Particle Relabelling Symmetry Research Articles

Nambu Bracket for 3D Ideal Fluid Dynamics and Magnetohydrodynamics

Abstract The ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) as well as the ideal fluid dynamics is governed by a Hamilton equation with respect to the Lie–Poisson bracket. The Nambu bracket manifestly represents the Lie–Poisson structure in terms of derivatives of the Casimir invariants. We construct a compact Nambu bracket representation for the 3D ideal MHD equations with the use of three Casimirs for the second Hamiltonians, the total entropy, and the magnetic and cross-helicities, whose coefficients are all constant. The Lie–Poisson bracket induced by this Nambu bracket does not coincide with the original one, but is supplemented by terms with an auxiliary variable. The supplemented Lie–Poisson bracket qualifies the cross-helicity as the Casimir. By appealing to Noether’s theorem, we show that the cross-helicity is an integral invariant associated with the particle-relabeling symmetry. Employing a Lagrange label function as the independent variable in the variational framework facilitates implementation of the relabeling transformation. By incorporating the divergence symmetry, other known topological invariants are put on the same ground as Noether’s theorem.

Hamilton's principle with phase changes and conservation principles for moist potential vorticity

AbstractMany definitions of moist potential vorticity (PV) have been proposed to extend the dry theory of Ertel PV. None of the moist PV definitions seem to have all of the desirable properties of the dry Ertel PV. For instance, dry PV is not only a globally conserved quantity, but also a material invariant that is conserved along fluid parcel trajectories. Therefore, an open question remains: Is there a moist PV that is a material invariant, if clouds and phase changes of water are present? In prior studies, definitions of moist PV have been proposed based on physical and mathematical intuition. Here, a systematic approach is used. In particular, a particle relabeling symmetry is devised for a moist atmosphere and then Noether's theorem is employed to arrive at the associated conservation laws for a moist PV. A priori, it is not clear whether this systematic approach will be viable, since it relies on variational derivatives in Hamilton's principle, and phase changes introduce singularities that could potentially prevent derivatives at the cloud edge. However, it is shown that the energy and the Lagrangian density are sufficiently smooth to allow variational derivatives, in a moist Boussinesq system with reversible phase transitions between water vapor and liquid cloud water. From the particle relabeling symmetry, a moist Kelvin circulation theorem is found, along with a moist PV conservation law that applies not for each individual parcel but for parcel‐integrated PV, integrated over certain local volumes.

Variational generalization of the Green–Naghdi and Whitham equations for fluid sloshing in three-dimensional rotating and translating coordinates

This paper derives an averaged Lagrangian functional for dynamic coupling between rigid-body motion and its interior shallow-water sloshing in three-dimensional rotating and translating coordinates; with a time-dependent rotation vector. A new set of variational shallow-water equations (SWEs) and generalized Green–Naghdi equations for the interior fluid sloshing with 3-D rotation vector and translations, and also the equations of motion for the linear momentum and angular momentum of the rigid-body containing shallow water, are derived from the averaged Lagrangian functional, which describes a columnar motion, by using Hamilton’s principle and the Euler–Poincaré variational framework. The generalized Green–Naghdi equations have a form of potential vorticity (PV) conservation, which can be obtained from the particle-relabelling symmetry, and is a combination of the PV derived by Miles and Salmon (1985) and the PV derived by Dellar and Salmon (2005) for geophysical fluid dynamics problems, where the rotation vector varies spatially. By applying the assumption of zero-potential-vorticity flow to the averaged Lagrangian functional, a new set of Boussinesq-like evolution equations are derived, which are a generalization of the Whitham equations for fluid sloshing in three-dimensional rotating and translating coordinates. Moreover, the new variational principles are appended to Luke’s variational principle to present a unified variational framework for the hydrodynamic problem of interactions between gravity-driven potential-flow water waves and a freely floating rigid-body, dynamically coupled to its interior weakly dispersive nonlinear shallow-water sloshing in three dimensions.

Stochastic Lagrangian dynamics of vorticity. Part 2. Application to near-wall channel-flow turbulence

Abstract

Variational nonlinear WKB in the Eulerian frame

Nonlinear WKB is a multiscale technique for studying locally plane-wave solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs). Its application comprises two steps: (1) replacement of the original PDE with an extended system separating the large scales from the small and (2) reduction of the extended system to its slow manifold. In the context of variational fluid theories with particle relabeling symmetry, nonlinear WKB in the mean Eulerian frame is known to possess a variational structure. This much has been demonstrated using, for instance, the theoretical apparatus known as the generalized Lagrangian mean. On the other hand, the variational structure of nonlinear WKB in the conventional Eulerian frame remains mysterious. By exhibiting a variational principle for the extended equations from step (1) above, we demonstrate that nonlinear WKB in the Eulerian frame is in fact variational. Remarkably, the variational principle for the extended system admits loops of relabeling transformations as a symmetry group. Noether’s theorem therefore implies that the extended Eulerian equations possess a family of circulation invariants parameterized by S1. As an illustrative example, we use our results to systematically deduce a variational model of high-frequency acoustic waves interacting with a larger-scale compressible isothermal flow.

