Geometric effects on the persistence of patch structures for 2D Euler equations in simply-connected bounded domains
Abstract
We first prove a rigidity result for uniformly rotating vortex patch solutions to Euler equations in bounded simply-connected planar domains. Namely, if a bounded simply-connected domain with real-analytic boundary contains a nontrivial vortex patch that remains strictly inside the domain while undergoing a uniform rigid rotation, then the ambient domain must be a disc centered at the rotation center. The proof combines the rotating-frame formulation with harmonic unique continuation and the generalized Schwarz's reflection principle across analytic boundary arcs. These tools imply that, unless the outer domain is rotationally invariant, the velocity must vanish in an open region surrounding the patch, contradicting the nonzero circulation generated by the patch. In the same spirit, we show that only circular domains possess a circular point vortex orbit. As a second result, we construct quasi-periodic vortex patch solutions to the Euler equations in domains that are small perturbations of the unit disc 𝔻. The amplitudes of the solutions are linked to the size of the domain deformation, allowing the classical Rankine vortices b·𝔻, b∈(0,1), to be regarded as equilibrium states. Our analysis is perturbative with respect to the construction developed in the undeformed case, and the resulting quasi-periodic solutions exist for most values of the inner radius b. This provides the first construction of quasi-periodic vortex patch solutions to the Euler equations in non-radial domains. Moreover, combined with the rigidity result established above, this shows that, in the periodic case, these solutions cannot arise from a purely rigid rotation.
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BibTeX
@misc{roulley2026geometric,
title = {{Geometric effects on the persistence of patch structures for 2D Euler equations in simply-connected bounded domains}},
author = {Emeric Roulley},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.08679},
eprint = {2610.08679},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.08679},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Geometric effects on the persistence of patch structures for 2D Euler equations in simply-connected bounded domains
AU - Emeric Roulley
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/06
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.08679
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.08679
AB - We first prove a rigidity result for uniformly rotating vortex patch solutions to Euler equations in bounded simply-connected planar domains. Namely, if a bounded simply-connected domain with real-analytic boundary contains a nontrivial vortex patch that remains strictly inside the domain while undergoing a uniform rigid rotation, then the ambient domain must be a disc centered at the rotation center. The proof combines the rotating-frame formulation with harmonic unique continuation and the generalized Schwarz's reflection principle across analytic boundary arcs. These tools imply that, unless the outer domain is rotationally invariant, the velocity must vanish in an open region surrounding the patch, contradicting the nonzero circulation generated by the patch. In the same spirit, we show that only circular domains possess a circular point vortex orbit. As a second result, we construct quasi-periodic vortex patch solutions to the Euler equations in domains that are small perturbations of the unit disc 𝔻. The amplitudes of the solutions are linked to the size of the domain deformation, allowing the classical Rankine vortices b·𝔻, b∈(0,1), to be regarded as equilibrium states. Our analysis is perturbative with respect to the construction developed in the undeformed case, and the resulting quasi-periodic solutions exist for most values of the inner radius b. This provides the first construction of quasi-periodic vortex patch solutions to the Euler equations in non-radial domains. Moreover, combined with the rigidity result established above, this shows that, in the periodic case, these solutions cannot arise from a purely rigid rotation.
ER -