It is a classical result of Sobolev spaces that any $H^1$ function has a well-defined $H^{1/2}$ trace on the boundary of a sufficient regular domain. We discuss its recent extensions given in \cite{TiDu16} in some heterogeneously localized nonlocal function spaces. The new trace theorems are stronger and more general than the classical result. They can be established essentially for all functions having only square integrability away from the boundary or in any compact subset of interior domain. Yet, the heterogeneous localization offers the necessary regularity precisely at the boundary to have well-defined traces. A consequence is that we may study associated Dirichlet type boundary value problems, as well as the coupling of local and nonlocal equations through co-dimension-1 interfaces. %Their derivations not only involve various extensions of classical inequalities but also %require new techniques absent from traditional approaches.

In this paper, we apply the local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method to 2D Keller--Segel (KS) chemotaxis model. We improve the results upon (Y. Epshteyn and A. Kurganov, SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, 47 (2008), 368-408) and give optimal rate of convergence under special finite element spaces before the blow-up occurs (the exact solutions are smooth). Moreover, to construct physically relevant numerical approximations, we consider $P^1$ LDG scheme and develop a positivity-preserving limiter to the scheme, extending the idea in (Y. Zhang, X. Zhang and C.-W. Shu, Journal of Computational Physics, 229 (2010), 8918-8934). With this limiter, we can prove the $L^1$-stability of the numerical scheme. Numerical experiments are performed to demonstrate the good performance of the positivity-preserving LDG scheme. Moreover, it is known that the chemotaxis model will yield blow-up solutions under certain initial conditions. We numerically demonstrate how to find the approximate blow-up time by using the $L^2$-norm of the $L^1$-stable numerical solution.

We consider an elliptic pseudo-differential equation with a highly oscillating linear potential modeled as a stationary ergodic random field. The random field is a function composed with a centered long-range correlated Gaussian process. In the limiting of vanishing correlation length, the heterogeneous solution converges to a deterministic solution obtained by averaging the random potential. We characterize the deterministic and stochastic correctors. With proper rescaling, the mean-zero stochastic corrector converges to a Gaussian random process in probability and weakly in the spatial variables. In addition, for two prototype equations involving the Laplacian and the fractional Laplacian operators, we prove that the limit holds in distribution in some Hilbert spaces. We also determine the size of the deterministic corrector when it is larger than the stochastic corrector. Depending on the correlation structure of the random field and on the singularities of the Green’s function, we show that either the deterministic or the random part of the corrector dominates.

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The influences of non-Oberbeck-Boussinesq (NOB) effects on flow instabilities and bifurcation characteristics of Rayleigh-Benard convection are examined. The working fluid is air with reference Prandtl number Pr = 0.71 and contained in two-dimensional rigid cavities of finite aspect ratios. The fluid flow is governed by the low-Mach-number equations, accounting for the NOB effects due to large temperature difference involving flow compressibility and variations of fluid viscosity and thermal conductivity with temperature. The intensity of NOB effects is measured by the dimensionless temperature differential epsilon. Linear stability analysis of the thermal conduction state is performed. An epsilon(2) scaling of the leading-order corrections of critical Rayleigh number Ra-cr and disturbance growth rate sigma due to NOB effects is identified, which is a consequence of an intrinsic symmetry of the system. The influences of weak NOB effects on flow instabilities are further studied by perturbation expansion of linear stability equations with regard to epsilon, and then the influence of aspect ratio A is investigated in detail. NOB effects are found to enhance (weaken) flow stability in large (narrow) cavities. Detailed contributions of compressibility, viscosity and buoyancy actions on disturbance kinetic energy growth are identified quantitatively by energy analysis. Besides, a weakly nonlinear theory is developed based on centre-manifold reduction to investigate the NOB influences on bifurcation characteristics near convection onset, and amplitude equations are constructed for both codimension-one and -two cases. Rich bifurcation regimes are observed based on amplitude equations and also confirmed by direct numerical simulation. Weakly nonlinear analysis is useful for organizing and understanding these simulation results.