Particle relabelling transformations in elastodynamics

The motion of a self-gravitating hyperelastic body is described through a time-dependent mapping from a reference body into physical space, and its material properties are determined by a referential density and strain-energy function defined relative to the reference body. Points within the reference body do not have a direct physical meaning, but instead act as particle labels that could be assigned in different ways. We use Hamilton's principle to determine how the referential density and strain-energy functions transform when the particle labels are changed, and describe an associated ‘particle relabelling symmetry’. We apply these results to linearized elastic wave propagation and discuss their implications for seismological inverse problems. In particular, we show that the effects of boundary topography on elastic wave propagation can be mapped exactly into volumetric heterogeneity while preserving the form of the equations of motion. Several numerical calculations are presented to illustrate our results.

Helicity-based particle-relabeling operator and normal mode expansion of the dissipationless incompressible Hall magnetohydrodynamics.

The dynamics of an incompressible, dissipationless Hall magnetohydrodynamic medium are investigated from Lagrangian mechanical viewpoint. The hybrid and magnetic helicities are shown to emerge, respectively, from the application of the particle relabeling symmetry for ion and electron flows to Noether's first theorem, while the constant of motion associated with the theorem is generally given by their arbitrary linear combination. Furthermore, integral path variation associated with the invariant action is expressed by the operation of an integrodifferential operator on the reference path. The eigenfunctions of this operator are double Beltrami flows, i.e., force-free stationary solutions to the equation of motion and provide a family of orthogonal function bases that yields the spectral representation of the equation of motion with a remarkably simple form. Among the double Beltrami flows, considering the influence of a uniform background magnetic field and the Hall term effect vanishing limit, the generalized Elsässer variables are found to be the most suitable for avoiding problems with singularities in the standard magnetohydrodynamic limit.

Reduction by Lie Group Symmetries in Diffeomorphic Image Registration and Deformation Modelling

We survey the role of reduction by symmetry in the large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping framework for registration of a variety of data types (landmarks, curves, surfaces, images and higher-order derivative data). Particle relabelling symmetry allows the equations of motion to be reduced to the Lie algebra allowing the equations to be written purely in terms of the Eulerian velocity field. As a second use of symmetry, the infinite dimensional problem of finding correspondences between objects can be reduced for a range of concrete data types, resulting in compact representations of shape and spatial structure. Using reduction by symmetry, we describe these models in a common theoretical framework that draws on links between the registration problem and geometric mechanics. We outline these constructions and further cases where reduction by symmetry promises new approaches to the registration of complex data types.

An alternative view of generalized Lagrangian mean theory

AbstractIf the variables describing wave–mean flow interactions are chosen to include a set of fluid–particle labels corresponding to the mean flow, then the generalized Lagrangian mean (GLM) theory takes the form of an ordinary classical field theory. Its only truly distinctive features then arise from the distinctive feature of fluid dynamicsas a field theory, namely, the particle-relabelling symmetry property, which corresponds by Noether’s theorem to the many vorticity conservation laws of fluid mechanics. The key feature of the formulation is thatallthe dependent variables depend on a common set of space–time coordinates. This feature permits an easy and transparent derivation of the GLM equations by use of the energy–momentum tensor formalism. The particle-relabelling symmetry property leads to the GLM potential vorticity law in which pseudo-momentum is the only wave activity term present. Thus the particle-relabelling symmetry explains the prominent importance of pseudo-momentum in GLM theory.

A Unified View of Topological Invariants of Barotropic and Baroclinic Fluids and their Application to Formal Stability Analysis of Three-Dimensional Ideal Gas Flows

Noether's theorem associated with the particle relabeling symmetry group leads us to a unified view that all the topological invari- ants of a barotropic fluid are variants of the cross helicity. The same is shown to be true for a baroclinic fluid. A cross-helicity representation is given to the Casimir invariant, a class of integrals including an arbitrary function of the specific entropy and the potential vorticity. We then develop a new energy-Casimir convexity method for three-dimensional stability of equilibria of gen- eral rotating flows of an ideal baroclinic fluid, without appealing to the Boussinesq approximation. By fully exploiting the Casimir invariant, we have succeeded in ruling out a term including the gradient of a dependent variable from the energy-Casimir function and have established a sharp linear stability criterion, being an extension of the Richardson-number criterion.

