoff between computational effort and accuracy.

This talk will cover a rigorous method to calculate statistics of these maps by discretising transfer operators in a Chebyshev polynomial basis. This discretisation is highly efficient: I will show that, for analytic maps, numerical estimates obtained using this discretisation converge exponentially quickly in the order of the discretisation, for a polynomially growing computational cost. In particular, it is possible to produce (non-validated) estimates of most statistical properties accurate to 14 decimal places in a fraction of a second on a personal computer. Applications of the method to the study of intermittent dynamics and the chaotic hypothesis will be presented.

We provide an accurate description of the long time dynamics for generalized Korteweg-de Vries  and Benjamin-Ono equations on the circle without external parameters and for almost any (in probability and in density) small initial datum. To obtain that result we construct for these two classes of equations and under a very weak hypothesis of non degeneracy of the nonlinearity, rational normal forms on open sets surrounding the origin in high Sobolev regularity. With this new tool we can make precise the long time dynamics of the respective flows. In particular we prove a long-time stability result in Sobolev norm: given a large constant M and a sufficiently small parameter ε, for generic initial datum u(0) of size ε, we control the Sobolev norm of the solution u(t) for time of order ε^{−M}. 

I will discuss random Young towers and prove an quenched Almost Sure Invariant Principle for them, which implies many quenched limits theorems, e.g., Central Limit Theorem, Functional Central Limit Theorem etc.. I will apply my result to some random perturbations of some nonuniformly expanding maps such as unimodal maps, Pomeau-Manneville maps etc..

Batchelor's law describes the power law spectrum of the turbulent regime of passive scalars (e.g., temperature or a dilute concentration of some tracer chemical) advected by an incompressible fluid (e.g., the Navier-Stokes equations at fixed Reynolds number), in the limit of vanishingly low molecular diffusivity. Predicted in 1959, it has been confirmed empirically in a variety of experiments, e.g. salinity concentrations among ocean currents. On the other hand, as with many turbulent regimes in physics, a true predictive theory from first principles has been missing (even a non-rigorous one), and there has been some controversy regarding the extent to which Batchelor's law is universal. 

In this talk, I will present a program of research, joint with Jacob Bedrossian (UMD) and Sam Punshon-Smith (Brown), which has rigorously proved Batchelor's law for passive scalars advected by the Navier-Stokes equations on the periodic box subjected to Sobolev regular, white-in-time body forces. The proof is a synthesis of techniques from dynamical systems and smooth ergodic theory, stochastics/probability, and fluid mechanics. To our knowledge, this work constitutes the first mathematically rigorous proof of a turbulent power law spectrum. It also establishes a template for predictive theories of passive scalar turbulence in more general settings, providing a strong argument for the universality of Batchelor's law.