Mixing and un-mixing by incompressible flows (Q2359441)

Summary: We consider the questions of efficient mixing and un-mixing by incompressible flows which satisfy periodic, no-flow, or no-slip boundary conditions on a square. Under the uniform-in-time constraint \(\|\nabla u(\cdot,t)\|_p\leq1\) we show that any function can be mixed to scale \(\varepsilon\) in time \(O(|\log\varepsilon|^{1+\nu_p})\), with \(\nu_p=0\) for \(p<(3+\sqrt{5})/2\) and \(\nu_p\leq1/3\) for \(p\geq(3+\sqrt{5})/2\). Known lower bounds show that this rate is optimal for \(p\in(1,(3+\sqrt{5})/2\). We also show that any set which is mixed to scale \(\varepsilon\) but not much more than that can be un-mixed to a rectangle of the same area (up to a small error) in time \(O(\log\varepsilon|^{2-1/p})\). Both results hold with scale-independent finite times if the constraint on the flow is changed to \(\|u(\cdot,t)\|_{\dot{W}^{s,p}}\leq1\) with some \(s<1\). The constants in all our results are independent of the mixed functions and sets.