Abstract
The recent paper considers a hydrodynamic flow of compressible biaxial nematic liquid crystal in dimension one. For initial density without vacuum states, we obtain both existence and uniqueness of global classical solutions. While for initial density with possible vacuum states, both the existence and uniqueness of global strong solutions are given.
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
1 Introduction
Let \(I=[0,1],Q_T=I\times (0,T)\) for any \(T>0\) and \({\mathcal {N}}=\{(n,m)\in S^2\times S^2|\ n\cdot m=0\}, \) here \(S^2\) is the unit sphere in \(R^3.\) In recent paper, we will consider the following compressible hydrodynamic flow of biaxial nematic liquid crystals
with the following initial and boundary condition:
where \(\rho :Q_T\rightarrow R \) denotes the density, \(v:Q_T\rightarrow R\) represents the velocity, \(n:Q_T\rightarrow S^2\) and \(m:Q_T\rightarrow S^2\) are orthogonal unit vector fields of the biaxial nematic liquid crystal molecules, here \(P(\rho )=r\rho ^{\gamma }: Q_T\rightarrow R\) denotes the pressure for some constants \(\gamma >1\) and \(r>0.\) For convenient, let \(\lambda =\mu =\theta =r=1.\)
The system (1.1) is a coupling between the compressible Navier–Stokes equations and a heat flow, which is a macroscopic continuum description of the development for the biaxial nematic liquid crystals. Based on the Landau–De Gennes Q-tensor theory, Govers and Vertogen proposed the elastic continuum theory of biaxial nematics in [9, 10]. The Govers–Vertogen model uses a pair of orthogonal unit vector fields \((n, m)\in {\mathcal {N}}\), to describe the orientation field of a nematic liquid crystal, and considers the elastic energy density \({\mathcal {W}}(n,m,\nabla n, \nabla m)\) to be of the Oseen–Frank type. In this paper, we focus on the special elastic energy density has a simple form
Then, if we ignore \(\rho \) and v, (1.1) is a system with special elastic energy density \({\mathcal {W}}(n,\nabla n,\nabla m)\) in dimension one. If we ignore m, (1.1) becomes the compressible uniaxial nematic liquid crystal equations [2].
Now we first recall some previous works on the existence and uniqueness of solutions to the related systems. Ericksen [5] and Leslie [14] in the 1960s derived firstly the hydrodynamic theory of incompressible uniaxial nematic liquid crystals. This theory simplified to the incompressible uniaxial nematic liquid crystal equations, which has been successfully studied (see [6, 7, 13, 17, 18, 20, 26] and so on for the constant density case, and [8, 15, 16, 27] and so on for nonconstant density case for example). For the compressible uniaxial nematic liquid crystal equations, Ding et al. [2, 4] obtained the global existences of classical, strong and weak solutions in dimension one, while authors in [24] obtained the global existence and regularity of solutions in suitable Hilbert spaces in Lagrangian coordinates. In higher dimensions, authors in [23] obtained the global existence of weak solution with large initial energy and without any smallness condition on the initial density and velocity in a three-dimensional bounded domain. Lin et al. [19] established the existence of finite energy weak solutions with the large initial data in dimensions three, provided the initial orientational director field lies in the upper hemisphere. Wen et al. in [11, 12] obtained the local existence of strong solution and blow-up criterion compressible nematic liquid crystal flows in dimension three. Gao et al. [8] obtained the global well-posedness of classical solution under the condition of small perturbation of constant equilibrium state in the suitable Hilbert space. Authors in [21] derived a global existence of classical solution with smooth initial data which is of small energy but possibly large oscillations in \(R^3.\) For more about the progress of mathematical researches on liquid crystals, the interested readers can consult with the review articles [1, 22, 28].
For the hydrodynamic flows of incompressible biaxial nematics with a constant density, Lin et al. in [18] have derived the existence of unique global weak solution in two dimensions which is smooth off at most finitely many singular times. Authors in [3] have derived the weak compactness property of solutions in two dimensions as the parameter tends to zero by Pohozaev argument.
Inspired by the work on the hydrodynamics of compressible uniaxial nematics with a nonconstant density [2], we consider the global classical and strong solutions to (1.1)–(1.2). For initial density \(\rho _0\) without vacuum states, we obtain our first result on the existence and uniqueness of global classical solutions.
