Spring 2026
Wednesdays, 3:00pm – 4:00pm, Krieger 306
Title: Stability for relativistic fluids on slowly expanding cosmological spacetimes
Abstract: On a background Minkowski spacetime, the Euler equations (both relativistic and not) are known to admit unstable homogeneous solutions with finite-time shock formation. Such shock formation can be suppressed on cosmological spacetimes whose spatial slices expand at an accelerated rate. However situations with decelerated expansion, which are relevant in our early universe, are not as well understood. I will present some recent joint work in this direction, based on collaborations with David Fajman, Maciej Maliborski, Todd Oliynyk and Max Ofner.
Title: Singularity Formation in the Incompressible Porous Medium Equation without Boundary Mass
Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss recent work on the problem of singularity formation in the incompressible porous medium (IPM) equation. We construct Lipschitz continuous solutions of the IPM equation which vanish on the boundary of the domain and blow-up in finite time. At the blow-up point, the flow is hyperbolic with points approaching the boundary from the interior and escaping tangent to the boundary.
Title: EDGE STATES IN PERIODIC AND APERIODIC STRUCTURES
Abstract: Edge states are solutions of energy conserving and dispersive wave equations which are bounded and oscillatory (plane-wave like) in the direction of a line defect, and localized transverse to it. We discuss edge states in systems with honeycomb symmetry, which arise in two dimensional quantum materials such as graphene and their metamaterial analogues. We first consider the case of a “rational edge”, a line defect (domain wall or sharp termination) in the direction of a period lattice vector. We then discuss very recent work with P. Amenoagbadji on edge states which localize transverse to an irrational edge.
Title: Linear stability of Kerr spacetimes
Abstract: I will explain a result obtained in collaboration with P. Hintz and A.
Vasy on the linear stability of rotating Kerr black holes as solutions
of the Einstein vacuum equations: linearized perturbations of a Kerr
metric decay at an inverse polynomial rate to a linearized Kerr metric
plus a pure gauge term. Our proof rests on a robust general framework,
based on recent advances in microlocal analysis and non-elliptic
Fredholm theory. It also uses results obtained in joint work with Lars
Andersson and Bernard Whiting on mode solutions of the linearizedEinstein
equations on the Kerr metric.
Title: Solving the constraint equation for general free data
Abstract: We revisit the problem of solving the Einstein constraint equations in vacuum by a new method, which allows us to prescribe four scalar quantities, representing the full dynamical degrees of freedom of the constraint system. We show that once appropriate gauge conditions have been chosen and four scalars freely specified (modulo $\ell\leq 1$ modes), we can rewrite the constraint equations as a well-posed system of coupled transport and elliptic equations on two-spheres, which we solve by an iteration procedure. Our method provides a large class of exterior solutions of the constraint equations that can be matched to given interior solutions, according to the existing gluing techniques. This is joint work with Sergiu Klainerman.
Title: Instabilities of Stokes waves
Abstract: Stokes waves are periodic traveling wave solutions to the water wave problem. They were first constructed formally by Stokes in 1847. Since the 1960s, the stability of Stokes waves has been investigated extensively from formal-analytical and computational perspectives. We will discuss recent rigorous proofs of various types of instabilities of Stokes waves.
Fall 2025
Wednesdays, 3:00pm – 4:00pm, Krieger 180
Title: Self-similar singularities in fluids and related equations
Abstract: In this talk, we will present recent developments in constructing self-similar singularities in the compressible Euler equations and the nonlinear wave equation, associated with implosion. Our approach combines ODE techniques, weighted energy estimates, compact perturbation methods, and soft functional analysis arguments.
Title: Zero viscosity limit of 1D viscous conservation laws at the point of first shock formation.
Abstract: Despite the small scales involved, the compressible Euler equations seem to be a good model even in the presence of shocks. Introducing viscosity is one way to resolve some of these small-scale effects. In this talk, we examine the vanishing viscosity limit near the formation of a generic shock in one spatial dimension for a class of viscous conservation laws which includes compressible Navier Stokes. We provide an asymptotic expansion in viscosity of the viscous solution via the help of matching approximate solutions constructed in regions where the viscosity is perturbative and where it is dominant. Furthermore, we recover the inviscid (singular) solution in the limit, and we uncover universal structure in the viscous correctors. This is joint work with John Anderson and Cole Graham.
Title: Soliton dynamics for classical scalar fields
Abstract: I will present some of my recent work with Jacek Jendrej. We study classical scalar fields in dimension 1+1 with a symmetric double-well self-interaction potential. Examples of such equations are the phi-4 model and the sine-Gordon equation. These nonlinear wave equations admit non-trivial static solutions called kinks and antikinks, which are amongst the simplest examples of topological solitons. We define an n-kink cluster to be a solution approaching, for large positive times, a superposition of n alternating kinks and antikinks whose velocities converge to zero and mutual distances grow to infinity. Our main result is a determination of the leading order asymptotic behavior of any n-kink cluster. We use this information to construct the n-dimensional invariant manifold of n-kink clusters, which plays the dynamical role of the stable/unstable manifold for an ideal "critical point at infinity” given by well separated multi-kink configurations. In this context we also explain the role of kink clusters as universal profiles for the formation/annihilation of multikink configurations.
