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Global existence analysis of energy-reaction-diffusion systems
We establish global-in-time existence results for thermodynamically consistent reaction-(cross-)diffusion systems coupled to an equation describing heat transfer. Our main interest is to model species-dependent diffusivities, while at the same time ensuring thermodynamic consistency. A key difficulty of the non-isothermal case lies in the intrinsic presence of cross-diffusion type phenomena like the Soret and the Dufour effect: due to the temperature/energy dependence of the thermodynamic equilibria, a nonvanishing temperature gradient may drive a concentration flux even in a situation with constant concentrations; likewise, a nonvanishing concentration gradient may drive a heat flux even in a case of spatially constant temperature. We use time discretisation and regularisation techniques and derive a priori estimates based on a suitable entropy and the associated entropy production. Renormalised solutions are used in cases where non-integrable diffusion fluxes or reaction terms appear.
On the Darwin--Howie--Whelan equations for the scattering of fast electrons described by the Schrödinger equation
The Darwin-Howie-Whelan equations are commonly used to describe and simulate the scattering of fast electrons in transmission electron microscopy. They are a system of infinitely many envelope functions, derived from the Schrödinger equation. However, for the simulation of images only a finite set of envelope functions is used, leading to a system of ordinary differential equations in thickness direction of the specimen. We study the mathematical structure of this system and provide error estimates to evaluate the accuracy of special approximations, like the two-beam and the systematic-row approximation.
Coarse-graining via EDP-convergence for linear fast-slow reaction systems
We consider linear reaction systems with slow and fast reactions, which can be interpreted as master equations or Kolmogorov forward equations for Markov processes on a finite state space. We investigate their limit behavior if the fast reaction rates tend to infinity, which leads to a coarse-grained model where the fast reactions create microscopically equilibrated clusters, while the exchange mass between the clusters occurs on the slow time scale. Assuming detailed balance the reaction system can be written as a gradient flow with respect to the relative entropy. Focusing on the physically relevant cosh-type gradient structure we show how an effective limit gradient structure can be rigorously derived and that the coarse-grained equation again has a cosh-type gradient structure. We obtain the strongest version of convergence in the sense of the Energy-Dissipation Principle (EDP), namely EDP-convergence with tilting.
On the existence of global-in-time weak solutions and scaling laws for Kolmogorovs two-equation model of turbulence
This paper is concerned with Kolmogorov's two-equation model for free turbulence in space dimension 3, involving the mean velocity u, the pressure p, an average frequency omega, and a mean turbulent kinetic energy k. We first discuss scaling laws for a slightly more general two-equation models to highlight the special role of the model devised by Kolmogorov in 1942. The main part of the paper consists in proving the existence of weak solutions of Kolmogorov's two-equation model under space-periodic boundary conditions in cubes with positive side length l. To this end, we provide new a priori estimates and invoke existence result for pseudo-monotone operators.
An existence result and evolutionary [Gamma]-convergence for perturbed gradient systems
We consider the initial-value problem for the perturbed gradient flows, where a differential inclusion is formulated in terms of a subdifferential of an energy functional, a subdifferential of a dissipation potential and a more general perturbation, which is assumed to be continuous and to satisfy a suitable growth condition. Under additional assumptions on the dissipation potential and the energy functional, existence of strong solutions is shown by proving convergence of a semi-implicit discretization scheme with a variational approximation technique.
Symmetries in TEM imaging of crystals with strain
TEM images of strained crystals often exhibit symmetries, the source of which is not always clear. To understand these symmetries we distinguish between symmetries that occur from the imaging process itself and symmetries of the inclusion that might affect the image. For the imaging process we prove mathematically that the intensities are invariant under specific transformations. A combination of these invariances with specific properties of the strain profile can then explain symmetries observed in TEM images. We demonstrate our approach to the study of symmetries in TEM images using selected examples in the field of semiconductor nanostructures such as quantum wells and quantum dots.
Balanced-Viscosity solutions to infinite-dimensional multi-rate systems
We consider generalized gradient systems with rate-independent and rate-dependent dissipation potentials. We provide a general framework for performing a vanishing-viscosity limit leading to the notion of parametrized and true Balanced-Viscosity solutions that include a precise description of the jump behavior developing in this limit. Distinguishing an elastic variable $u$ having a viscous damping with relaxation time $eps^alpha$ and an internal variable $z$ with relaxation time $eps$ we obtain different limits for the three cases $alpha in (0,1)$, $alpha=1$ and $alpha>1$. An application to a delamination problem shows that the theory is general enough to treat nontrivial models in continuum mechanics.
Modeling of chemical reaction systems with detailed balance using gradient structures
We consider various modeling levels for spatially homogeneous chemical reaction systems, namely the chemical master equation, the chemical Langevin dynamics, and the reaction-rate equation. Throughout we restrict our study to the case where the microscopic system satisfies the detailed-balance condition. The latter allows us to enrich the systems with a gradient structure, i.e. the evolution is given by a gradient-flow equation. We present the arising links between the associated gradient structures that are driven by the relative entropy of the detailed-balance steady state. The limit of large volumes is studied in the sense of evolutionary Γ-convergence of gradient flows. Moreover, we use the gradient structures to derive hybrid models for coupling different modeling levels.
Traveling fronts in a reaction-diffusion equation with a memory term
Based on a recent work on traveling waves in spatially nonlocal reaction-diffusion equations, we investigate the existence of traveling fronts in reaction-diffusion equations with a memory term. We will explain how such memory terms can arise from reduction of reaction-diffusion systems if the diffusion constants of the other species can be neglected. In particular, we show that two-scale homogenization of spatially periodic systems can induce spatially homogeneous systems with temporal memory. The existence of fronts is proved using comparison principles as well as a reformulation trick involving an auxiliary speed that allows us to transform memory terms into spatially nonlocal terms. Deriving explicit bounds and monotonicity properties of the wave speed of the arising traveling front, we are able to establish the existence of true traveling fronts for the original problem with memory. Our results are supplemented by numerical simulations.
Leray--Hopf solutions to a viscoelastic fluid model with nonsmooth stress-strain relation
We consider a fluid model including viscoelastic and viscoplastic effects. The state is given by the fluid velocity and an internal stress tensor that is transported along the flow with the Zaremba--Jaumann derivative. Moreover, the stress tensor obeys a nonlinear and nonsmooth dissipation law as well as stress diffusion. We prove the existence of global-in-time weak solutions satisfying an energy inequality under general Dirichlet conditions for the velocity field and Neumann conditions for the stress tensor.