Theorem 1.1
For \(\alpha \in (0,1),\) let \( \rho _{0}\in C^{1+\alpha }(I) \) with \(C_{0}^{-1}\le \rho _{0}\le C_{0}\) for some positive constant \(C_0,\) \(v_{0}\in C^{2+\alpha }(I) \) and \((n_{0}, m_{0})\in {\mathcal {N}}\) with \(n_{0}, m_{0}\in C^{2+\alpha }(I).\) Then, (1.1)–(1.2) has a unique global classical solution \((\rho ,v,n,m):I\times [0,+\infty )\rightarrow {[0,+\infty )\times R \times S^{2} \times S^{2}}, \) such that for any \(T>0, \) there hold
for a positive constant \( C_1\) depending on \(C_0\) and T.
For initial density \(\rho _0\) with possible vacuum states, we obtain our second result on the global existence and uniqueness of strong solutions.
Theorem 1.2
Let \(0\le \rho _{0}\in H^{1}(I), v_{0}\in H_{0}^{1}(I)\) and \((n_{0},m_{0})\in {\mathcal {N}} \) with \(n_{0},m_{0}\in H^{2}(I). \) (1.1)–(1.2) has a unique global strong solution \((\rho ,v,n,m) \) such that for any \(T>0,\) there hold \((n,m)\in {\mathcal {N}}\) and
Our two results extend the works in [2] to biaxial nematic liquid crystals. However, because of the additional vector m and term \(|n\cdot \nabla m|^2\) in elastic energy density, there are many difficulties to overcome. For example, to use the Schauder theory in constructing local existence in Sect. 2, we use some modifications in deriving the map H. To prove the global existence of solutions, we have to overcome some difficulties coming from some terms similar to gradient square like terms, for example, \((n_x\cdot m)m_x\) and \(|n\cdot m_x|^2.\) In Sect. 4, in order to use the result of Theorem 1.1, we will construct a suitable approximate initial \(n_0^k\) and \(m_0^k\) such that \((n_0^k,m_0^k)\in {\mathcal {N}}.\) Meanwhile, one observes that the system (1.1) is strongly coupled and the equations therein are strongly nonlinear. All of these suggest the main difficulties in the global estimates.
Throughout this paper, we will use the following notices for simplicity.
The paper is organized as follows. In Sect. 2, the existence of local classical solutions of (1.1)–(1.2) is proved. In Sect. 3, through deriving some a priori global estimates for classical solutions, we prove the global existence and uniqueness of classical solutions for initial density without vacuum states. In Sect. 4, we prove the global existence and uniqueness of strong solutions for initial density with possible vacuum states.
2 Local classical solution: existence and uniqueness
In this section, we will prove the existence and uniqueness of local classical solutions. We will assume that
We will rewrite (1.1)–(1.2) in Lagrangian coordinate firstly. For any \(T>0,\) introduce the Lagrangian coordinate \((y,\tau )\) on \(I\times (0,T)\) such that
Then, \((x,t)\rightarrow (y,\tau ) \) is a \(C^1-\)bijective map [2]. One also has
By a coordinate transformation, (1.1)–(1.2) can be changed into the following system
and the initial boundary conditions
Then, we have the following result.
Theorem 2.1
For \(0<\alpha <1 ,\) suppose \( \rho _{0}\in C^{1+\alpha }(I)\) with \(0<C_{0}^{-1}\le \rho _{0}(x,t)\le C_{0} \) and \( v_{0}\in C^{2+\alpha }(I), \) \(n_{0}, m_{0}\in C^{2+\alpha }(I) \) with \((n_0,m_0)\in {\mathcal {N}}.\) Then, (1.1)–(1.2) has a unique local classical solution \((\rho ,v,n,m)\) such that there exists \( T=T(\rho _{0},v_{0},n_{0},m_{0})>0\) such that
for some constant \(C>0.\)
Proof
For \(K>0\) large and \(T>0 \) small determined later, define \(X=X(T,K) \) by
where
It can be checked that X is a Banach space.
