Papers

In this paper, we provide a rigorous study of the direct scattering problem proposed by Kodama, Ablowitz and Satsuma for the complete integrability theory of the Intermediate Long Wave (ILW) equation. We derive the Lax operators for ILW, and study their spectral theory. We show finiteness and simplicity of the discrete spectrum, existence and uniqueness of the Jost solutions, and construct the scattering data for the Lax operator. We also show that the Jost solutions satisfy a nonlocal Riemann-Hilbert problem whose singularity data are given by the scattering data, and that the scattering potential can be reconstructed from the Jost solutions. This work paves the way for a solution to ILW via the inverse scattering transform.

We study the fractional perimeter per period of planar sets with prescribed horizontal period and area per period. We prove that sufficiently wide strips are the unique minimizers among all measurable competitors, up to vertical translation and null sets. For period one, a half-width of at least $14$ suffices for every fractional exponent $s\in(0,1)$. The proof first replaces each vertical section by a centered interval of the same length. We then establish a quantitative lower bound for the perimeter excess in terms of the deviation of the resulting half-width profile from its mean. The main difficulty is that the perimeter of a strip is a concave function of its width. We show that, at large mean width, the interaction cost of unequal sections dominates the corresponding concavity deficit and leaves a positive remainder for every nonconstant profile. Estimates at small and large horizontal separations make the sufficient width bound independent of $s$. The argument applies to arbitrary nonnegative integrable profiles, including unbounded profiles and profiles that vanish on sets of positive measure.

We prove that, in phenotype-structured populations under uniform competition, the long-term phenotypic distribution does not depend on the proliferation rates: it is the stationary distribution of the switching dynamics alone. The density u(x,t) of cells with phenotype x evolves by advection and diffusion in phenotype space (switching) and by proliferation at a phenotype-dependent rate r(x,t), modulated by a factor g(U) common to all phenotypes, where U is the total population. This extends to continuous phenotypes a recent result for compartmental models. On a bounded interval with no-flux boundary conditions, the total population converges monotonically to the carrying capacity U*, the density converges in L1 to U*psi, where psi is the stationary density of the switching dynamics, and the nonlinear model is asymptotically equivalent to the linear one; by an explicit estimate, the imprint of fitness decays at the spectral gap of the switching dynamics. On the whole real line we prove the same convergence under two natural conditions, confinement and no escape to infinity, covering Ornstein-Uhlenbeck dynamics, multi-well landscapes, and heavy-tailed densities. If g'(U*) < 0 and psi satisfies a Poincare inequality, convergence is exponential in a weighted L2 norm, while no uniform L1 rate holds for Ornstein-Uhlenbeck dynamics. The proof follows the compartmental one: under uniform competition the reaction term has one sign, so its size is the growth rate of the total population, integrable in time, and the switching dynamics contracts the zero-mass perturbations it produces. Since it uses only the Markov semigroup generated by switching, the proof extends to general mechanisms; we apply it to nonlocal switching by jumps and to diffusions with non-gradient drift in bounded domains of R^d, whose stationary density is not of Boltzmann form and carries a circulating flux.

We study the fractional Navier-Stokes equations with cubic damping in the specific Lei-Lin-Gevrey space $\mathcal{X}^0_{a,\sigma}(\mathbb{R}^3)$ (with $a\geq0$ and $\sigma\geq1$). We establish local and small-data global well-posedness, quantitative blow-up criteria, Gevrey loss-of-radius estimates, and perturbative stability in the critical endpoint case $\gamma=\frac12$ of the usual Navier-Stokes system.

We formalise in Lean 4, on top of Mathlib, the solvability of the Dirichlet problem for second-order linear elliptic operators in divergence form. The machine-verified results, with no sorry in the development, include the Poincaré inequality, the existence of weak solutions by the Lax-Milgram theorem, Rellich-Kondrachov compactness, the Fredholm alternative, the spectral theorem, interior regularity estimates, and the Sobolev embedding theorem. From these results we obtain a formalisation of classical solvability for sufficiently regular coefficients and data. Our Lean library includes a self-contained theory of Sobolev spaces developed independently of existing formalisations. Throughout the paper we associate each prose statement with the named machine-checked Lean declaration that discharges it.

