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Alberto Enciso

Publications and source records attributed to Alberto Enciso.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

The finiteness conjecture for equilibria of electric fields generated by point charges of one sign

We prove that the electric field generated in three-dimensional space by finitely many point charges of one sign has only finitely many equilibrium points, thereby answering a 1969 question of Morse and Cairns (restated by Eremenko in 2008 and, as a conjecture, by Shapiro in 2015). More generally, for nonzero charges $q_i$ of possibly mixed signs at distinct sites $\mathbf a_i\in\mathbf{R}^3$, we show that the Coulomb field has at most $2^{N-4}(N-1)(9N^2+9N+10)$ equilibria in the region where $S(\mathbf x):=\sum_iq_i|\mathbf x-\mathbf a_i|^{-3}$ does not vanish. Of course, for charges of one sign, $S$ is nonzero everywhere. The proof rules out curves of equilibria using algebraic geometry and complex analysis on an associated complex curve, and then applies a B\'ezout count to obtain a quantitative bound. Well-known examples show that, in the mixed-sign case, the Coulomb field can vanish on curves contained in the zero set of $S$.

math.DS↗
arXiv2026

Vortex-sheet desingularization for three-dimensional ideal fluids

We prove a desingularization theorem for analytic vortex sheets of the 3D incompressible Euler equations. Starting from an analytic solution of the corresponding Birkhoff-Rott system, we construct, for every sufficiently small thickness parameter $\varepsilon>0 $, an exact Euler vorticity supported on a tubular neighborhood of width $ O(\varepsilon) $ around the sheet, and defined on a time interval that does not shrink to 0 as $\varepsilon \to 0$. We show that, as $\varepsilon \to 0$, these vorticities converge, in the sense of distributions, to the prescribed vortex sheet. In particular, we conclude that analytic 3D vortex sheet motions arise as limits of exact Euler flows with lifespan bounded from below independently of $ \varepsilon $. The proof hinges on the study of vorticities defined in terms of a time-dependent foliation by almost parallel surfaces and of divergence-free vector fields tangent to these surfaces.

math.AP↗
arXiv2026

A Local-to-Global Propagation Principle for Dirichlet-to-Neumann Maps

We establish four local-to-global propagation results for Dirichlet--to--Neumann maps. Our first two results are proved in the general setting of smooth compact Riemannian manifolds with boundary. The first shows that if two smooth Riemannian metrics coincide in a collar neighborhood of a connected boundary component \(\Gamma\), then equality of the corresponding local Dirichlet--to--Neumann maps on a nonempty open subset of \(\Gamma\) propagates to equality of the associated global Dirichlet--to--Neumann maps on all of \(\Gamma\). The proof combines unique continuation and self-adjointness arguments. The second replaces the geometric collar assumption by an exponential spectral assumption on the difference of the corresponding global Dirichlet--to--Neumann maps. The proof relies on the spectral unique continuation theory of Jerison--Lebeau, through the formulation of Le~Rousseau--Lebeau. Our third and fourth results establish local-to-global propagation principles under Ingham-type quasi--analytic spectral assumptions. Assuming that the boundary manifold is respectively a compact Riemannian symmetric space or a compact quasi--analytic Riemannian manifold, they rely on the propagation theorems of Ganguly--Thangavelu and of Bhowmik--Pradhan. As an application, we consider a class of conformally warped product metrics. In this setting, the local Borg--Marchenko theorem and Weyl--Titchmarsh theory relate the required Ingham-type spectral decay to a suitable quasi--analytic boundary closeness of the conformal factors, yielding new local-to-global uniqueness results for Dirichlet--to--Neumann maps.

math.AP↗
arXiv2026

A Sharp Regularity Threshold for Uniqueness in Riemannian Calder\'on-type Problems

We prove a sharp regularity threshold for uniqueness in two anisotropic Calder\'on-type inverse problems in dimension $n\ge 3$. The main setting is the Riemannian Schr\"odinger problem with fixed scalar potential: for a prescribed nonconstant analytic function $V$, we study whether the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map of $-\Delta_g+V$ on a domain $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n$ determines the unknown metric $g$. The natural gauge is the group of boundary-fixing diffeomorphisms preserving $V$. We show that, while analytic metrics are uniquely determined modulo this gauge by a minor adaptation of the Lassas--Uhlmann reconstruction theorem, uniqueness fails densely in every non-analytic Gevrey class $G^\sigma$, $\sigma>1$. In fact, our counterexamples are not isometric in the sense that they are not connected by the pushforward of any diffeomorphism of $\overline\Omega$. We also prove the analogous sharp threshold for the anisotropic Calder\'on problem at fixed nonzero frequency, thereby upgrading the previously known finite-regularity counterexamples to Gevrey and $C^\infty$ regularity. The two constructions use different scalar mechanisms: for fixed potentials, the nonconstant potential itself provides a local coordinate, while at nonzero frequency one uses a compactly supported prescribed-Jacobian lemma in Gevrey spaces. Thus analyticity is the exact threshold for uniqueness in both problems.

