Differential equations, Partial

The study of the long time behavior of nonlinear systems is not effortless, but it is very rewarding. The computation of invariant objects, in particular manifolds provide the scientist with the ability to make predictions at the frontiers of science. However, due to the presence of strong nonlinearities in many important applications, understanding the propagation of errors becomes necessary in order to quantify the reliability of these predictions, and to build sound foundations for future discoveries.
This dissertation develops methods for the accurate computation of high-order polynomial approximations of stable/unstable manifolds attached to long periodic orbits in discrete time dynamical systems. For this purpose a multiple shooting scheme is applied to invariance equations for the manifolds obtained using the Parameterization Method developed by Xavier Cabre, Ernest Fontich and Rafael De La Llave in [CFdlL03a, CFdlL03b, CFdlL05].

In this work, we develop an extension of the generalized Fourier transform for exterior domains due to T. Ikebe and A. Ramm for all dimensions n>2 to study the Laplacian, and fractional Laplacian operators in such a domain. Using the harmonic extension approach due to L. Caffarelli and L. Silvestre, we can obtain a localized version of the operator, so that it is precisely the square root of the Laplacian as a self-adjoint operator in L2 with DIrichlet boundary conditions. In turn, this allowed us to obtain a maximum principle for solutions of the dissipative two-dimensional quasi-geostrophic equation the exterior domain, which we apply to prove decay results using an adaptation of the Fourier Splitting method of M.E. Schonbek.

In this thesis we will discuss connections between Hamiltonian systems with a periodic kick and planar diffeomorphisms. After a brief overview of Hamiltonian theory we will focus, as an example, on derivations of the Hâenon map that can be obtained by considering kicked Hamiltonian systems. We will conclude with examples of Hâenon maps of interest.

Spectral decomposition is a method of expressing functions as a harmonic series, and can be used for the simplification of complicated physical problems. This type of analysis requires knowledge of the function at all points on a circle or sphere. In problems where the function is known only at discreet points, regular intervals in a rectangular grid, for example, numerical methods must be employed to compute approximate coefficients for the harmonic expansion. In this paper, we investigate numerical methods for computing Fourier coefficients of a two dimensional function at a fixed radius, and spherical harmonic coefficients in three dimensions on a sphere of fixed radius.