On concentrated traveling vortex pairs with prescribed impulse

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a constrained maximization problem related to planar vortex pairs with prescribed impulse. We prove existence, stability and asymptotic behavior for the maximizers, hence obtain a family of stable traveling vortex pairs approaching a pair of point vortices with equal magnitude and opposite signs. As a corollary, we get fine asymptotic estimates for Burton's vortex pairs with large impulse. For the non-concentrated case, we prove a form of stability for the Chaplygin-Lamb dipole.