Structure-preserving discretization of incompressible fluids

The geometric nature of Euler fluids has been clearly identified and extensively studied over the years, culminating with Lagrangian and Hamiltonian descriptions of fluid dynamics where the configuration space is defined as the volume-preserving diffeomorphisms, and Kelvin’s circulation theorem is viewed as a consequence of Noether’s theorem associated with the particle relabeling symmetry of fluid mechanics. However computational approaches to fluid mechanics have been largely derived from a numerical–analytic point of view, and are rarely designed with structure preservation in mind, and often suffer from spurious numerical artifacts such as energy and circulation drift. In contrast, this paper geometrically derives discrete equations of motion for fluid dynamics from first principles in a purely Eulerian form. Our approach approximates the group of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms using a finite-dimensional Lie group, and associated discrete Euler equations are derived from a variational principle with non-holonomic constraints. The resulting discrete equations of motion yield a structure-preserving time integrator with good long-term energy behavior and for which an exact discrete Kelvin’s circulation theorem holds.

The geometry and dynamics of interacting rigid bodies and point vortices

We derive the equations of motion for a planar rigid body of circular shape moving in a 2D perfect fluid with point vortices using symplectic reduction by stages. After formulating the theory as a mechanical system on a configuration space which is the product of a space of embeddings and the special Euclidian group in two dimensions, we divide out by the particle relabeling symmetry and then by the residual rotational and translational symmetry. The result of the first stage reduction is that the system is described by a non-standard magnetic symplectic form encoding the effects of the fluid, while at the second stage, a careful analysis of the momentum map shows the existence of two equivalent Poisson structures for this problem. For the solid-fluid system, we hence recover the ad hoc Poisson structures calculated by Shashikanth, Marsden, Burdick and Kelly on the one hand, and Borisov, Mamaev, and Ramodanov on the other hand. As a side result, we obtain a convenient expression for the symplectic leaves of the reduced system and we shed further light on the interplay between curvatures and cocycles in the description of the dynamics.

Stochastic least-action principle for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equation

We formulate a stochastic least-action principle for solutions of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equation, which formally reduces to Hamilton’s principle for the incompressible Euler solutions in the case of zero viscosity. We use this principle to give a new derivation of a stochastic Kelvin Theorem for the Navier–Stokes equation, recently established by Constantin and Iyer, which shows that this stochastic conservation law arises from particle-relabelling symmetry of the action. We discuss issues of irreversibility, energy dissipation, and the inviscid limit of Navier–Stokes solutions in the framework of the stochastic variational principle. In particular, we discuss the connection of the stochastic Kelvin Theorem with our previous “martingale hypothesis” for fluid circulations in turbulent solutions of the incompressible Euler equations.

The variational particle-mesh method for matching curves

Diffeomorphic matching (only one of several names for this technique) is a technique for non-rigid registration of curves and surfaces in which the curve or surface is embedded in the flow of a time series of vector fields. One seeks the flow between two topologically-equivalent curves or surfaces which minimizes some metric defined on the vector fields, i.e. the flow closest to the identity in some sense. In this paper, we describe a new particle-mesh discretization for the evolution of the geodesic flow and the embedded shape. Particle-mesh algorithms are very natural for this problem because Lagrangian particles (particles moving with the flow) can represent the movement of the shape whereas the vector field is Eulerian and hence best represented on a static mesh. We explain the derivation of the method, and prove the conservation properties: the discrete method has a set of conserved momenta corresponding to the particle-relabelling symmetry which converge to conserved quantities in the continuous problem. We also introduce a new discretization for the geometric current matching condition of Vaillant and Glaunes (2005 Surface matching via currents Proc. Conf. IPMI pp 381–92). We illustrate the method and the derived properties with numerical examples.

Multisymplectic formulation of fluid dynamics using the inverse map

We construct multisymplectic formulations of fluid dynamics using the inverse of the Lagrangian path map. This inverse map, the ‘back-to-labels’ map, gives the initial Lagrangian label of the fluid particle that currently occupies each Eulerian position. Explicitly enforcing the condition that the fluid particles carry their labels with the flow in Hamilton's principle leads to our multisymplectic formulation. We use the multisymplectic one-form to obtain conservation laws for energy, momentum and an infinite set of conservation laws arising from the particle relabelling symmetry and leading to Kelvin's circulation theorem. We discuss how multisymplectic numerical integrators naturally arise in this approach.

Symmetry group analysis of the shallow water and semi-geostrophic equations

The two-dimensional shallow water equations and their semi-geostrophic approximation that arise in meteorology and oceanography are analysed from the point of view of symmetry groups theory. A complete classification of their associated classical symmetries, potential symmetries, variational symmetries and conservation laws is found. The semi-geostrophic equations are found to lack conservation of angular momentum. We also show how the particle relabelling symmetry can be used to rewrite the semi-geostrophic equations in such a way that a well-defined formal series solution, smooth only in time, may be carried out. We show that such solutions are in the form of an ‘infinite linear cascade’.

