Deep Learning Poised to ‘Blow Up’ Famed Fluid Equations
quantamagazine.org
quantamagazine.org
From what I understand, in the 1930s Jean Leray provided that the 2D (constant viscosity) Navier Stokes have smooth and unique solutions. And in the 1960s Olga Ladyzhenskaya proved that for certain non-constant viscosity laws (which are a lot more realistic than constant viscosity), the 3D Navier Stokes equations have smooth and unique solutions. From a physics perspective, there is no mystery here in terms of whether a properly posed problem will blow-up.
A lot of people (for example: [0]) link the question of whether the Navier-Stokes equations have smooth and unique solutions to turbulence, which makes little sense to me. Take the situations mentioned in the previous paragraph where proofs exist. The turbulence problem still exists there! The problem of turbulence is one of computational complexity. Turbulent flows seem to require a lot of computation.
[0] https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-trouble-with-turbulence-2...
Turbulence indeed is high Kolmogorov complexity (w.r.t some reasonable grammar of numerical mathematics) and thus high computational complexity. But the question of N-S equation's adequacy comes before the question of computing.
I haven't worked on computational fluid dynamics in a long time -- happy to get insights from specialists.
No one I know working in turbulence regards the Navier-Stokes equations as a bad model for turbulence. They typically regard the equations as a source of truth about turbulence.
Focusing on turbulence in incompressible fluids [0], almost every time I've seen a comparison of "direct numerical simulations" using the Navier-Stokes equations against experiments measuring turbulence, the two matched well. Off the top of my head the only time I've encountered a discrepancy was deemed not due to the Navier-Stokes equations themselves but due to not modeling the initial or boundary conditions correctly [1]. Initial conditions refer to the flow field at the start of the simulation. Boundary conditions refer to conditions at a boundary, like a wall. Initial condition modeling is a big issue in certain flow instabilities like the Rayleigh-Taylor instability to my knowledge. The Navier-Stokes equations are chaotic, so they are sensitive to small changes in the initial conditions.
I'm not aware of anyone working on flow instabilities like the Rayleigh-Taylor instability who attributes a discrepancy between the experiments and simulations to an inadequacy of the Navier-Stokes equations. And to my knowledge I don't think any of the mathematicians working on the blow-up problem regard flow instabilities as clues indicating where to focus their attention to make the Euler/Navier-Stokes equations blow-up.
[0] You could, of course, pick a situation where the Navier-Stokes equations are known to not work well independent of turbulence considerations.
[1] Having worked a bit on initial and boundary condition modeling, though not in the context of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability, I can say that initial condition and boundary condition models are often bad, and they are understudied.
As I wrote elsewhere there are good reasons to not use the Boltzmann equation everywhere [3]. Navier-Stokes is simpler and often completely adequate.
There are surely other situations as well; this is just what comes immediately to mind as I had a class covering some of this.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knudsen_number
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_equation
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_simulation_Monte_Carlo
(disclaimer - I do not have expertise in this field)
> In fluid dynamics, the Euler equations are a set of quasilinear partial differential equations governing adiabatic and inviscid flow. They are named after Leonhard Euler. In particular, they correspond to the Navier–Stokes equations with zero viscosity and zero thermal conductivity. [1]
Navier–Stokes equations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navier%E2%80%93Stokes_equation...
> The Navier–Stokes equations mathematically express conservation of momentum and conservation of mass for Newtonian fluids.
Computational fluid dynamics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_fluid_dynamics
Numerical methods in fluid mechanics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerical_methods_in_fluid_mec...
- [ ] Quantum fluid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_fluid
> Quantum mechanical effects become significant for physics in the range of the de Broglie wavelength. For condensed matter, this is when the de Broglie wavelength of a particle is greater than the spacing between the particles in the lattice that comprises the matter. [...]
> The above temperature limit T has different meaning depending on the quantum statistics followed by each system, but generally refers to the point at which the system manifests quantum fluid properties. For a system of fermions, T is an estimation of the Fermi energy of the system, where processes important to phenomena such as superconductivity take place. For bosons, T gives an estimation of the Bose-Einstein condensation temperature.
