Local existence of solutions to a Navier-Stokes-nonlinear-Schrödinger model of superfluidity (Q2131387)

The authors are concerned with a micro-scale model of superfluidity that has been derived by \textit{L. P. Pitaevskij} [Sov. Phys., JETP 8, 282--287 (1958; Zbl 0085.22903); translation from Zhurn. Ehksper. Teor. Fiz. 35, 408--415 (1958)]. It is used to describe the interacting dynamics between the superfluid and normal fluid phases of Helium-4. The corresponding system of PDEs is a nonlinear coupling between a cubic nonlinear schrödinger equation (that governs the evolution of the wave-function describing the superfluid phase) and the incompressible inhomogeneous Navier-Stokes equations. Although the system is particularly cumbersome and involves equations of different types (dispersive, hyperbolic and parabolic), the authors succeed in proving a local existence result of solutions having Sobolev regularity as regards the wave function and the velocity while the density is only bounded and bounded away from zero.