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Contributions in fractional diffusive limit and wave turbulence in kinetic theory


Type

Thesis

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Authors

Merino Aceituno, Sara  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2114-9210

Abstract

This thesis is split in two different topics. Firstly, we study anomalous transport from kinetic models. Secondly, we consider the equations coming from weak wave turbulence theory and we study them via mean-field limits of finite stochastic particle systems. Anomalous transport from kinetic models. The goal is to understand how fractional diffusion arises from kinetic equations. We explain how fractional diffusion corresponds to anomalous transport and its relation to the classical diffusion equation. In previous works it has been seen that particles systems undergoing free transport and scattering with the media can give rise to fractional phenomena in two cases: firstly, if in the dynamics of the particles there is a heavy-tail equilibrium distribution; and secondly, if the scattering rate is degenerate for small velocities. We use these known results in the literature to study the emergence of fractional phenomena for some particular kinetic equations. Firstly, we study BGK-type equations conserving not only mass (as in previous results), but also momentum and energy. In the hydrodynamic limit we obtain a fractional diffusion equation for the temperature and density making use of the Boussinesq relation and we also demonstrate that with the same rescaling fractional diffusion cannot be derived additionally for the momentum. But considering the case of conservation of mass and momentum only, we do obtain the incompressible Stokes equation with fractional diffusion in the hydrodynamic limit for heavy-tailed equilibria. Secondly, we will study diffusion phenomena arising from transport of energy in an anharmonic chain. More precisely, we will consider the so-called FPU-β chain, which is a very simple model for a one-dimensional crystal in which atoms are coupled to their nearest neighbours by a harmonic potential, weakly perturbed by a nonlinear quartic potential. The starting point of our mathematical analysis is a kinetic equation; lattice vibrations, responsible for heat transport, are modelled by an interacting gas of phonons whose evolution is described by the Boltzmann Phonon Equation. Our main result is the derivation of an anomalous diffusion equation for the temperature. Weak wave turbulence theory and mean-field limits for stochastic particle systems. The isotropic 4-wave kinetic equation is considered in its weak formulation using model homogeneous kernels. Existence and uniqueness of solutions is proven in a particular setting. We also consider finite stochastic particle systems undergoing instantaneous coagulation-fragmentation phenomena and give conditions in which this system approximates the solution of the equation (mean-field limit).

Description

This electronic copy of the thesis differs slightly from the printed copy held in Cambridge University Library, due to minor changes made to the Introduction (at the recommendation of the author's supervisor) following submission.

Date

Advisors

Mouhot, Clément
Norris, James

Keywords

Research Subject Categories::MATHEMATICS, anomalous transport, kinetic models, turbulence, mean-field limits, stochastic particle systems, fractional diffusion

Qualification

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Awarding Institution

University of Cambridge