Vortices for lake equations (review with questions and speculations)

Abstract

The `lake equation' on a planar domain D with bathymetry b(x,y) is given by $ \partial_t u + (u \cdot {\rm grad}) u= -{\rm grad}\, p \,, \,\,{\rm div} (b u) = 0 \,,\, \text{with}\,\, u \parallel \partial D.$ % \, \,\, \,\,\, \text{),}$$ We focus on Geometric Mechanics aspects, glossing over hard analysis issues. % related to the desingularization. Motivating example is a `rip current' produced by vortex pairs near a beach shore. For uniform slope beach there is a perfect analogy with \ Thomson's vortex rings. The stream function produced by a vortex is defined as the Green function of the operator $- {\rm div} ( {\rm grad} \psi/b)$ with Dirichlet boundary conditions. As in elasticity, the lake equations give rise to pseudoanalytical functions and quasiconformal mappings. Uniformly elliptic equations on closed Riemann surfaces could be called `planet equations'.