Non-Uniqueness and Inadmissibility of the Vanishing Viscosity Limit of the Passive Scalar Transport Equation

Abstract

We study the vanishing viscosity/diffusivity limit for the transport equation of a passive scalar f(x,t)∈R along a divergence-free vector field u(x,t)∈R2, given by ∂f∂t+∇⋅(uf)=0; and the associated advection-diffusion equation of f along u for positive viscosity/diffusivity parameter ν>0, expressed by ∂f∂t+∇⋅(uf)−νΔf=0. We demonstrate failure of the vanishing viscosity limit of the advection-diffusion equation to select unique solutions, or to select entropy-admissible solutions, to transport along u. First, we construct a bounded divergence-free vector field u which admits, for each (non-constant) initial datum, two weak solutions to the initial value problem for the transport equation. Moreover, we show that both these solutions are renormalised weak solutions, and are strong limits along different subsequences of vanishing viscosity of solutions to the corresponding advection-diffusion equation. Second, we construct a second bounded divergence-free vector field u admitting, for any initial datum, a weak solution to the transport equation which is perfectly mixed to its spatial average, and after some delay in time, it unmixes to its initial state. Moreover, we show that this entropy-inadmissible unmixing is the unique weak vanishing viscosity limit of the corresponding advection-diffusion equation.