Parameter Identification in Traveling Wave Solutions of a Modified Fisher’s Equation

In this work, we focus on the inverse problem of determining the parameters in a partial differential equation from given numerical solutions. For this purpose, we consider a modified Fisher’s equation that includes a relaxation time in relating the flux to the gradient of the density and an added cubic non-linearity. We show that such equations still possess traveling wave solutions by using standard methods for nonlinear dynamical systems in which fixed points in the phase plane are found and their stability characteristics are classified. A heteroclinic orbit in the phase plane connecting a saddle point to a node represents the traveling wave solution. We then design parameter estimation/discovery algorithms for this system including a few based on machine learning methods and compare their performance.

Dynamics and Equilibria of N Point Charges on a 2D Ellipse or a 3D Ellipsoid

We consider the so-called Thomson problem which refers to finding the equilibrium distribution of a finite number of mutually repelling point charges on the surface of a sphere, but for the case where the sphere is replaced by a spheroid or ellipsoid. To get started, we first consider the problem in two dimensions, with point charges on circles (for which the equilibrium distribution is intuitively obvious) and ellipses. We then generalize the approach to the three-dimensional case of an ellipsoid. The method we use is to begin with a random distribution of charges on the surface and allow each point charge to move tangentially to the surface due to the sum of all Coulomb forces it feels from the other charges. Deriving the proper equations of motion requires using a projection operator to project the total force on each point charge onto the tangent plane of the surface. The position vectors then evolve and find their final equilibrium distribution naturally. For the case of ellipses and ellipsoids or spheroids, we find that multiple distinct equilibria are possible for certain numbers of charges, depending on the starting conditions. We characterize these based on their total potential energies. Some of the equilibria found turn out to represent local minima in the potential energy landscape, while others represent the global minimum. We devise a method based on comparing the moment-of-inertia tensors of the final configurations to distinguish them from one another.

A Poisson Solver Based on Iterations on a Sylvester System

We present an iterative scheme for solving Poisson’s equation in 2D. Using finite differences, we discretize the equation into a Sylvester system, AU +UB = F, involving tridiagonal matrices A and B. The iterations occur on this Sylvester system directly after introducing a deflation-type parameter that enables optimized convergence. Analytical bounds are obtained on the spectral radii of the iteration matrices. Our method is comparable to Successive Over-Relaxation (SOR) and amenable to compact programming via vector/array operations. It can also be implemented within a multigrid framework with considerable improvement in performance as shown herein.