In the nonlinear source of the pressure Poisson equation the fluctuating enstrophy and strain nearly cancel. We ask where the cancellation is complete, which we call silent, and how the source escapes it. Pointwise the source depends only on the eigenvalues of the velocity gradient. Pure shear has none, so it is silent. It is the origin of the normalised invariant plane, whose second-invariant coordinate is the normalised source. Let $f$ be the shear fraction of the gradient and $m$ its distance from that origin. We prove that $m\le1-f\le3m$ at every point of every incompressible flow. Wherever the source nearly vanishes and the third invariant is small, the gradient is nearly pure shear. Otherwise the cancelling gradient is a balanced vortex, a swirl its own strain cancels at any strength. At a no-slip wall the silent object is exact: the wall shear-stress fluctuation, a rank-one sheet. Away from the wall we assume the same sheet, dressed with a small residual, and derive how it escapes. The escape passes through one element of the residual, the along-sheet variation of the sheet-normal velocity. Its amplitude is the geometric mean of sheet and residual, and its sign selects swirl or strain. A rank-two silent object has the same source through the same gates but balanced eigenvalues, so the assumption fixes the escape's topology, not its source. The shear fraction is thus a pointwise proxy for cancellation by shear, and a model of the source must be built on what escapes.

In this note, we consider the advection-diffusion equation on the $d$-dimensional torus, where $d$ is arbitrary. First, for the associated transport equation, we provide an explicit example of a space-time smooth, divergence-free, random velocity field that is a universal exponential mixer. Second, we set the molecular diffusivity to a (small) positive value, and we show that the same velocity field is dissipation enhancing with optimal rate. Our construction is based on the Random Dynamical Systems viewpoint, and relies on the uniform ergodicity of the two-point Markov process associated with the two-dimensional Pierrehumbert model.

We construct a Lipschitz, non-$C^1$ map $u\colon \mathbb{R}^2\to \mathbb{R}^6$ which is the unique global minimizer of a smooth, strongly polyconvex functional. Such an example is necessarily non-homogeneous.

We consider the quadratic NLS system \begin{equation*} \begin{cases} i\partial_tu+\Delta u=v\bar{u},\newline i\partial_tv+\kappa\Delta v=u^2, \end{cases} \qquad (t,x)\in\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R}^5, \end{equation*} where $\kappa>0$. If $\kappa=1/2$, which is called mass resonance condition, then scattering below the ground state is shown by Hamano. Moreover, when $\kappa \neq 1/2$, scattering of radial solutions is proved in Hamano–Inui–Nishimura (2021). In the present paper, we prove scattering below the ground state for $\kappa\neq1/2$ without radial symmetry. Our proof is based on the concentration compactness and rigidity method by Kenig–Merle (2006). For the rigidity argument, following Pausader (2010), we use a localized virial argument in the direction orthogonal to the momentum.

We develop entropy-stable isothermal-wall conditions for the compressible Navier–Stokes equations at continuous and semi-discrete levels. For a stationary, impermeable, no-slip wall at constant positive temperature, adding total-energy density divided by wall temperature to the canonical convex entropy cancels the wall contribution without suppressing heat transfer. This affine modification preserves the entropy Hessian, relative entropy, and volume entropy production. It is proportional to total ballistic-energy density and yields a conditional $L_2$-type bound based on the initial field under the stated assumptions. Two wall formulations use a common discontinuous Galerkin discretization with the summation-by-parts property and simultaneous approximation terms. Both give zero adapted wall contribution without a penalty and a nonpositive contribution with it. The complete-residual formulation penalizes the full wall-data residual and balances fluid energy through its complete numerical wall flux. The Fourier-energy-exact formulation combines an entropy-neutral skew correction with a momentum-projected penalty so that the complete numerical outward energy flux equals the one-sided numerical Fourier heat flux at every wall node and spatial resolution. Pointwise tests verify the local identities. Manufactured-solution studies with entropy-stable interior coupling demonstrate convergence rates consistent with order $p_s+1$ in the discrete $L_2$ norm, where $p_s$ is the solution polynomial degree. Thermal-relaxation calculations verify the semi-discrete energy and adapted-entropy balances. Three-dimensional calculations demonstrate balance closure in a closed domain, convergence of curved-wall traces, and applicability to a complex supersonic separated flow.

