No label defined (Q4501776)

Nonlinear partial differential equations of Euler, Navier-Stokes, Boltzmann, and other types are considered. The goal of the paper is to present some major open problems in nonlinear PDEs that correspond to the fundamental models of fluid mechanics and gas dynamics. All the above mentioned equations are evolution equations (infinite-dimensional dynamical systems) and the first mathematical issue to be raised is the study of the Cauchy problem. In Sections II and III some of the available information on that issue is briefly reviewed and the major open problems are collected at the end of each section. It is noted that the fundamental open questions are all related to the issue of the formation of ``singularities'' in finite time. In all the examples where singularities are known to appear, they induce nonuniqueness and instability phenomena which have many important consequences, in particular on the notions of solutions and the restoration of uniqueness and stability, and on the design and analysis of numerical methods. These topics are disscussed in Section IV where the author also mentions a related modelling trend concerning statistical approaches (ensembles of solutions, invariant measures, Gibbs measures etc.) or stochastic models (thus involving stochastic partial differential equations). The article consists of: 1. Introduction, 2.1. The Boltzmann equation, 2.2. Results and methods, 2.3. Open problems, 3. Fluid mechanics models, 3.1. Compressible Euler equations, 3.2. Compressible Navier-Stokes equations, 3.3. Incompressible equations, 3.4. Open problems, 4. Singularities, uniqueness, stability, stochastic models. There are 44 references given. For the entire collection see [Zbl 1047.00015].