We give an elementary proof of the convergence of the point vortex method (PVM) to a classical weak solution for the two-dimensional incompressible Euler equations with initial vorticity being a finite Radon measure of distinguished sign and the initial velocity of locally bounded energy. This includes the important example of vortex sheets, which exhibits the classical Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. A surprise fact is that although the velocity fields generated by the point vortex method do not have bounded local kinetic energy, the limiting velocity field is shown to have a bounded local kinetic energy.

We study the front dynamics of the bistable reaction-diffusion equations with periodic diffusion and/or convection coefficients in several space dimensions. When traveling wave solutions exist, the solutions of the initial value problem behave as wave fronts propagating with the effective speeds of traveling waves under various initial conditions. Yet due to the bistable nature of the nonlinearity, traveling waves may not always exist when the medium variations from the mean states are large enough. Their existence is closely related to the detailed forms of diffusion and convection coefficients, more so in multidimension than in one. We present a simple sufficient condition for the nonexistence of traveling waves (quenching) using perturbation method. Our two dimensional finite difference numerical computations show a variety of front behaviors, such as: the propagation, quenching and retreat of fronts. We found

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In the paper, we study the Prandtl system with initial data admitting non-degenerate critical points. For any index \sigma\in [3/2, 2], we obtain the local in time well-posedness in the space of Gevrey class \sigma\in [3/2, 2], in the tangential variable and Sobolev class in the normal variable so that the monotonicity condition on the tangential velocity is not needed to overcome the loss of tangential derivative. This answers the open question raised in the paper of D. Grard-Varet and N. Masmoudi [{\it Ann. Sci. c. Norm. Supr}.(4) 48 (2015), no. 6, 1273-1325], in which the case \sigma\in [3/2, 2], is solved.

The purpose of this research monograph is to survey some recent developments in the analysis of shock reflection-diffraction, to present our original mathematical proofs of von Neumann’s conjectures for potential flow, to collect most of the related results and new techniques in the analysis of partial differential equations achieved in the last decades, and to discuss a set of fundamental open problems relevant to the directions of future research in this and related areas.