Distribution (mathematics) | EPFL Graph Search

Distributions, also known as Schwartz distributions or generalized functions, are objects that generalize the classical notion of functions in mathematical analysis. Distributions make it possible to differentiate functions whose derivatives do not exist in the classical sense. In particular, any locally integrable function has a distributional derivative. Distributions are widely used in the theory of partial differential equations, where it may be easier to establish the existence of distributional solutions (weak solutions) than classical solutions, or where appropriate classical solutions may not exist. Distributions are also important in physics and engineering where many problems naturally lead to differential equations whose solutions or initial conditions are singular, such as the Dirac delta function. A function f is normally thought of as on the in the function domain by "sending" a point x in the domain to the point f(x). Instead of

Typicality results for weak solutions of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations

Maria Colombo, Luigi De Rosa, Massimo Sorella

In this work we show that, in the class of L-infinity((0,T); L-2(T-3)) distributional solutions of the incompressible Navier-Stokes system, the ones which are smooth in some open interval of times are meagre in the sense of Baire category, and the Leray ones are a nowhere dense set.

EDP SCIENCES S A2022

The non-linear stochastic wave equation in high dimensions

Daniel Conus

The main topic of this thesis is the study of the non-linear stochastic wave equation in spatial dimension greater than 3 driven by spatially homogeneous Gaussian noise that is white in time. We are interested in questions of existence and uniqueness of solutions, as well as in properties of solutions, such as existence of high order moments and Hölder-continuity properties. The stochastic wave equation is formulated as an integral equation in which appear stochastic integrals with respect to martingale measures (in the sense of J.B. Walsh). Since, in dimensions greater than 3, the fundamental solution of the wave equation is neither a function nor a non-negative measure, but a general Schwartz distribution, we first develop an extension of the Dalang-Walsh stochastic integral that makes it possible to integrate a wide class of Schwartz distributions. This class contains the fundamental solution of the wave equation, under a hypothesis on the spectral measure of the noise that has already been used in the literature. With this extended stochastic integral, we establish existence of a square-integrable random-field solution to the non-linear stochastic wave equation in any dimension. Uniqueness of the solution is established within a specific class of processes. In the case of a fine multiplicative noise, we obtain a series representation of the solution and estimates on the p-th moments of the solution (p ≥ 1). From this, we deduce Hölder-continuity of the solution under standard assumptions. The Hölder exponent that we obtain is optimal. For the case of general multiplicative noise, we construct a framework for working with appropriate iterated stochastic integrals and then derive a truncated Itô-Taylor expansion for the solution of the stochastic wave equation. The convergence of this expansion remains an open problem, so we conclude with some remarks that suggest an Itô-Taylor series expansion for the solution.

EPFL2008

Stochastic partial differential equations driven by Lévy white noises

Thomas Marie Jean-Baptiste Humeau

We study various aspects of stochastic partial differential equations driven by Lévy white noise. This driving noise, which is a generalization of Gaussian white noise, can be viewed either as a generalized random process or as an independently scattered random measure. After unifying these approaches and establishing appropriate stochastic integral representations, we show that a necessary and sufficient condition for a Lévy white noise to have values in the space of tempered Schwartz distributions, is that the underlying Lévy measure have a positive absolute moment. In the case of a linear stochastic partial differential equation with a general differential operator and driven by a symmetric pure jump Lévy white noise, we show that when the mild solution is locally Lebesgue integrable, then it is equal to the generalized solution, and that a random field representation exists for the generalized solution if and only if the fundamental solution of the operator has certain integrability properties. In that case, we show that the random field representation is equal to the mild solution. For this purpose, a new stochastic Fubini theorem is proved. These results are applied to the linear stochastic heat and wave equations driven by a symmetric alpha-stable noise. We then study the non-linear stochastic heat equation driven by a general type of Lévy white noise, possibly with heavy tails and non-summable small jumps. Our framework includes in particular the alpha-stable noise. In the case of the equation on the whole space, we show that the law of the solution that we construct does not depend on the space variable. Then we show in various domains D that the solution u to the stochastic heat equation is such that t -> u(t,·) has a càdlàg version in a fractional Sobolev space of order r < -d /2. Finally, we show that the partial functions have a continuous version under some optimal moment conditions. In the alpha-stable case, we show that for the choices of alpha for which this moment condition is not satisfied, the sample paths of the partial functions are unbounded on any non-empty open subset.

EPFL2017