We justify the vortex-wave system introduced by Marchioro and Pulvirenti in the 1990s as the vanishing-viscosity limit of the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations on every prescribed finite time interval. The initial vorticity consists of a point vortex and a smooth, compactly supported background that vanishes near the vortex. The regular component converges strongly to the background vorticity governed by the vortex-wave system, while the concentrated component is approximated by a Lamb-Oseen vortex centered on the limiting point-vortex trajectory. We obtain quantitative estimates for both components, with constants and a viscosity threshold depending on the chosen time interval, thereby providing a global-in-time justification of the vortex-wave system for this class of initial data.

We investigate the scattering of elastic waves by anisotropic inhomogeneous media at a fixed wave number. We prove that, in two dimensions, every penetrable obstacle with piecewise $C^{1}$ boundary and corner singularities, and, in higher dimensions, every obstacle with edge singularities, scatters every incident wave satisfying suitable assumptions. This work extends our previous result [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 2026, doi:10.1016/j.jmaa.2026.130630] from scalar equations to systems of equations, a generalization that requires a more delicate blowup analysis and more involved computations. Roughly speaking, our results establish the principle that corners always scatter for general anisotropic media with variable coefficients.

A wet foam is a cluster of air chambers whose interfaces are coated by a single liquid chamber of prescribed volume. In the corresponding isoperimetric problem the liquid chamber may collapse onto films of zero thickness, so that minimizers need not exist. We identify the relaxed energy accounting for such collapsed films and prove that limits of minimizing sequences are its minimizers. The resulting compactness and energy representation theorems lead to the regularity of these generalized minimizers, including an equilibrium law for the pressures across collapsed films. Finally, as the liquid volume vanishes, the minimal energies converge to those of the classical dry foam.

We develop an intermediate-derivative theory for Banach-valued evolution classes with Morrey control in time. Let $E_0\hookrightarrow E$ be Banach spaces, $m\ge2$, $1<p<\infty$, and $0\le\lambda<1$. If $u\in\mathcal M^{p,\lambda}(E_0)$ and $u^{(m)}\in\mathcal M^{p,\lambda}(E)$, then every intermediate derivative satisfies \[ u^{(j)}\in\mathcal M^{p,\lambda}\bigl((E_0,E)_{j/m,\infty}\bigr),\qquad 0<j<m, \] with no UMD, Fourier type, or operator-valued multiplier assumption. The proof is based on an exact rational-frequency splitting of $D^j$, the Peetre $K$-functional, and the Hardy–Littlewood maximal operator on Morrey spaces. On the line the estimate has the scale-sharp multiplicative form. On finite intervals we construct a graph-Morrey extension and obtain the same embedding. The weak fine index is optimal for arbitrary Banach couples. Combining the derivative theorem with the exact Morrey trace theorem yields an exact onto trace formula for every $u^{(j)}$, together with mixed Hölder/interpolation embeddings and a trace-powered $p$-to-$q$ Morrey gain. If $E_0\hookc E$, these embeddings become compact both in the same Morrey norm after an arbitrarily small loss of interpolation smoothness and in time-Hölder spaces above the derivative-trace threshold. For positive selfadjoint Hilbert scales we further improve the weak interpolation target to the fractional domain $D(B^{1-j/m})$ and show that this exponent is sharp.

We prove sharp lower bounds for the Schrödinger maximal function on the torus T^d for all dimensions d at least 2, and as a corollary obtain sharp regularity conditions for pointwise convergence of the periodic Schrödinger equation. Combined with sufficiency results established by Compaan-Lucá-Staffilani, this yields a full resolution of Carleson's problem up to endpoint for the periodic Schrödinger equation in all dimensions at least 2, and disproves the conjectured regularity condition of Miao-Yuan-Zhao, in contrast to the corresponding question in R^d. We also prove sharp estimates on the dimensions of divergence sets for the equation for high dimensional tori. Our approach uses complex multiplication on abelian varieties.

