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We prove an interpolation theorem for nonlinear functionals defined on scales of Banach spaces that generalize Besov spaces. It applies to functionals defined only locally, requiring only some weak Lipschitz conditions, extending those introduced by Lions and Peetre. Our analysis is self-contained and independent of any previous results about interpolation theory. It depends solely on the concepts of Friedrichs' mollifiers, seen through the formalism introduced by Hamilton, combined with the frequency envelopes introduced by Tao and used recently by two of the authors and others to study the Cauchy problem for various quasilinear evolutions in partial differential equations. Inspired by this latter work, our main application states that, for an abstract flow map of a quasilinear problem, both the continuity of the flow as a function of time and the continuity of the data to solution map follow automatically from the estimates that are usually proven when establishing the existence of solutions: propagation of regularity via tame a priori estimates for higher regularities and contraction for weaker norms.

We consider equivariant solutions for the Schr\"odinger Map equation in $2+1$ dimensions, with values into $\mathbb{S}^2$. Within each equivariance class $m \in \mathbb{Z}$ this admits a lowest energy nontrivial steady state $Q^m$, which extends to a two dimensional family of steady states by scaling and rotation. If $|m| \geq 3$ then these ground states are known to be stable in the energy space $\dot H^1$, whereas instability and even finite time blow-up along the ground state family may occur if $|m| = 1$. In this article we consider the most delicate case $|m| = 2$. Our main result asserts that small $\dot H^1$ perturbations of the ground state $Q^2$ yield global in time solutions, which satisfy global dispersive bounds. Unlike the higher equivariance classes, here we expect solutions to move arbitrarily far along the soliton family; however, we are able to provide a time dependent bound on the growth of the scale modulation parameter. We also show that within the equivariant class the ground state is stable in a slightly stronger topology $X \subset \dot H^1$., Comment: 146 pages

In recent work the authors proposed a broad global well-posedness conjecture for cubic defocusing dispersive equations in one space dimension, and then proved this conjecture in two cases, namely for one dimensional semilinear and quasilinear Schr\"odinger flows. Inspired by the circle of ideas developed in the proof of the above conjecture, in this paper we expand the reach of these methods to higher dimensional quasilinear cubic Schr\"odinger flows. The study of this class of problems, in all dimensions, was initiated in pioneering work of Kenig-Ponce-Vega for localized initial data, and then continued by Marzuola-Metcalfe-Tataru (MMT) for initial data in Sobolev spaces. The outcomes of this work are (i) a new, potentially sharp local well-posedness result in low regularity Sobolev spaces, one derivative below MMT and just one half derivative above scaling, (ii) a small data global well-posedness and scattering result at the same regularity level, the first result of its kind at least in two space dimensions, and (iii) a new way to think about this class of problems, which, we believe, will become the standard approach in the future., Comment: 56 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2306.00570

We provide a complete local well-posedness theory in $H^s$ based Sobolev spaces for the free boundary incompressible Euler equations with zero surface tension on a connected fluid domain. Our well-posedness theory includes: (i) Local well-posedness in the Hadamard sense, i.e., local existence, uniqueness, and the first proof of continuous dependence on the data, all in low regularity Sobolev spaces; (ii) Enhanced uniqueness: Our uniqueness result holds at the level of the Lipschitz norm of the velocity and the $C^{1,\frac{1}{2}}$ regularity of the free surface; (iii) Stability bounds: We construct a nonlinear functional which measures, in a suitable sense, the distance between two solutions (even when defined on different domains) and we show that this distance is propagated by the flow; (iv) Energy estimates: We prove refined, essentially scale invariant energy estimates for solutions, relying on a newly constructed family of elliptic estimates; (v) Continuation criterion: We give the first proof of a sharp continuation criterion in the physically relevant pointwise norms, at the level of scaling. In essence, we show that solutions can be continued as long as the velocity is in $L_T^1W^{1,\infty}$ and the free surface is in $L_T^1C^{1,\frac{1}{2}}$, which is at the same level as the Beale-Kato-Majda criterion for the boundaryless case; (vi) A novel proof of the construction of regular solutions. Our entire approach is in the Eulerian framework and can be adapted to work in more general fluid domains., Comment: 117 pages, some typos corrected

An efficient characterization of scientifically significant locations is essential prior to the return of humans to the Moon. The highest resolution imagery acquired from orbit of south-polar shadowed regions and other relevant locations remains, at best, an order of magnitude larger than the characteristic length of most of the robotic systems to be deployed. This hinders the planning and successful implementation of prospecting missions and poses a high risk for the traverse of robots and humans, diminishing the potential overall scientific and commercial return of any mission. We herein present the design of a lightweight, compact, autonomous, and reusable lunar reconnaissance drone capable of assisting other ground-based robotic assets, and eventually humans, in the characterization and high-resolution mapping (~0.1 m/px) of particularly challenging and hard-to-access locations on the lunar surface. The proposed concept consists of two main subsystems: the drone and its service station. With a total combined wet mass of 100 kg, the system is capable of 11 flights without refueling the service station, enabling almost 9 km of accumulated flight distance. The deployment of such a system could significantly impact the efficiency of upcoming exploration missions, increasing the distance covered per day of exploration and significantly reducing the need for recurrent contacts with ground stations on Earth.