math.AP↗
arXiv2025

Non-density of nodal lines in the clamped plate problem

We show that, in contrast to the case of Laplace eigenfunctions, the nodal set of high energy eigenfunctions of the clamped plate problem is not necessarily dense, and can in fact exhibit macroscopic "nodal voids". Specifically, we show that there are small deformations of the unit disk admitting a clamped plate eigenfunction of arbitrarily high frequency that does not vanish in a disk of radius 0.44.

math.AP↗
arXiv2025

The Dirichlet-to-Neumann map on asymptotically anti-de Sitter spaces and holography

We consider the Klein-Gordon equation on asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes, and show that the forward Dirichlet-to-Neumann map (or scattering matrix) is a fractional power of the boundary wave operator modulo lower order terms in the sense of paired Lagrangian distributions. We use it to show that, outside of a countable set of mass parameters, the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map determines the Taylor series of the bulk metric at the boundary, and hence allows the recovery of a real analytic metric or Einstein metric modulo isometries. Furthermore, we prove a Lorentzian version of the Graham-Zworski theorem relating poles of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map to conformally invariant powers of the boundary wave operator.

math.AP↗
arXiv2025

Splash-squeeze singularities and analytic breakdown in ideal incompressible MHD

We construct splash-squeeze singularities for the free boundary ideal incompressible plasma-vacuum system, in which two arcs of the plasma boundary come together to form a smooth, glancing self-intersection. As the interface self-intersects, Sobolev norms remain bounded, although analyticity is necessarily lost. This contrasts classical splash singularities, in which solutions remain analytic up to the time of self-intersection. The narrowing gap bounded by these arcs is not occupied by plasma, as squeezing the plasma itself would cause blow-up in Sobolev norms. Instead, the gap represents the region outside the plasma, a vacuum carrying a nontrivial magnetic field. The plasma on either side pinches the field as the gap closes, and, in response, the field flattens to infinite order at the intersection point (and nowhere else), thereby forming an analytic singularity. This gives the first example of analytic breakdown without Sobolev blow-up in a locally well-posed free-boundary incompressible fluid system, and can be viewed as the first rigorous construction of a squeeze-type singularity, in which we study and quantify the precise behavior of an active, incompressible vector field as it is completely pinched off by a free-boundary in finite time. The proof combines a magnetically-aligned Lagrangian formulation of ideal MHD together with weighted elliptic estimates in the vacuum that remain uniform as the width of the gap tends to zero. Our framework may provide a starting point for the analysis of squeeze-type singularities in other incompressible fluid models.

math.AP↗
arXiv2025

Uniformly rotating Euler flows with compactly supported velocity

For any positive integer $k$, we prove the existence of nontrivial $C^k$-smooth uniformly rotating solutions to the 2D incompressible Euler equations with compact spatial support. These solutions, which can be chosen to be small perturbations of radial flows, are the first example of smooth rotating flows with finite energy which are not locally radial. We also prove new rigidity results for rotating solutions which show that the geometric structure of these flows is severely constrained.

math.AP↗
arXiv2025

Linear inviscid damping for stably stratified Boussinesq flows

We study the linear asymptotic stability of stably stratified monotone shear flows for the Boussinesq equations in the periodic channel. By means of the limiting absorption principle, we obtain a precise description of the inviscid damping experienced by the perturbed velocity field and density, with time-decay rates that depend on the local Richardson number $\mathcal{J}(y)$ and split into four stratification regimes (non-stratified, weak, mild, and strong) reflecting qualitative changes in the structure of the Green's function at the critical thresholds $\mathcal{J}(y)=0$ and $\mathcal{J}(y) = \frac14$. The velocity and density decay estimates are later used to prove quantitative sub-linear growth of the vorticity and gradient of density. As a byproduct of our analysis, we show that, under mild hypotheses on the underlying shear-type equilibrium, the spectrum of the linearised Boussinesq operator is purely continuous.

math.AP↗
arXiv2025

Low-energy dynamics in generic potential fields: Hyperbolic periodic orbits and non-ergodicity

We prove that, on each low energy level, the natural Hamiltonian system defined by a generic smooth potential on $\mathbf{T}^2$ exhibits an arbitrarily high number of hyperbolic periodic orbits and a positive-measure set of invariant tori. Hence, quasi-periodic motion and hyperbolic behavior typically coexist in the low-energy dynamics of natural Hamiltonian systems with two degrees of freedom.

math.DS↗
arXiv2025

H\"older continuous dissipative solutions of ideal MHD with nonzero helicity

We prove the existence of weak solutions to the 3D ideal MHD equations, of class $C^\alpha$ with $\alpha=1/200$, for which the total energy and the cross helicity (i.e., the so-called Els\"asser energies) are not conserved. The solutions do not possess any symmetry properties and the magnetic helicity, which is necessarily conserved for H\"older continuous solutions, is nonzero. The construction, which works both on the torus $\mathbb{T}^3$ and on $\mathbb{R}^3$ with compact spatial support, is based on a novel convex integration scheme in which the magnetic helicity is preserved at each step. This is the first construction of continuous weak solutions at a regularity level where one conservation law (here, the magnetic helicity) is necessarily preserved while another (here, the total energy or cross helicity) is not, and where the preservation of the former is nontrivial in the sense that it does not follow from symmetry considerations.

