Geometry and curvature of diffeomorphism groups with $H^1$ metric and mean hydrodynamics

TL;DR

This paper extends a fluid dynamics model to Riemannian manifolds, analyzing the geometry and stability of the associated diffeomorphism groups with an $H^1$ metric, providing foundational results for Lagrangian stability.

Contribution

It generalizes Holm, Marsden, and Ratiu's model to Riemannian manifolds and establishes the differentiability of the geodesic spray, enabling stability analysis of fluid flows.

Findings

Proved the geodesic spray is continuously differentiable.

Established boundedness of the weak curvature tensor in $H^s$ topology.

Demonstrated existence of solutions to Jacobi's equation for stability analysis.

Abstract

Recently, Holm, Marsden, and Ratiu [1998] have derived a new model for the mean motion of an ideal fluid in Euclidean space given by the equation $\dot{V}(t) + \nabla_{U(t)} V(t) - \alpha^2 [\nabla U(t)]^t \cdot \triangle U(t) = -\text{grad} p(t)$ where $\text{div} U=0$, and $V = (1- \alpha^2 \triangle)U$. In this model, the momentum $V$ is transported by the velocity $U$, with the effect that nonlinear interaction between modes corresponding to length scales smaller than $\alpha$ is negligible. We generalize this equation to the setting of an $n$ dimensional compact Riemannian manifold. The resulting equation is the Euler-Poincar\'{e} equation associated with the geodesic flow of the $H^1$ right invariant metric on ${\mathcal D}^s_\mu$, the group of volume preserving Hilbert diffeomorphisms of class $H^s$. We prove that the geodesic spray is continuously differentiable from $T{\mathcal D}_\mu^s(M)$ into $TT{\mathcal D}_\mu^s(M)$ so that a standard Picard iteration argument proves existence and uniqueness on a finite time interval. Our goal in this paper is to establish the foundations for Lagrangian stability analysis following Arnold [1966]. To do so, we use submanifold geometry, and prove that the weak curvature tensor of the right invariant $H^1$ metric on ${\mathcal D}^s_\mu$ is a bounded trilinear map in the $H^s$ topology, from which it follows that solutions to Jacobi's equation exist. Using such solutions, we are able to study the infinitesimal stability behavior of geodesics.