The first target of this article is the local well-posedness question for 1D quasilinear Schr\"odinger equations with cubic nonlinearities. The study of this class of problems, in all dimensions, was initiated in pioneering work of Kenig-Ponce-Vega for localized initial data, and then continued by Marzuola-Metcalfe-Tataru for initial data in Sobolev spaces. Our objective here is to fully redevelop the study of this problem in the 1D case, and to prove a \emph{sharp local well-posedness} result. The second goal of this article is to consider the long time/global existence of solutions for the same problem. This is motivated by a broad conjecture formulated by the authors in earlier work, which reads as follows: ``\emph{Cubic defocusing dispersive one dimensional flows with small initial data have global dispersive solutions}''; the conjecture was initially proved for a well chosen semilinear model of Schr\"odinger type. Our work here establishes the above conjecture for 1D quasilinear Schr\"{o}dinger flows. Precisely, we show that if the problem has \emph{phase rotation symmetry} and is \emph{conservative and defocusing}, then small data in Sobolev spaces yields global, scattering solutions. This is the first result of this type for 1D quasilinear dispersive flows. Furthermore, we prove it at the minimal Sobolev regularity in our local well-posedness result. The defocusing condition is essential in our global result. Without it, the authors have conjectured that \emph{small, $\epsilon$ size data yields long time solutions on the $\epsilon^{-8}$ time-scale}. A third goal of this paper is to also prove this second conjecture for 1D quasilinear Schr\"{o}dinger flows., Comment: 58 pages. This article continues the work in the authors' earlier paper arXiv:2205.12212, which considered a corresponding semilinear problem

This article is concerned with one dimensional dispersive flows with cubic nonlinearities on the real line. In a very recent work, the authors have introduced a broad conjecture for such flows, asserting that in the defocusing case, small initial data yields global, scattering solutions. Then this conjecture was proved in the case of a Schr\"odinger dispersion relation. In terms of scattering, our global solutions were proved to satisfy both global $L^6$ Strichartz estimates and bilinear $L^2$ bounds. Notably, no localization assumption is made on the initial data. In this article we consider the focusing scenario. There potentially one may have small solitons, so one cannot hope to have global scattering solutions in general. Instead, we look for long time solutions, and ask what is the time-scale on which the solutions exist and satisfy good dispersive estimates. Our main result, which also applies in the case of the Schr\"odinger dispersion relation, asserts that for initial data of size $\epsilon$, the solutions exist on the time-scale $\epsilon^{-8}$, and satisfy the desired $L^6$ Strichartz estimates and bilinear $L^2$ bounds on the time-scale $\epsilon^{-6}$. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first result to reach such a threshold., Comment: 18 pages. This article relies substantially on the authors earlier paper arXiv:2205.12212, which considered the corresponding defocusing problem

The skew mean curvature flow is an evolution equation for a $d$ dimensional manifold immersed into $\mathbb{R}^{d+2}$, and which moves along the binormal direction with a speed proportional to its mean curvature. In this article, we prove small data global regularity in low-regularity Sobolev spaces for the skew mean curvature flow in dimensions $d\geq 4$. This extends the local well-posedness result in \cite{HT}., Comment: 38 pages

This article is devoted to a general class of one dimensional NLS problems with a cubic nonlinearity. The question of obtaining scattering, global in time solutions for such problems has attracted a lot of attention in recent years, and many global well-posedness results have been proved for a number of models under the assumption that the initial data is both \emph{small} and \emph{localized}. However, except for the completely integrable case, no such results have been known for small but non-localized initial data. In this article we introduce a new, nonperturbative method, to prove global well-posedness and scattering for $L^2$ initial data which is \emph{small} but \emph{non-localized}. Our main structural assumption is that our nonlinearity is \emph{defocusing}. However, we do not assume that our problem has any exact conservation laws. Our method is based on a robust reinterpretation of the idea of interaction Morawetz estimates, developed almost 20 years ago by the I-team. In terms of scattering, we prove that our global solutions satisfy both global $L^6$ Strichartz estimates and bilinear $L^2$ bounds. This is a Galilean invariant result, which is new even for the classical defocusing cubic NLS. There, by scaling our result also admits a large data counterpart., Comment: 43 pages