Locomotion of Articulated Bodies in a Perfect Fluid

This paper is concerned with modeling the dynamics of N articulated solid bodies submerged in an ideal fluid. The model is used to analyze the locomotion of aquatic animals due to the coupling between their shape changes and the fluid dynamics in their environment. The equations of motion are obtained by making use of a two-stage reduction process which leads to significant mathematical and computational simplifications. The first reduction exploits particle relabeling symmetry: that is, the symmetry associated with the conservation of circulation for ideal, incompressible fluids. As a result, the equations of motion for the submerged solid bodies can be formulated without explicitly incorporating the fluid variables. This reduction by the fluid variables is a key difference with earlier methods, and it is appropriate since one is mainly interested in the location of the bodies, not the fluid particles. The second reduction is associated with the invariance of the dynamics under superimposed rigid motions. This invariance corresponds to the conservation of total momentum of the solid-fluid system. Due to this symmetry, the net locomotion of the solid system is realized as the sum of geometric and dynamic phases over the shape space consisting of allowable relative motions, or deformations, of the solids. In particular, reconstruction equations that govern the net locomotion at zero momentum, that is, the geometric phases, are obtained. As an illustrative example, a planar three-link mechanism is shown to propel and steer itself at zero momentum by periodically changing its shape. Two solutions are presented: one corresponds to a hydrodynamically decoupled mechanism and one is based on accurately computing the added inertias using a boundary element method. The hydrodynamically decoupled model produces smaller net motion than the more accurate model, indicating that it is important to consider the hydrodynamic interaction of the links.

Vorticity and symplecticity in Lagrangian fluid dynamics

The relationship between potential vorticity (PV) and the symplectic form is explored, for the shallow-water equations governing Lagrangian particle paths. Starting with the symplectic form, the PV is found by the pullback operation to the reference space. At first sight, the encoding of PV in the symplectic form appears to be independent of the particle relabelling symmetry. The analysis is carried a step further in two ways. Using the ‘conservation of symplecticity’ as a starting point, the fluxes of symplecticity arise as differential forms, and a complete pull back of the flux forms leads to a geometric description of PV conservation. Secondly, symmetry methods are used to give a rigorous connection between particle relabelling, symplecticity and PV conservation. Generalizations of these issues to semi-geostrophic flow and three-dimensional Lagrangian fluid flows, and the connection with Ertel’s theorem are also discussed.

Ertel's vorticity theorems, the particle relabelling symmetry and the energy-vorticity theory of fluid mechanics

The various vorticity theorems of ERTEL are related to a unique symmetry in the substantial or Lagrangian description of fluid mechanics. According to NOETHER'S theorem, this is the particle relabelling symmetry (PRS), also called exchange symmetry. What is missing is a classification of this symmetry for barotropic and baroclinic fluids and a transformation to the Eulerian frame, revealing the universal and practical implications of this symmetry. The paper shows that the relabelling symmetry is an infinite symmetry like the gauge symmetries in elementary particle physics. It can be parameterised by one free arbitrary function for baroclinic flows and two functions for barotropic flows. In the baroclinic case we get ERTEL'S potential enstrophy and in the barotropic case the helicity as global conserved quantities. In both cases the conservation laws are explicitly dependent upon arbitrary functions of the physical phase space. The generator of this symmetry can be also transformed to the Eulerian reference space. As a special case we can derive the generators of rotation and translation and the constraints for the related conservation laws of angular and linear momentum. In this case the arbitrary functions depend solely on the space coordinates. This surprising result is an indication that the relabelling generator is of great universal nature. Moreover, this relabelling symmetry is responsible for the closed Eulerian description of fluid mechanics and gives a theoretical explanation of the energy-vorticity theory of fluid mechanics. A dynamic state index (DSI) and a chemical state index (CSI) can be defined for the diagnosis of the weather and climate system as a practical application of this theory.

Lagrangian description, symplectic structure, and invariants of 3D fluid flow

Three-dimensional unsteady flow of fluids in the Lagrangian description is considered as an autonomous dynamical system in four dimensions. The condition for the existence of a symplectic structure on the extended space is the frozen field equations of the Eulerian description of motion. Integral invariants of symplectic flow are related to conservation laws of the dynamical equation. A scheme generating infinite families of symmetries and invariants is presented. For the Euler equations these invariants are shown to have a geometric origin in the description of flow as geodesic motion; they are also interpreted in connection with the particle relabelling symmetry.