Classical fluid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_fluid
> Classical fluids [1] are systems of particles which retain a definite volume, and are at sufficiently high temperatures (compared to their Fermi energy) that quantum effects can be neglected [...] Common liquids, e.g., liquid air, gasoline etc., are essentially mixtures of classical fluids. Electrolytes, molten salts, salts dissolved in water, are classical charged fluids. A classical fluid when cooled undergoes a freezing transition. On heating it undergoes an evaporation transition and becomes a classical gas that obeys Boltzmann statistics.
Chaos theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory
> Chaos theory is [...] focused on underlying patterns and deterministic laws highly sensitive to initial conditions in dynamical systems that were thought to have completely random states of disorder and irregularities. [1] Chaos theory states that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, interconnectedness, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals, and self-organization.
Quantum chaos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_chaos
> If quantum mechanics does not demonstrate an exponential sensitivity to initial conditions, how can exponential sensitivity to initial conditions arise in classical chaos, which must be the correspondence principle limit of quantum mechanics?
... in dynamic, nonlinear - possibly adaptive - complex systems.
FWIU the AlphaZero for Fusion optimization is for the non-fluid plasma Deep Learning convex optimization part of the problem?
pip install tequila-basic
https://github.com/tequilahub/tequila#quantumchemistry
https://github.com/tequilahub/tequila-tutorials/blob/main/Ch...
- "12 Steps to Navier-Stokes"
- Differential programming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differentiable_programming : gradients; sometimes gradient descent
- Neural Networks for PDE
> In mathematics, a differentiable function of one real variable is a function whose derivative exists at each point in its domain
If there is a ZeroDivisionError because a denominator is zero, is that actually a differentiable function?
-x**-1
-1/x
Divergence theorem ... Fluid diverconvergences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergence_theorem :
> The divergence theorem is an important result for the mathematics of physics and engineering, particularly in electrostatics and fluid dynamics. In these fields, it is usually applied in three dimensions. However, it generalizes to any number of dimensions. In one dimension, it is equivalent to integration by parts. In two dimensions, it is equivalent to Green's theorem. [...] Explanation using liquid flow [...]
"Logarithms yearning to be free" re: symbolic limits and currently non-axiomatic Infinity https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31015139
... Quantum thermodynamics, fluids, and chaotic divergence
In the context of derivatives, "exists" means that this limit is a finite number.
If the derivative function has an expression which is a fraction whose denominator becomes null at a point, the derivative may exist or not exist at that point.
If the corresponding numerator at that point is non-null (i.e. the derivative is infinite), then the derivative does not exist and the original function is not differentiable at that point.
If the numerator is also null, the derivative may exist or not at that point, depending on whether the limit of the derivative exists or not.
Is it more correct to say that, if the denominator is zero at that point, the derivative is just non-Real because it's e.g. `n*x*oo`?
Practically, do we just say that such actually discontinuous functions are still mostly differentiable but the derivative does not exist in non-symbolic space?
FWIW, does [quantum] thermodynamics predict emergent behaviors amongst self-organizing systems apparently at least temporarily contradicting a tendency to entropic decay?
My understanding is that no: fluid dynamics, quantum fluid dynamics, and quantum chemistry are not sufficient to describe and thus cannot predict emergent behaviors in complex nonlinear - possibly emergently adaptive - complex systems.
Emergence occurs in/of/by/within/betwixt/between systems; in application emergent programs require human-level intelligence ethical filters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence
Perhaps before describing physical systems with current best known descriptions as multi-field (QFT,QQ,) wave-particle[-fluid] interactions with convergent and divergent e.g convection, it's appropriate to compare the difference between Classical and Quantum Wave Interference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_interference#Quantum_inte...
> some of the differences between classical wave interference and quantum interference: (a) In classical interference, two different waves interfere; In quantum interference, the wavefunction interferes with itself. (b) Classical interference is obtained simply by adding the displacements from equilibrium (or amplitudes) of the two waves; In quantum interference, the effect occurs for the probability function associated with the wavefunction and therefore the absolute value of the wavefunction squared. (c) The interference involves different types of mathematical functions: A classical wave is a real function representing the displacement from an equilibrium position; a quantum wavefunction is a complex function. A classical wave at any point can be positive or negative; the quantum probability function is non-negative.
Thus our best descriptions of emergent behavior in fluids (and chemicals and fields) must presumably be composed at least in part from quantum wave functions that e.g. Navier-Stokes also fit for; with a fitness function.
I remember seeing that buggy behaviour a few months ago, but as it’s still there, I’m starting to think not everyone might see it.