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Wednesday, May 29, 2024
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Linde Hall 187

Analysis Seminar

Mass Transfer and Global Solutions in a Micro-Scale Model of Superfluidity
Pranava Jayanti, Department of Mathematics, USC,

We investigate a micro-scale model of superfluidity derived by Pitaevskii in 1959 to describe the interacting dynamics between the superfluid and normal fluid phases of Helium-4. This system consists of the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation and the incompressible, inhomogeneous Navier-Stokes equations, coupled to each other via a bidirectional nonlinear relaxation mechanism. The coupling permits mass/momentum/energy transfer between the phases, and accounts for the conversion of superfluid into normal fluid. We prove the existence of solutions in $\mathbb{T}^d$ $(d=2,3)$ for a power-type nonlinearity, beginning from small initial data. Depending upon the strength of the nonlinear self-interactions, we obtain solutions that are global or almost-global in time. The main challenge is to control the inter-phase mass transfer in order to ensure the strict positivity of the normal fluid density, while obtaining time-independent a priori estimates. We compare two different approaches: purely energy based, versus a combination of energy estimates and maximal regularity. The results are from recent collaborations with Juhi Jang and Igor Kukavica.

For more information, please contact Math Department by phone at 626-395-4335 or by email at [email protected] or visit https://ucla.zoom.us/j/9264073849.