We propose a conservation-dissipation formalism (CDF) for coarse-grained descriptions of irreversible processes. This formalism is based on a stability criterion for non-equilibrium thermodynamics. The criterion ensures that non-equilibrium states tend to equilibrium in long time. As a systematic methodology, CDF provides a feasible procedure in choosing non-equilibrium state variables and determining their evolution equations. The equations derived in CDF have a unified elegant form. They are globally hyperbolic, allow a convenient definition of weak solutions, and are amenable to existing numerics. More importantly, CDF is a genuinely nonlinear formalism and works for systems far away from equilibrium. With this formalism, we formulate novel thermodynamics theories for heat conduction in rigid bodies and non-isothermal compressible Maxwell fluid flows as two typical examples. In these examples, the non-equilibrium variables are exactly the conjugate variables of the heat fluxes or stress tensors. The new theory generalizes Cattaneo’s law or Maxwell’s law in a regularized and nonlinear fashion.

In this article, we propose a novel approach to construct macroscopic balance equations and constitutive equations describing various irreversible phenomena. It is based on the general principles of non-equilibrium thermodynamics and consists of four basic steps: picking suitable state variables, choosing a strictly concave entropy function, properly separating entropy fuxes and production rates, and determining a dissipation matrix. Our approach takes advantage of both extended irreversible thermodynamics and GENERIC formalisms and shows a direct correspondence with Levermore’s moment-closure hierarchies for the Boltzmann equation. As a direct application, a new ten-moment model beyond the classical hierarchies is constructed and is shown to recover the Euler equations in the equilibrium state. These interesting results may put various macroscopic modeling approaches, starting from the general principles of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, on a solid microscopic foundation based on the Boltzmann equation.

We investigate the fractional Schrödinger equation with a periodic PT-symmetric potential. In the inverse space, the problem transfers into a first-order nonlocal frequency-delay partial differential equation. We show that at a critical point, the band structure becomes linear and symmetric in the one-dimensional case, which results in a nondiffracting propagation and conical diffraction of input beams. If only one channel in the periodic potential is excited, adjacent channels become uniformly excited along the propagation direction, which can be used to generate laser beams of high power and narrow width. In the two-dimensional case, there appears conical diffraction that depends on the competition between the fractional Laplacian operator and the PT-symmetric potential. This investigation may find applications in novel on-chip optical devices.

In this paper we study the zero-viscosity limit of 2-D Boussinesq equations with vertical viscosity and zero diffusivity, which is a nonlinear system with partial dissipation arising in atmospheric sciences and oceanic circulation. The domain is taken as R2+ with Navier-type boundary. We prove the nonlinear stability of the approximate solution constructed by boundary layer expansion in conormal Sobolev space. The optimal expansion order and convergence rates for the inviscid limit are also identified in this paper. Our paper extends the partial zero-dissipation limit results of Boussinesq system with full dissipation by Chae D. [Adv.Math.203,no.2,2006] in the whole space to the case with partial dissipation and Navier boundary in the half plane.

We prove the nonlinear asymptotic stability of the gravitational hydrostatic equilibrium for the general equation of state of pressure-density relation in the framework of vacuum free boundary problem of spherically symmetric compressible Navier-Stokes-Poisson equations in three dimensions.The results apply to white dwarfs and polytropes with γ≥2, for which even the linearized asymptotic stability results are not available in literature, to the best of the authors' knowledge. Detailed decay rates of perturbations are given.