Bifurcation of relative equilibria for vortices and general homogeneous potentials (Q2301847)

The authors investigate the dynamics of point vortices in an ideal two-dimensional incompressible fluid. It is well known that the vortex dynamics can be described as a Hamiltonian system with a Hamiltonian function \(H\): \[H = - \sum \Gamma_i \Gamma_j\log[{(x_i - x_j)^2 + ( y_i - y_j)^2}]^\frac{1}{2},\] where the sum is over \(1 \leq i < j \leq n\), and \(x_i(t)\) and \(y_i(t)\) are the coordinates of the vortex \(i\) with strength \(\Gamma_i\). The distance between vortices \(i\) and \(j\) is \(r_{ij} = [{(x_i - x_j)^2 + ( y_i - y_j)^2]}^\frac{1}{2}\). The dynamics is given by the equations \[\Gamma_i \frac{dx_i}{dt} = \frac{\partial H}{\partial y_i}\] and \[\Gamma_i \frac{dy_i}{dt} = - \frac{\partial H}{\partial x_i}\] for \(i = 1,2,\dots, n.\) If the position of the \(i\)-th vortex is written in complex form as \(z_i = x_i + \mathbf{i }y_i\), then the velocity of the \(i\)-th vortex is \[ v_i = \dot z_i = \mathbf{ i} \sum\frac{\Gamma_j}{r_{i,j}^2} (z_i - z_j),\] where the sum is again over \(1 \leq i < j \leq n\). If \(z = (z_1, z_2,\dots, z_n)\) is a configuration of an \(n\)-vortex system, then \(z\) is said to be an equilibrium if \(v_1 = v_2 =\dots= v_n = 0\); \(z\) is rigidly translating if all the \(v_i\) have the same non-zero constant value; and \(z\) is a relative equilibrium if there are real constants \(\lambda\) and \(c\) with \(\lambda \neq 0\) so that \(v_i = - \lambda (z_i - c)\) for all \(i\). The authors consider systems with four vortices and investigate their relative equilibria. While a system with three or less vortices is integrable, the dynamics for four or more can be very complicated. The authors focus on the study of relative equilibria for systems of four vortices. Their first goal is to study bifurcations arising from an equilateral configuration with \(\Gamma_1 = \Gamma_2 = \Gamma_3 = 1\) at the vertices and \(\Gamma_4 = m\) at the barycenter, where \(m\) is a parameter. The authors' main results are the following. For a strictly planar relative equilibrium of the four vertex problem with vortex strengths \(\Gamma_1 = \Gamma_2 = \Gamma_3 = 1\) and \(\Gamma_4 > 1\) every convex relative equilibrium has a line of symmetry for any \(\Gamma_4 > 1\), and the only possible asymmetric configurations are concave. Furthermore, for each value of \(\Gamma_4 > 1\) there are exactly six concave strictly planar asymmetric relative equilibria configurations. The proof of these results uses elimination theory and Gröbner bases extensively as well as properties of Möbius transformations. The authors also formulate the problem when the classical Hamiltonian for the vortex problem is replaced by a homogeneous function of degree \(\alpha\).