Arnaud Debussche

This work considers a small random perturbation of alpha-stable jump type nonlinear reaction-diffusion equations with Dirichlet boundary conditions over an interval. It has two stable points whose domains of attraction meet in a separating manifold with several saddle points. Extending a method developed by Imkeller and Pavlyukevich it proves that in contrast to a Gaussian perturbation, the expected exit and transition times between the domains of attraction depend polynomially on the noise intensity in the small intensity limit. Moreover the solution exhibits metastable behavior: there is a polynomial time scale along which the solution dynamics correspond asymptotically to the dynamic behavior of a finite-state Markov chain switching between the stable states.

This volume brings together five contributions to mathematical fluid mechanics, a classical but still very active research field which overlaps with physics and engineering. The contributions cover not only the classical Navier-Stokes equations for an incompressible Newtonian fluid, but also generalized Newtonian fluids, fluids interacting with particles and with solids, and stochastic models. The questions addressed in the lectures range from the basic problems of existence of weak and more regular solutions, the local regularity theory and analysis of potential singularities, qualitative and quantitative results about the behavior in special cases, asymptotic behavior, statistical properties and ergodicity.