This work studies the expansion of the level sets of the solutions of a Fisher-KPP type reaction- diffusion equation, the diffusion being given by a nonnegative, compactly supported, even kernel. Because the latter is not assumed to be spherically symmetric, the level sets advance at an asymptotic speed given by a Freidlin-Gärtner type formula. The main contribution of this paper is to push the expansion up to terms that vanish as time goes to infinity, consisting in an asymptotically logarithmic delay corrected by an function that is constant in time, but depends on the direction of propagation.

We prove that, in every closed Riemannian three-manifold $(M^3,\bar g)$, there exists a constant $C>0$ such that every closed smoothly embedded minimal surface $\Sigma\subset M$ satisfies $b_1(\Sigma;\mathbb{Z}_2)\le C\bigl(\operatorname{Ind}(\Sigma)+\operatorname{Area}(\Sigma)\bigr)$. The estimate holds without orientability or two-sidedness assumptions and establishes the additive genus-index-area estimate conjectured by Song. For closed connected orientable two-sided minimal immersions, we also obtain explicit genus bounds under a lower bound on the ambient sectional curvature. Under positive ambient Ricci curvature, we prove the universal inequality $\gamma(\Sigma)\le 8\operatorname{Ind}(\Sigma)$.

We show that, on the Fourier side, the sharp second order Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (HUP) and its sharp stability for functions are nothing but the first order $L^{2}$-Caffarelli–Kohn–Nirenberg inequality and its sharp stability, applied to their Fourier transforms. This gives a proof in a few lines of the sharp stability estimate that we established recently by a much longer argument. The same observation then produces two one-parameter families of sharp fractional Heisenberg Uncertainty Principles, in which the gradient is replaced by a fractional power of the Laplacian: for each of them we compute the sharp constants, characterize all the optimizers, and establish the sharp stability estimates. The stability constant of the first family is equal to $1$ for every nonnegative order and every dimension. Negative orders, where the fractional Laplacian becomes a Riesz potential, are treated as well. Finally, we show that the deficit carries much more information than the distance to the optimizers alone: it controls an explicit chain of successive remainder terms whose constants are the successive spectral gaps of an explicit operator. For the classical Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle this gives three remainder terms with optimal explicit constants, and for the second order HUP a chain of four remainder terms measured against explicit confluent hypergeometric profiles and coupled through one single set of parameters. As applications, we also establish the chain of stability of the HUP for curl-free vector fields.

We consider a McKean-Vlasov equation incorporating spatial fast oscillatory behavior into both the energetic and kinematic components of the model. The former is given in terms of a confining potential while the latter by an underlying metric. The equation is formulated as a gradient flow in the space of probability measures endowed with a Wasserstein metric. We identify the limiting dynamics which is also described as a gradient flow in an effective media. We further prove the long time exponential convergence of solutions to the invariant measure. The rate of convergence is expressed in terms of a Logarithmic Sobolev constant which is uniform in terms of the oscillatory length scale. Our approach is based on variational and functional inequalities. The homogenization result of the current paper extends the authors' previous work [GaoYip] on a linear Fokker-Planck equation to a nonlinear and nonlocal setting.

We study the nodal structure of Neumann eigenfunctions on planar dumbbell domains as the width of the neck joining two fixed end domains tends to zero. Under simplicity and non-degeneracy assumptions, we show that sufficiently thin necks force an increasing number of nodal domains as the limiting eigenvalue grows. At the bottom of the spectrum this forcing can attain Courant's upper bound: in particular, the third Neumann eigenfunction has exactly three nodal domains and is Courant sharp. At the same time, nodal deficiency of an eigenfunction on an end domain can persist on the full dumbbell, giving eigenfunctions that are not Courant sharp. The main analytic difficulty is that the singular limit may vanish on one or both end domains even though these regions contribute nodal domains for every positive neck width. We overcome this by deriving refined asymptotics for the first nonzero profiles on the vanishing regions, expressed through Neumann Green's functions with poles at the neck attachment points and obtained by a two-dimensional matched asymptotic analysis with logarithmic terms.