math.AP↗
arXiv2025

Desingularization of vortex sheets for the 2D Euler equations

We show how to regularize vortex sheets by means of smooth, compactly supported vorticities that asymptotically evolve according to the Birkhoff-Rott vortex sheet dynamics. More precisely, consider a vortex sheet initial datum $\omega^0_{\mathrm{sing}}$, which is a signed Radon measure supported on a closed curve. We construct a family of initial vorticities $\omega^0_\varepsilon \in C^\infty_c(\mathbb{R}^2)$ converging to $\omega^0_{\mathrm{sing}}$ distributionally as $\varepsilon \to 0^+$, and show that the corresponding solutions $\omega_\varepsilon(x,t)$ to the 2D incompressible Euler equations converge to the measure defined by the Birkhoff-Rott system with initial datum $\omega^0_{\mathrm{sing}}$. The regularization relies on a layer construction designed to exploit the key observation that the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability has a strongly anisotropic effect: while vorticities must be analytic in the "tangential" direction, the way layers can be arranged in the "normal" direction is essentially arbitrary.

math.AP↗
arXiv2025

Local limits of high energy eigenfunctions on integrable billiards

Berry's random wave conjecture posits that high energy eigenfunctions of chaotic systems resemble random monochromatic waves at the Planck scale. One important consequence is that, at the Planck scale around "many" points in the manifold, any solution to the Helmholtz equation $\Delta\varphi+\varphi =0$ can be approximated by high energy eigenfunctions. This property, sometimes called inverse localization, has useful applications to the study of the nodal sets of eigenfunctions. Alas, the only manifold for which the local limits of a sequence of high energy eigenfunctions are rigorously known to be given by random waves is the flat torus $(\mathbf{R}/\mathbf{Z})^2$, which is certainly not chaotic. Our objective in this paper is to study the validity of this "inverse localization" property in the class of integrable billiards, exploiting the fact that integrable polygonal billiards are classified and that Birkhoff conjectured that ellipses are the only smooth integrable billiards. Our main results show that, while there are infinitely many integrable polygons exhibiting good inverse localization properties, for "most" integrable polygons and ellipses, this property fails dramatically. We thus conclude that, in a generic integrable billiard, the local limits of Dirichlet and Neumann eigenfunctions do not match random waves, as one might expect in view of Berry's conjecture. Extensions to higher dimensions and nearly integrable polygons are discussed too.

math.SP↗
arXiv2025

Steady 3d Euler flows via a topology-preserving convex integration scheme

Given any smooth solenoidal vector field $v_0$ on $\mathbf T^3$, we show the existence of infinitely many H\"older-continuous steady Euler flows $v$ with the same topology as $v_0$, in certain weak sense. In particular, we show that $v$ possesses a unique flow of the highest H\"older regularity, which is conjugate to the flow of $v_0$ via a volume-preserving H\"older homeomorphism of $\mathbf T^3$. This result extends to the case of Euler equations on toroidal domains, which has applications to the study of plasmas. The proof relies on a novel convex integration scheme incorporating the key idea that the velocity field of the subsolutions must remain diffeomorphic to $v_0$ at each iteration step.

math.AP↗
arXiv2024

Positive solutions to general semilinear overdetermined boundary problems

We establish the existence of positive solutions to a general class of overdetermined semilinear elliptic boundary problems on suitable bounded open sets $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n$. Specifically, for $n\leq 4$ and under mild technical hypotheses on the coefficients and the nonlinearity, we show that there exist open sets $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n$ with smooth boundary and of any prescribed volume where the overdetermined problem admits a positive solution. The proof builds on ideas of Alt and Caffarelli on variational problems for functions defined on a bounded region. In our case, we need to consider functions defined on the whole $\mathbb{R}^n$, so the key challenge is to obtain uniform bounds for the minimizer and for the diameter of its support. Our methods extend to higher dimensions, although in this case the free boundary $\partial\Omega$ could have a singular set of codimension 5. The results are new even in the case of the Poisson equation $-\Delta v =g(x)$ with constant Neumann data.

math.AP↗
arXiv2024

A Calder\'{o}n Problem for Beltrami Fields

On a $3$-dimensional Riemannian manifold with boundary, we define an analogue of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map for Beltrami fields, which are the eigenvectors of the curl operator and play a major role in fluid mechanics. This map sends the normal component of a Beltrami field to its tangential component on the boundary. In this paper we establish two results showing how this normal-to-tangential map encodes geometric information on the underlying manifold. First, we show that the normal-to-tangential map is a pseudodifferential operator of order zero on the boundary whose total symbol determines the Taylor series of the metric at the boundary. Second, we go on to show that a real-analytic simply connected $3$-manifold can be reconstructed from its normal-to-tangential map. Interestingly, since Green's functions do not exist for the Beltrami field equation, a key idea of the proof is to find an appropriate substitute, which turn out to have a natural physical interpretation as the magnetic fields generated by small current loops.

math.AP↗