Boundary regularity of rotating vortex patches

Abstract

We show that the boundary of a rotating vortex patch (or V-state, in the terminology of Deem and Zabusky) is of class C^infinity provided the patch is close enough to the bifurcation circle in the Lipschitz norm. The rotating patch is convex if it is close enough to the bifurcation circle in the C^2 norm. Our proof is based on Burbea's approach to V-states. Thus conformal mapping plays a relevant role as well as estimating, on H\"older spaces, certain non-convolution singular integral operators of Calder\'on-Zygmund type.