Modified scattering phenomena are encountered in the study of global properties for nonlinear dispersive partial differential equations in situations where the decay of solutions at infinity is borderline and scattering fails just barely. An interesting example is that of problems with cubic nonlinearities in one space dimension. The method of testing by wave packets was introduced by the authors as a tool to efficiently capture the asymptotic equations associated to such flows, and thus establish the modified scattering mechanism in a simpler, more efficient fashion, and at lower regularity. In these expository notes we describe how this method can be applied to problems with general dispersion relations., Comment: 41 pages, four figures. This is a substantial revision, with many corrections and additions and four figures added. Many thanks to the anonymous referee

The skew mean curvature flow is an evolution equation for $d$ dimensional manifolds embedded in $\mathbb{R}^{d+2}$ (or more generally, in a Riemannian manifold). It can be viewed as a Schr\"odinger analogue of the mean curvature flow, or alternatively as a quasilinear version of the Schr\"odinger Map equation. In an earlier paper, the authors introduced a harmonic/Coulomb gauge formulation of the problem, and used it to prove small data local well-posedness in dimensions $d \geq 4$. In this article, we prove small data local well-posedness in low-regularity Sobolev spaces for the skew mean curvature flow in dimension $d\geq 2$. This is achieved by introducing a new, heat gauge formulation of the equations, which turns out to be more robust in low dimensions., Comment: 70 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2101.00358

It has long been conjectured that for nonlinear wave equations which satisfy a nonlinear form of the null condition, the low regularity well-posedness theory can be significantly improved compared to the sharp results of Smith-Tataru for the generic case. The aim of this article is to prove the first result in this direction, namely for the time-like minimal surface equation in the Minkowski space-time. Further, our improvement is substantial, namely by $3/8$ derivatives in two space dimensions and by $1/4$ derivatives in higher dimensions., Comment: 120 pages, minor typos corrected

This article is concerned with infinite depth gravity water waves with constant vorticity in two space dimensions. We consider this system expressed in position-velocity potential holomorphic coordinates. We show that, for low-frequency solutions, the Benjamin-Ono equation gives a good and stable approximation to the system on the natural cubic time scale. The proof relies on refined cubic energy estimates and perturbative analysis., Comment: 31 pages, 1 figure; final version

We prove that the 2D finite depth capillary water wave equations admit no solitary wave solutions. This closes the existence/non-existence problem for solitary water waves in 2D, under the classical assumptions of incompressibility and irrotationality, and with the physical parameters being gravity, surface tension and the fluid depth.

The skew mean curvature flow is an evolution equation for $d$ dimensional manifolds embedded in $\mathbb{R}^{d+2}$ (or more generally, in a Riemannian manifold). It can be viewed as a Schr\"odinger analogue of the mean curvature flow, or alternatively as a quasilinear version of the Schr\"odinger Map equation. In this article, we prove small data local well-posedness in low-regularity Sobolev spaces for the skew mean curvature flow in dimension $d\geq 4$.

This article represents the second installment of a series of papers concerned with low regularity solutions for the water wave equations in two space dimensions. Our focus here is on global solutions for small and localized data. Such solutions have been proved to exist earlier in [15, 7, 10, 12] in much higher regularity. Our goal in this paper is to improve these results and prove global well-posedness under minimal regularity and decay assumptions for the initial data. One key ingredient here is represented by the balanced cubic estimates in our first paper. Another is the nonlinear vector field Sobolev inequalities, an idea first introduced by the last two authors in the context of the Benjamin-Ono equations [14]., Comment: 58 pages. We have added several corrections and improvements to the exposition, notably in the proofs of Propositions 4.3, 5.6, and 5.7

For both the cubic Nonlinear Schr\"odinger Equation (NLS) as well as the modified Korteweg-de Vries (mKdV) equation in one space dimension we consider the set ${\bf M}_N$ of pure $N$-soliton states, and their associated multisoliton solutions. We prove that (i) the set ${\bf M}_N$ is a uniformly smooth manifold, and (ii) the ${\bf M}_N$ states are uniformly stable in $H^s$, for each $s>-\frac12$. One main tool in our analysis is an iterated Backlund transform, which allows us to nonlinearly add a multisoliton to an existing soliton free state (the soliton addition map) or alternatively to remove a multisoliton from a multisoliton state (the soliton removal map). The properties and the regularity of these maps are extensively studied., Comment: 82 pages, 5 figures

