A novel discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is developed to solve timedependent bi-harmonic type equations involving fourth derivatives in one and multiple space dimensions. We present the spatial DG discretization based on a mixed formulation and central interface numerical fluxes so that the resulting semi-discrete schemes are L^2 stable even without interior penalty. For time discretization, we use Crank–Nicolson so that the resulting scheme is unconditionally stable and second order in time. We present the optimal L^2 error estimate of O(h^{k+1}) for polynomials of degree k for semi-discrete DG schemes, and the L2 error of O(h^{k+1} + (\Delta t)^2) for fully discrete DG schemes. Extensions to more general fourth order partial differential equations and cases with non-homogeneous boundary conditions are provided. Numerical results are presented to verify the stability and accuracy of the schemes. Finally, an application to the one-dimensional Swift–Hohenberg equation endowed with a decay free energy is presented.

In this paper, we establish the existence theory for general system of hyperbolic conservation laws and obtain the uniform <i>L</i> _<i>1</i> boundness for the solutions. The existence theory generalizes the classical Glimm theory for systems, for which each characteristic field is either genuinely nonlinear or linearly degenerate in the sense of Lax. We construct the solutions by the Glimm scheme through the wave tracing method. One of the key elements is a new way of measuring the potential interaction of the waves of the same characteristic family involving the angle between waves. A new analysis is introduced to verify the consistency of the wave tracing procedure. The entropy functional is used to study the <i>L</i> _<i>1</i> boundedness.

Abstract The bipolar Navier-Stokes-Poisson system (BNSP) has been used to simulate the transport of charged particles (ions and electrons for instance) under the influence of electrostatic force governed by the self-consistent Poisson equation. The optimal L 2 time convergence rate for the global classical solution is obtained for a small initial perturbation of the constant equilibrium state. It is shown that due to the electric field, the difference of the charge densities tend to the equilibrium states at the optimal rate (1+ t)-3 4 in L 2-norm, while the individual momentum of the charged particles converges at the optimal rate (1+ t)-1 4 which is slower than the rate (1+ t)-3 4 for the compressible Navier-Stokes equations (NS). In addition, a new phenomenon on the charge transport is observed regarding the interplay between the two carriers that almost counteracts the influence of the electric field so that the total density and

We investigate the long-time dynamics of an opinion formation model inspired by a work by Borghesi, Bouchaud and Jensen. First, we derive a Fokker–Planck-type equation under the assumption that interactions between individuals produce little consensus of opinion (grazing collision approximation). Second, we study conditions under which the Fokker–Planck equation has non-trivial equilibria and derive the macroscopic limit (corresponding to the long-time dynamics and spatially localized interactions) for the evolution of the mean opinion. Finally, we compare two different types of interaction rates: the original one given in the work of Borghesi, Bouchaud and Jensen (symmetric binary interactions) and one inspired from works by Motsch and Tadmor (non-symmetric binary interactions). We show that the first case leads to a conservative model for the density of the mean opinion whereas the second case leads to a non-conservative equation. We also show that the speed at which consensus is reached asymptotically for these two rates has fairly different density dependence.

The hydrodynamic limit for the Boltzmann equation is studied in the case when the limit system, that is, the system of Euler equations contains contact discontinuities. When suitable initial data is chosen to avoid the initial layer, we prove that there exist a family of solutions to the Boltzmann equation globally in time for small Knudsen number. And this family of solutions converge to the local Maxwellian defined by the contact discontinuity of the Euler equations uniformly away from the discontinuity as the Knudsen number <i></i> tends to zero. The proof is obtained by an appropriately chosen scaling and the energy method through the micro-macro decomposition.