Title: Unstable Singularities and Finite Time Blow-up in Fluids
Abstract: In this talk I will explain how to construct numerically several new unstable singularities to certain equations in fluids (CCF, IPM, Boussinesq) using machine learning methods. Our approach combines curated machine learning architectures and training schemes with a high-precision Gauss-Newton optimizer, achieving accuracies that significantly surpass previous work across all discovered solutions, reaching near double-float machine precision, attaining a level of accuracy constrained only by the round-off errors of the GPU hardware. These numerical results can potentially be upgraded to rigorous mathematical validation via computer-assisted proofs: I will explain some instances of those upgrades for other equations such as the compressible Euler and Navier-Stokes or the Nonlinear Schrödinger equation.
Based in a series of works with Tristan Buckmaster, Gonzalo Cao-Labora, Yao Lai, Jia Shi, Gigliola Staffilani, Yongji Wang and Google Deepmind.
Spring 2024
Wednesdays, 3:00pm – 4:00pm, Krieger 411
Title: Singularity formation in incompressible fluids.
Abstract: I will discuss a recent example of singularity formation in the 3d Euler equation. This is based on work joint with Federico Pasqualotto.
Title: The stability of irrotational shocks and the Landau law of decay
Abstract: We consider the long-time behavior of irrotational solutions of the three-dimensional compressible Euler equations with shocks, hypersurfaces of discontinuity across which the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions for irrotational flow hold. Our analysis is motivated by Landau's analysis of spherically-symmetric shock waves, who predicted that at large times, not just one, but two shocks emerge. These shocks are logarithmically-separated from the Minkowskian light cone and the fluid velocity decays at the non-time integrable rate $1/(t(\log t)^{1/2})$. We show that for initial data, which need not be spherically-symmetric, with two shocks in it and which is sufficiently close, in appropriately weighted Sobolev norms, to an $N$-wave profile, the solution to the shock-front initial value problem can be continued for all time and does not develop any further singularities. In particular this is the first proof of global existence for solutions (which are necessarily singular) of a quasilinear wave equation in three space dimensions which does not verify the null condition. The proof requires carefully-constructed multiplier estimates and analysis of the geometry of the shock surfaces. This is joint work with Igor Rodnianski.
Title: From Instability to Singularity Formation in Incompressible Fluids
Abstract: In this talk, I will first review the singularity formation problem in incompressible fluid dynamics, describing how particle transport poses the main challenge in constructing blow-up solutions for the 3d incompressible Euler equations. I will then outline a new mechanism that allows us to overcome the effects of particle transport, leveraging the instability seen in the classical Taylor-Couette experiment. Using this mechanism, we construct the first swirl-driven singularity for the incompressible Euler equations in R^3. This is joint work with Tarek Elgindi (Duke University).
Title: On linear and non-linear stability of collisionless systems on black hole exteriors
Abstract: I will present upcoming linear and non-linear stability results for collisionless systems on spherically symmetric black holes. On the one hand, I will discuss the decay properties of massive Vlasov fields on the exterior of Schwarzschild spacetime. On the other hand, I will discuss an asymptotic stability result for the exterior of Schwarzschild as a solution to the Einstein-massless Vlasov system, assuming spherical symmetry. These results follow via concentration estimates on suitable stable manifolds in phase space.
Fall 2023
Wednesdays, 3:00pm – 4:00pm, in Krieger 309
Title: Stability for Vlasov and Hartree equations
Abstract: I focus on presenting the survival threshold of wave numbers found in mean field equations such as Vlasov and Hartree equations, which completely characterizes the large time behavior of linearized equations near non-trivial backgrounds into plasma oscillations, Landau damping, and phase mixing regime. I shall also mention progress on the nonlinear problem.
Title: Well-Posedness of the 3D Peskin Problem
Abstract: This work introduces the 3D Peskin problem: a two-dimensional elastic membrane immersed in a three-dimensional steady Stokes flow. We obtain the equations that model this free boundary problem and we show that these equations admit a boundary integral reduction. This provides an evolution equation for the elastic interface. We also consider general nonlinear elastic laws, which is called the fully nonlinear 3D Peskin problem. The main result of this work proves that the evolution problem is well-posed in low-regularity Hölder spaces. Moreover, we prove that the elastic membrane becomes smooth instantly in time. This is a joint work with Eduardo García-Juárez, Po-Chun Kuo, and Yoichiro Mori.