We develop a general construction of homogeneous solutions to the Bernoulli free boundary problem, as well as general extremal domains on the sphere, from isoparametric foliations of the sphere. Our construction produces rich families of infinitely many new examples with sophisticated topologies connected to minimal surfaces of the sphere by smooth families of interpolating capillary surfaces, which include novel singularity models in low dimensions and recover most known homogeneous one-phase solutions. We also introduce a geometric representation for every such homogeneous map and establish a geometric rigidity theorem: for every prescribed isoparametric foliation, and in particular for cohomogeneity-one subgroups of $O(n)$, its radial geometry uniquely determines the corresponding homogeneous solution. Finally, we study the density of the constructed solutions and conjecture that the lowest density among non-flat cones in a given dimension $n \geq 5$ is attained by an $O(k) \times O(n-k)$-invariant cone.

For a convex mean curvature flow in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, the corresponding arrival time function solves a degenerate elliptic equation that becomes singular at extinction. We prove that it is $C^{24,\alpha}$ for any $0<\alpha<1$ in the plane, with a logarithmic modulus for its twenty-fourth derivatives. We prove that this bound is sharp combining regularity obstruction in our companion paper. We obtain asymptotic expansions of the rescaled flow to any prescribed order, including derivative estimates for the remainder. Combined with the work of Sesum for $n\ge 2$, this also gives the sharp $C^{2,2/n}$ regularity for convex arrival time functions in higher dimensions.

We study the regularity of the arrival time function associated with mean curvature flow, formulated as a degenerate elliptic equation encoding the singular structure of the flow. We identify a systematic mechanism obstructing higher regularity, arising from higher-order asymptotic expansions near spherical singularities. We construct uncountably many low-regularity arrival time functions in all dimensions. In particular, we settle the question of smoothness in the planar case by showing that even for convex curve shortening flow the arrival time need not be $C^{25}$. Our companion paper proves that every such arrival time is $C^{24,\alpha}$ for any $0<\alpha<1$. Hence the obstruction at order $25$ gives the optimal regularity threshold. Our approach introduces new analytic ingredients, including a precise correspondence between elliptic asymptotic expansions and parabolic long-time asymptotics of the associated rescaled mean curvature flow, a complexification of the arrival time equation, and a method for prescribing higher-order asymptotic expansions.

In 2018, V. Maz'ya proposed 75 open problems in analysis and PDEs. One of them is about the best constant for the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle for solenoidal vector fields motivated by questions in hydrodynamics. This was answered by Cazacu, Flynn and Lam in dimension two and subsequently by Hamamoto in all dimensions $N\ge3$ by establishing sharp inequalities with explicit constants. Nevertheless, the much harder stability problem remains open in all dimensions. The first main result in this paper is to establish a sharp stability hierarchy by proving that its deficit controls the distance to the set of extremals, with the sharp stability constant $\frac12(N-\sqrt{N^2-4N+12})$ for $N\ge4$ and $1$ for $N=3$, together with chains of remainder terms measuring the distance to explicit larger families of poloidal and toroidal fields. The second main result is the second order $L^2$-Caffarelli–Kohn–Nirenberg inequality with the weights $|x|^{-2a}$ and $|x|^{-2b}$ on the line $1+a+b=0$, for which we obtain the stability constant $\frac12\min\{4(1+a),\sqrt{(N+2a)^2+4N-4}-(N+2a)\}$. This CKN inequality is sharp whenever the second number is the smaller one. We develop a novel method: the fourth order one-dimensional problems attached to the spherical modes are transformed, by a Fourier–Hankel transform of real order, into first order inequalities whose sharp stability is that of weighted Gaussian Poincaré inequalities. The inverse transform produces the extremals in terms of Kummer's function. As a byproduct of our new approach, we also obtain substantially simpler proofs, with sharp remainder terms and equality cases, of Hamamoto's one-dimensional inequality and of his sharp uncertainty principle for solenoidal fields.

We investigate the long-time behavior of small solutions to the one-dimensional Hartree equation with the soft Coulomb interaction. The Hartree equation arises as an effective mean-field model for the evolution of many-body quantum systems, while the soft Coulomb potential provides a regularized one-dimensional approximation of the Coulomb interaction that removes the singularity at the origin while preserving its long-range character. Owing to the slow spatial decay of the interaction kernel, the equation exhibits long-range nonlinear effects. We prove global existence and modified scattering for sufficiently small, exponentially localized initial data. A notable feature is that, in contrast to the logarithmic phase correction arising in the well-known three-dimensional Coulomb Hartree equation, the one-dimensional soft Coulomb interaction produces a leading phase correction of order $(\log t)^2$, followed by a lower-order logarithmic correction. The proof is carried out in analytic function spaces. The exponential localization of the initial data is converted into analyticity of the transformed profile, and a method based on a generator function with a time-dependent radius of analyticity is used to compensate for the derivative loss arising from the nonlinear phase equation.