Proving local well-posedness for quasilinear problems in pde's presents a number of difficulties, some of which are universal and others of which are more problem specific. While a common standard, going back to Hadamard, has existed for a long time, there are by now both many variations and many misconceptions in the subject. The aim of these notes is to collect a number of both classical and more recent ideas in this direction, and to assemble them into a cohesive road map that can be then adapted to the reader's problem of choice., Comment: 1 figure, 19 pages

In this paper we provide a complete local well-posedness theory for the free boundary relativistic Euler equations with a physical vacuum boundary on a Minkowski background. Specifically, we establish the following results: (i) local well-posedness in the Hadamard sense, i.e., local existence, uniqueness, and continuous dependence on the data; (ii) low regularity solutions: our uniqueness result holds at the level of Lipschitz velocity and density, while our rough solutions, obtained as unique limits of smooth solutions, have regularity only a half derivative above scaling; (iii) stability: our uniqueness in fact follows from a more general result, namely, we show that a certain nonlinear functional that tracks the distance between two solutions (in part by measuring the distance between their respective boundaries) is propagated by the flow; (iv) we establish sharp, essentially scale invariant energy estimates for solutions; (v) a sharp continuation criterion, at the level of scaling, showing that solutions can be continued as long as the the velocity is in $L^1_t Lip$ and a suitable weighted version of the density is at the same regularity level. Our entire approach is in Eulerian coordinates and relies on the functional framework developed in the companion work of the second and third authors corresponding to the non relativistic problem. All our results are valid for a general equation of state $p(\varrho)= \varrho^\gamma$, $\gamma > 1$., Comment: To appear in ARMA

This article is concerned with the local well-posedness problem for the compressible Euler equations in gas dynamics. For this system we consider the free boundary problem which corresponds to a physical vacuum. Despite the clear physical interest in this system, the prior work on this problemis limited to Lagrangian coordinates, in high regularity spaces. Instead, the objective of the present work is to provide a new, fully Eulerian approach to this problem, which provides a complete, Hadamard style well-posedness theory for this problem in low regularity Sobolev spaces. In particular we give new proofs for both existence, uniqueness, and continuous dependence on the data with sharp, scale invariant energy estimates, and continuation criterion., Comment: 79 pages. Final version to appear Ann. IHP-C

In this article we prove short time local well-posedness in low-regularity Sobolev spaces for large data general quasilinear Schr\"odinger equations with a non-trapping assumption. These results represent improvements over the small data regime considered by the authors in previous works, as well as the pioneering works by Kenig-Ponce-Vega and Kenig-Ponce-Rolvung-Vega, where viscosity methods were used to prove existence of solutions for localized data in high regularity spaces. Our arguments here are purely dispersive. The function spaces in which we show existence are constructed in ways motivated by the results of Mizohata, Ichinose, Doi, and others, including the authors., Comment: 47 pages, no figures. Updates made from referee reports. Comments welcome!!

This article represents the first installment of a series of papers concerned with low regularity solutions for the water wave equations in two space dimensions. Our focus here is on sharp cubic energy estimates. Precisely, we introduce and develop the techniques to prove a new class of energy estimates, which we call \emph{balanced cubic estimates}. This yields a key improvement over the earlier cubic estimates of Hunter-Ifrim-Tataru [15], while preserving their scale invariant character and their position-velocity potential holomorphic coordinate formulation. Even without using any Strichartz estimates, these results allow us to significantly lower the Sobolev regularity threshold for local well-posedness, drastically improving earlier results obtained by Alazard-Burq-Zuily [5, 6], Hunter-Ifrim-Tataru [15] and Ai [2]., Comment: 63 pages. The current version introduces substantial revisions and changes in notation. The primary reason for the revision is to harmonize this paper with the second installment in the series

This paper is devoted to the 2D gravity-capillary water waves equations in their Hamiltonian formulation, addressing the general question of proving Morawetz inequalities. We continue the analysis initiated in our previous work, where we have established local energy decay estimates for gravity waves. Here we add surface tension and prove a stronger estimate with a local regularity gain, akin to the smoothing effect for dispersive equations. Our main result holds globally in time and holds for genuinely nonlinear waves, since we are only assuming some very mild uniform Sobolev bounds for the solutions. Furthermore, it is uniform both in the infinite depth limit and the zero surface tension limit., Comment: 33 pages; this article is based on and continues the authors' work from arXiv:1806.08443

We consider the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation, and prove that small localized data yields solutions which have dispersive decay on a quartic time-scale. This result is optimal, in view of the emergence of solitons at quartic time, as predicted by inverse scattering theory., Comment: 41 pages, 1 figure; final revision