Absence of splash singularities for SQG sharp fronts and the Muskat problem

Abstract

In this paper for either the sharp front Surface Quasi-Geostrophic equation or the Muskat problem we rule out the "splash singularity" blow-up scenario; in other words we prove that the contours evolving from either of these systems can not intersect at a single point while the free boundary remains smooth. Splash singularities have been shown to hold for the free boundary incompressible Euler equation in the form of the water waves contour evolution problem \cite{ADCPJ}. Our result confirms the numerical simulations in \cite{CFMR} where it is shown that the curvature blows up due to the contours collapsing at a point. Here we prove that maintaining control of the curvature will remove the possibility of pointwise interphase collapse. Another conclusion that we provide is a better understanding of the work \cite{DP3} in which squirt singularities are ruled out; here a positive volume of fluid between the contours can not be ejected in finite time.