This paper investigates the periodic homogenization of a two-phase elasto-plastic material in the framework of $\Gamma$-convergence. It establishes the link between the homogenized functional and that which was previously obtained in [12] in the context of two-scale convergence. Although there is no gap between the two formulations and that involving two-scale has the hallmark of a (two-scale) elasto-plastic problem, we are unable to positively ascertain the elasto-plastic character of the homogenized energy except in a one-dimensional setting.

In this paper, we apply Nash-Moser iteration and Saloff-Coste's Sobolev inequalities to derive gradient estimates for positive solutions to a class of nonlinear parabolic equations of the form \begin{equation*} u_{t}=\Delta u^{m}+a(x, t)u\log u+b(x, t)u, \quad 1-\frac{2}{n}<m<1 \quad \text{or}\quad 1<m<1+\frac{1}{1+\sqrt{2n}}, \end{equation*} on a complete Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ of dimension $n$, where $a(x, t)$, $b(x, t)$ are $C^{1}$ functions. For $a=b=0$, this equation becomes the porous medium equation (PME) or the fast diffusion equation (FDE) when $m>1$ or $m<1$, respectively. As consequences, we obtain Liouville type theorems for the corresponding constant coefficient equations when \begin{equation*} 1-\frac{1}{\sqrt{n-1}}<m<1\quad \text{and}\quad 1<m<1+\frac{1}{\sqrt{n-1}}. \end{equation*}

We establish local Hamilton-type gradient estimates for positive $C^{2,1}$ solutions of $u_t=\Delta u^m$ on complete Riemannian manifolds whose Ricci curvature is bounded from below. For every fixed $m>1$ and every fixed $0<m<1$, there exist $\beta=\beta(m,n)>0$ and $C=C(m,n)>0$ such that a solution $0<u\leqslant A$ in $B_{2R}(x_0)\times(t_0-T,t_0]$ satisfies the following local gradient estimate \begin{equation*} \sup_{B_R(x_0)\times(t_0-T/2,t_0]}|\nabla u^\beta| \leqslant C A^\beta \left(\frac1R+\sqrt{k}+\frac{A^{(1-m)/2}}{\sqrt T}\right), \end{equation*} where $\mathrm{Ric}_M\geqslant-k$. The proof uses an intrinsic quantitative alternative to locate, around each prescribed positive point, a cylinder on which the solution has a controlled upper-to-lower ratio. A local gradient estimate on this cylinder is combined with a stopping argument. As a consequence, every uniformly bounded positive ancient solution on a connected complete manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature is constant.

We study a fully discrete approximation theory for the two-dimensional incompressible Euler equations on $\mathbb{T}^{2}$, in vorticity form, driven by Kraichnan-type transport noise and with $\mathbb{H}^{-1}(\mathbb{T}^2)$-valued initial vorticity. The main new ingredient is a finite-dimensional coercivity estimate for the torus Kraichnan model, which captures at the discrete level the regularizing mechanism induced by the rough transport noise. Together with a new compactness strategy based on continuous equation-based interpolants and localized discrete estimates, this coercivity estimate gives tightness of the approximations and shows that subsequential limit is a weak martingale solution of the Euler equations.

We study the Wasserstein lift of nonlinear Poisson systems with inhomogeneous Neumann boundary conditions. We establish the existence of minimizers using new estimates involving the $p$-moments of measure-valued traces. We also derive the optimality conditions, which turn out to be matrix-valued generalizations of pressureless Euler equations. While deterministic minimizers exist under suitable convexity assumptions and for one-dimensional source domains, we show that genuinely measure-valued minimizers arise in higher dimensions. In particular, we construct examples in which the lifted and classical variational problems have different minimum values, thereby precluding the solutions to the lifted problem from being deterministic, despite the absence of any a priori mechanism enforcing measure-valued behavior. To the best of our knowledge, this phenomenon is new in the nonlinear elliptic theory.