Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

This talk is about the Dirac equation. We consider an electron modeled by awave function and evolving in the Coulomb field generated by a nucleus. Ina very rough way, this should be an equation of the form$$i\partial_t u = -\Delta u + V( \cdot - q(t)) u$$where $u$ represents the electron while $q(t)$ is the position of thenucleus. When one considers relativitic corrections on the dynamics of anelectron, one should replace the Laplacian in the equation by the Diracoperator. Because of limiting processes in the chemistry model from whichthis is derived, there is also a cubic term in $u$ as a correction in theequation. What is more, the position of the nucleus is also influenced bythe dynamics of the electron. Therefore, this equation should be coupledwith an equation on $q$ depending on $u$.I will present this model and give the first properties of the equation.Then, I will explain why it is well-posed on $H^2$ with a time of existencedepending only on the $H^1$ norm of the initial datum for $u$ and on theinitial datum for $q$. The linear analysis, namely the properties of thepropagator of the equation $i\partial_t u = D u + V( \cdot - q(t))$ where$D$ is the Dirac operator is based on works by Kato, while the non linearanalysis is based on a work by Cancès and Lebris.It is possible to have more than one nucleus. I will explain why.(Joint work with F. Cacciafesta, D. Noja and E. Séré)

We investigate Lipschitz maps, I, mapping $C^2(D) \to C(D)$, where $D$ is an appropriate domain. The global comparison principle (GCP) simply states that whenever two functions are ordered in D and touch at a point, i.e. $u(x)\leq v(x)$ for all $x$ and $u(z)=v(z)$ for some $z \in D$, then also the mapping I has the same order, i.e. $I(u,z)\leq I(v,z)$. It has been known since the 1960’s, by Courr\`{e}ge, that if I is a linear mapping with the GCP, then I must be represented as a linear drift-jump-diffusion operator that may have both local and integro-differential parts. It has also long been known and utilized that when I is both local and Lipschitz it will be a min-min over linear and local drift-diffusion operators, with zero nonlocal part. In this talk we discuss some recent work that bridges the gap between these situations to cover the nonlinear and nonlocal setting for the map, I. These results open up the possibility to study Dirichlet-to-Neumann mappings for fully nonlinear equations as integro-differential operators on the boundary. This is joint work with Nestor Guillen.

SGSW is a third level specialization of Navier-Stokes (via Boussinesq, then Semi-Geostrophic), and it accurately describes large-scale, rotation-dominated atmospheric flow under the extra-assumption that the horizontal velocity of the fluid is independent of the vertical coordinate. The Cullen-Purser stability condition establishes a connection between SGSW and Optimal Transport by imposing semi-convexity on the pressure; this has led to results of existence of solutions in dual space (i.e., where the problem is transformed under a non-smooth change of variables). In this talk I will present recent results on existence and weak stability of solutions in physical space (i.e., in the original variables) for general initial data, the very first of their kind. This is based on joint work with M. Feldman (UW-Madison).

We will discuss a distance between shapes defined by minimizing the integral of kinetic energy along transport paths constrained to measures with characteristic-function densities. The formal geodesic equations for this shape distance are Euler equations for incompressible, inviscid flow of fluid with zero pressure and surface tension on the free boundary. We will discuss the instability that the minimization problem develops and the resulting connections to optimal transportation. The talk is based on joint work with Jian-Guo Liu (Duke) and Bob Pego (CMU).