Fast escape in incompressible vector fields

Length, area, volume, other geometric measure theory (28A75) Geometric methods in ordinary differential equations (34A26) Topological structure of integral curves, singular points, limit cycles of ordinary differential equations (34C05) Geometric measure and integration theory, integral and normal currents in optimization (49Q15)

Abstract: Swimmers caught in a rip current flowing away from the shore are advised to swim orthogonally to the current to escape it. We describe a mathematical principle in a similar spirit. More precisely, we consider flows

g a m m a

in the plane induced by incompressible vector fields

e x t b f v : m a t h b b R^{2} i g h t a r r o w m a t h b b R^{2}

satisfying

c_{1} < | v | < c_{2} .

The length

e l l

a flow curve

d o t g a m m a (t) = e x t b f v (g a m m a (t))

until

g a m m a

leaves a disk of radius 1 centered at the initial position can be as long as

e l l s i m c_{2} / c_{1}

. The same is true for the orthogonal flow

e x t b f v^{p e r p} = (- e x t b f v_{2}, e x t b f v_{1})

. We show that a combination does strictly better: there always exists a curve flowing first along

e x t b f v^{p e r p}

and then along

e x t b f v

which escapes the unit disk before reaching the length

s q r t 4 p i c_{2} / c_{1}

. Moreover, if the escape length of

e x t b f v

is uniformly

s i m c_{2} / c_{1}

, then the escape length of

e x t b f v^{p e r p}

is uniformly

s i m 1

(allowing for a fast escape from the current). We also prove an elementary quantitative Poincar'{e}-Bendixson theorem that seems to be new.

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scientific article; zbMATH DE number 7650934 (Why is no real title available?)

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