For any \((u,z,w)\in X,\) we will firstly solve the following equation
In fact, we have
Moreover, since \((u,z,w) \in X, \) we have \(||u||_{X} \le K. \) Then if \(T\le T_{1}:=\frac{1}{2C_{0}K},\) we have
and
From \(u\in C^{2+\alpha ,\frac{2+\alpha }{2}}(Q_{T})\) and \(\rho _{0}\in C^{1+\alpha }(I), \) we know that \(\rho , \rho _{y}\in C^{\alpha ,\frac{\alpha }{2}}(Q_{T})\) by (2.5).
Let \(\rho \) be given by (2.5). Define a map \(H: X\rightarrow \ C^{2+\alpha ,\frac{2+\alpha }{2}}(Q_{T})\) with \(H(u,z,w)=(v,n,m),\) where (v, n, m) solves
with the following initial boundary conditions
Now the proof of Theorem 1.2 is divided into several steps.
Step 1: To prove that H is well defined.
In fact, since \(\rho , \rho _{y}\in C^{\alpha ,\frac{\alpha }{2}}(Q_{T})\) and \(z,w \in C^{2+\alpha ,\frac{2+\alpha }{2}}(Q_{T}),\) we know that (2.8)–(2.9) has a unique solution (v, n, m) in \(C^{2+\alpha ,\frac{2+\alpha }{2}}(Q_{T})\) by the Schauder theory and the boundedness of \(\rho \) from (2.6) and (2.7). Hence, H is well defined.
Step 2: To prove that the image of H is in X, if K is large enough and T small enough.
Let \(C_{1}=||\rho _{0}||_{C^{1+\alpha }(I)}+||v_{0}||_{C^{2+\alpha }(I)}+||n_{0}||_{C^{2+\alpha }(I)}+||m _{0}||_{C^{2+\alpha }(I)}.\) Differentiating (2.5) w.r.t y, we have
Then, (2.5) and (2.10) imply that if \( T\le T_{2}:=\min \left\{ T_{1},(\frac{1}{K})^{\frac{2}{2-\alpha }}\right\} ,\) then
Applying the Schauder theory to (2.8)\(_{2}, \) one gets that for any \(T\le T_2,\)
Since \(w-m_{0} =z-n_{0}=0 \) at \(t=0, \) we get that
By the interpolation inequality, we have that for \(0<\delta <1, \)
Similarly, we also have
Then, we have
One also gets that
Similarly, we have
and
Finally, we also get
By there estimates from (2.13) to (2.17), we have
Similarly, applying the Schauder theory to (2.8)\(_{3}, \) we also have
Taking \(T=\delta ^{2},\) we have
Then, there are \(T_3>0\) small enough and \(K_3>2\) large enough, such that for \(0<T\le T_3\) and \(K> K_3\) there holds that
Now we will estimate v. Applying the Schauder theory to (2.8)\(_{1}, \) we have for \(0<T\le T_3\) and \(K> K_3\) that
It is not hard to see that
Taking \(\delta =\sqrt{T}\) firstly and then \(0<T\le T_4:=\min \{T_3,K^{-1}\},\) we have
By (2.21), we have
and
and
Putting these four estimates together and taking \(K\ge K_5\) for some \(K_5\) large enough, we have
Finally, (2.20) and (2.23) imply that there are \(T>0\) small enough and \(K>0\) large enough such that
Therefore, H is a map X to X.
Step 3: To prove that H is a contract mapping, if \(T>0\) is small enough and \(K>0\) is large enough.
Let \((u_{i},z_{i},w_{i})\in X \) and \((v_{i},n_{i},m_{i})=H(u_{i},z_{i},w_{i}), i=1,2.\) Denote \(\bar{u }=u _{1}-u _{2}, \) \({\bar{z}}=z_{1}-z _{2}, \) \({\bar{w}}=w _{1}-w_{2}, \) \({\bar{v}}=v _{1}-v _{2}, \) \({\bar{n}}=n _{1}-n_{2}, \) \({\bar{m}}=m _{1}-m _{2}, \) and \({\bar{\rho }}=\rho _{1}-\rho _{2}, \) where \(\rho _i\) solves the following equation
Then it is not hard to see that
We get
Because \(\rho _1\) and \(\rho _2\) satisfy (2.11), we get that
We also have
Applying the Schauder theory to (2.25), we get
where we have used (2.24) and
Similarly, we have
Taking \(\delta =\sqrt{T},\) we have
For \({\bar{v}},\) we have
where we have used (2.24) and (2.28).
Therefore, there is \(T>0\) small enough and \(K>0\) large enough, such that
which means that H is a contract map.
