Small-data global existence of solutions for the Pitaevskii model of superfluidity

Abstract

We investigate a micro-scale model of superfluidity derived by Pitaevskii in 1959 to describe the interacting dynamics between the superfluid and normal fluid phases of Helium-4. The model involves the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation (NLS) and the Navier-Stokes equations (NSE), coupled to each other via a bidirectional nonlinear relaxation mechanism. Depending on the nature of the nonlinearity in the NLS, we prove global/almost global existence of solutions to this system in $\mathbb{T}^2$ -- strong in wavefunction and velocity, and weak in density.