David Shirokoff

Flat-top oscillons in an expanding universe

Oscillons are extremely long lived, oscillatory, spatially localized field configurations that arise from generic initial conditions in a large number of nonlinear field theories. With an eye towards their cosmological implications, we investigate their properties in an expanding universe. We (1) provide an analytic solution for one-dimensional oscillons (for the models under consideration) and discuss their generalization to three dimensions, (2) discuss their stability against long wavelength perturbations, and (3) estimate the effects of expansion on their shapes and lifetimes. In particular, we discuss a new, extended class of oscillons with surprisingly flat tops. We show that these flat-topped oscillons are more robust against collapse instabilities in (3+1) dimensions than their usual counterparts. Unlike the solutions found in the small amplitude analysis, the width of these configurations is a nonmonotonic function of their amplitudes.

An efficient method for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on irregular domains with no-slip boundary conditions, high order up to the boundary

Common efficient schemes for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, such as projection or fractional step methods, have limited temporal accuracy as a result of matrix splitting errors, or introduce errors near the domain boundaries (which destroy uniform convergence to the solution). In this paper we recast the incompressible (constant density) Navier-Stokes equations (with the velocity prescribed at the boundary) as an equivalent system, for the primary variables velocity and pressure. equation for the pressure. The key difference from the usual approaches occurs at the boundaries, where we use boundary conditions that unequivocally allow the pressure to be recovered from knowledge of the velocity at any fixed time. This avoids the common difficulty of an, apparently, over-determined Poisson problem. Since in this alternative formulation the pressure can be accurately and efficiently recovered from the velocity, the recast equations are ideal for numerical marching methods. The new system can be discretized using a variety of methods, including semi-implicit treatments of viscosity, and in principle to any desired order of accuracy. In this work we illustrate the approach with a 2-D second order finite difference scheme on a Cartesian grid, and devise an algorithm to solve the equations on domains with curved (non-conforming) boundaries, including a case with a non-trivial topology (a circular obstruction inside the domain). This algorithm achieves second order accuracy in the L^~ norm, for both the velocity and the pressure. The scheme has a natural extension to 3-D.

Bouncing droplets on a billiard table.

In a set of experiments, Couder et al. demonstrate that an oscillating fluid bed may propagate a bouncing droplet through the guidance of the surface waves. I present a dynamical systems model, in the form of an iterative map, for a droplet on an oscillating bath. I examine the droplet bifurcation from bouncing to walking, and prescribe general requirements for the surface wave to support stable walking states. I show that in addition to walking, there is a region of large forcing that may support the chaotic motion of the droplet. Using the map, I then investigate the droplet trajectories in a square (billiard ball) domain. I show that in large domains, the long time trajectories are either non-periodic dense curves or approach a quasiperiodic orbit. In contrast, in small domains, at low forcing, trajectories tend to approach an array of circular attracting sets. As the forcing increases, the attracting sets break down and the droplet travels throughout space.

A Sharp-Interface Active Penalty Method for the Incompressible Navier---Stokes Equations

The volume penalty method provides a simple, efficient approach for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in domains with boundaries or in the presence of moving objects. Despite the simplicity, the method is typically limited to first order spatial accuracy. We demonstrate that one may achieve high order accuracy by introducing an active penalty term. One key difference from other works is that we use a sharp, unregularized mask function. We discuss how to construct the active penalty term, and provide numerical examples, in dimensions one and two. We demonstrate second and third order convergence for the heat equation, and second order convergence for the Navier–Stokes equations. In addition, we show that modifying the penalty term does not significantly alter the time step restriction from that of the conventional penalty method.

Phenomenological theory of superconductivity near domain walls in ferromagnets

We develop a phenomenological model of superconductivity near a domain wall in a ferromagnet. In addition to the electromagnetic interaction of the order parameter with the ferromagnetic magnetization, we take into account the possibility of a local enhancement or suppression of superconducting pairing in the vicinity of the wall, and also a non-perfect transparency of the wall to electrons. It is found that the critical temperature of superconductivity near the domain wall might be substantially higher than in the bulk.

Sufficient Conditions for Global Minimality of Metastable States in a Class of Non-convex Functionals: A Simple Approach Via Quadratic Lower Bounds

We consider mass-constrained minimizers for a class of non-convex energy functionals involving a double-well potential. Based upon global quadratic lower bounds to the energy, we introduce a simple strategy to find sufficient conditions on a given critical point (metastable state) to be a global minimizer. We show that this strategy works well for the one exact and known metastable state: the constant state. In doing so, we numerically derive an almost optimal lower bound for both the order–disorder transition curve of the Ohta–Kawasaki energy and the liquid–solid interface of the phase-field crystal energy. We discuss how this strategy extends to non-constant computed metastable states, and the resulting symmetry issues that one must overcome. We give a preliminary analysis of these symmetry issues by addressing the global optimality of a computed lamellar structure for the Ohta–Kawasaki energy in one (1D) and two (2D) space dimensions. We also consider global optimality of a non-constant state for a spatially in-homogenous perturbation of the 2D Ohta–Kawasaki energy. Finally we use one of our simple quadratic lower bounds to rigorously prove that for certain values of the Ohta–Kawasaki parameter and aspect ratio of an asymmetric torus, any global minimizer

Meshfree Finite Differences for Vector Poisson and Pressure Poisson Equations with Electric Boundary Conditions

v(x)

Unconditional stability for multistep ImEx schemes: Practice

v(x) for the 1D problem is automatically a global minimizer for the 2D problem on the asymmetric torus.