Hence by the contractive fixed point theorem, we know that exists a unique \((v,n,m) \in X, \) such that \(H(v,n,m)=(v,n,m).\) Moreover, there is a unique \(\rho \) with \(\rho _y,\rho _\tau \in C^{\alpha ,\frac{\alpha }{2}}(Q_T)\) for some small \(T>0.\) Hence, (2.2)–(2.3) has a unique local classical solution, so as (1.1)–(1.2).
Step 4: To prove that \((n\cdot m)\in {\mathcal {N}}.\)
In fact, multiplying (1.1)\(_3\) by n, we have
Multiplying (1.1)\(_4\) by m, we have
Multiplying (1.1)\(_3\) by m and (1.1)\(_4\) by n, we also have
Denote \(f_1=|n|^2-1\), \(f_2=|m|^2-1\) and \(f_3=n\cdot m\). In order to prove that \( (n,m)\in {\mathcal {N}},\) we just need to prove that \( f_1=f_2=f_3=0.\) From (2.31) to (2.33), we have
Multiplying (2.34) with \(f_1\) and then integrating by parts, we get
Multiplying (2.35) with \(f_2\) and then integrating by parts, we get
Multiplying (2.36) with \(f_3\) and then integrating by parts, we also get
Putting (2.37), (2.38) and (2.39) together, we have
By the regularity of (v, n, m), \((n_0,m_0)\in {\mathcal {N}}\) and Gronwall’s inequality, we get \(f_1(x,t) \equiv f_2(x,t)\equiv f_3(x,t)\equiv 0\) for \((x,t)\in {\overline{Q}}_T.\) Hence \((n,m)\in {\mathcal {N}}.\)
Theorem 2.1 is proved. \(\square \)
3 Global classical solution: Existence and Uniqueness
In Sect. 2, we have obtained the local existence and uniqueness of classical solution. In this section, we will derive some global estimates to get the global existence and uniqueness of solutions to (1.1)–(1.2). Let \((\rho ,v,n,m)\) be the classical solutions obtained in Sect. 2.
Lemma 3.1
For any \(t\in [0, T), \) there holds
where
Proof
Multiplying (1.1)\(_{2}\) by v and integrating over I, we have
Firstly, by a similar argument as in [2], we have from (1.1)\(_{1}\) that
Then, we have
Multiplying (1.1)\(_{3}\) by \( (n_{xx}+| n_{x} |^{2}n+(m_{x}.n_{x})m+2|n \cdot m_{x}|^{2}n+2(n_{x} \cdot m)m_{x})\) and integrating over I, we obtain
where \(A=| n_{xx}+ | n_{x} |^{2}n+ (m_{x}\cdot n_{x})m +2|n \cdot m_{x}|^{2}n+2(n_{x} \cdot m)m_{x} |^{2}.\)
For the first term on the left of (3.3), we have
For the second term and fourth one on the left of (3.3), we get
For the third term on the left of (3.3), we have
Then, we have
Multiplying (1.1)\(_{4}\) by \( (m_{xx}+| m_{x}|^{2}m+(n_{x}\cdot m_{x})n+2|n \cdot m_{x}|^{2}m+2(m_{x} \cdot n)n_{x}) \) and integrating over I, we get
where \(B=| m_{xx}+ | m_{x} |^{2}m+ (n_{x}\cdot m_{x})n +2|n \cdot m_{x}|^{2}m+2(m_{x} \cdot n)n_{x} |^{2}.\)
Combining (3.4) with (3.5), we have
Now we will estimate \(2\int \limits _{I}[(m\cdot n_{x})(m_{x}\cdot n_{t})+(n\cdot m_{x})(n_{x}\cdot m_{t})].\)
In fact, we have
Then, we have
Hence combining (3.6) with (3.7), we get
Multiplying (1.1)\(_4\) by n, we have
Then, we have
where \(G=|n_x\cdot m_x+n\cdot m_{xx}|^2. \)
Then from (3.8) and (3.9), we obtain
Combining (3.10) with (3.2), we obtain
Integrating above equality over (0, t), we get (3.1). Then, Lemma 3.1 is proved. \(\square \)
Lemma 3.2
It holds that for any \(T>0,\)
Proof
Firstly, we have
Similarly, we have
Then, we have
Meanwhile, we have
Combing (3.12) with (3.13), we get (3.11). Lemma 3.2 is proved. \(\square \)
Lemma 3.3
There holds that for any \(T>0,\)
Proof
Differentiating (1.1)\(_{3}\) with respect to x, multiplying by \( n_{xt} \) and integrating over \(I\times (0,t),\) we have
For the first term of the right of (3.15), we have
For the second term of the right of (3.15), we have
For the third term of the right of (3.15), we have
For the fourth term of the right of (3.15), we have
For the fifth term of the right of (3.15), we have
Then by taking \(0<\epsilon <\frac{1}{30},\) we have
where we have used \(\Vert v\Vert _{L^\infty (I)}^2\le C(\Vert v\Vert _2^2+\Vert v_x\Vert _2^2)\le C\Vert v_x\Vert _2^2\) from the Poincare’s inequality and
Similarly, differentiating (1.1)\(_{4}\) with respect to x, multiplying \( m_{xt}\) and integrating over \(I\times (0,t),\) we also have
Combining (3.16) with (3.17), we get
From
and the Gronwall’s inequality, we have
Differentiating (1.1)\(_{3}\) and (1.1)\(_{4}\) with respect to x, we have
Then, (3.18) implies that
Hence, Lemma 3.3 is proved. \(\square \)
Now we will improve the estimates of both lower and upper bounds of \(\rho \) by a similar argument as in [2].
Lemma 3.4
There are two positive constants \(C_1\) and \(C_2\) depending on \(C_0,\gamma , \) \(E_0\) and \(\Vert \rho _0\Vert _{H^1(I)}\) such that
Proof
From (1.1)\(_{1}\) and Lemma 3.4 in [2], we have
On the other hand, we have
Putting (3.22) into (3.21), we have
where we have used
from (3.11) in [2] and
Integrating (3.23) over (0, t), we have
Using Lemma 3.3 and the Gronwall’s inequality, we get (3.19). It is easy to get (3.20) by a similar argument as [2]. We omit the details. Hence, Lemma 3.4 is proved. \(\square \)
Lemma 3.5
There holds that
Proof
From (1.1)\(_{1}\) and (1.1)\(_{2}, \) we have
Multiplying (3.26) by \( v_{t}\) and integrating over I, we have
Combining (3.19) with (3.20) and using the Gronwall’s inequality, we get
From (3.26), it is easy to get that
Therefore Lemma 3.5 is proved. \(\square \)
Lemma 3.6
There holds that
Proof
Differentiating (3.26) with respect to t, multiplying \(v_{t} \) and integrating over I, we have
Hence, one gets
where we have used the following estimate,
which comes from Lemma 3.1 to Lemma 3.5.
Hence, we get (3.30) from the Gronwall’s inequality. Therefore, Lemma 3.6 is proved. \(\square \)
Lemma 3.7
[2] Suppose that
and
then
where \(\delta =\frac{\alpha \beta }{1+\beta },\) and \( \theta \) depends only on \(\alpha ,\beta ,\theta _{1},\theta _{2}.\)
Proof of Theorem 1.1
We will use a proof of contradiction to prove this theorem, which is similar as in [2].
Suppose there exists a maximal finite time interval \(T^{*}>0, \) such that there is a unique classical solution \((\rho ,v,n,m):I\times [0,T^{*}]\rightarrow R_{+} \times R \times S^{2}\times S^{2}\) to (1.1)–(1.2), but at least one of the following properties fails:
-
(i)
\((\rho _{x},\rho _{t})\in C^{\alpha ,\frac{\alpha }{2}}(Q_{T^{*}});\)
-
(ii)
\(0<C_2^{-1}\le \rho (x,t) \le C_2< +\infty ,\quad \forall (x,t)\in Q_{T^{*}};\)
-
(iii)
\((v,n,m)\in C^{2+\alpha ,\frac{2+\alpha }{2}}(Q_{T^{*}}).\)
It is easy to see that (ii) holds from (3.20) in Lemma 3.4. Hence, either (i) or (iii) fails.
From Lemma 3.1 to Lemma 3.6, we have
By the Sobolev embedding theorem, we have
Using Lemma 3.7 for \(\alpha =\frac{1}{2},\) \(\beta =\frac{1}{2} \) and \(\delta =\frac{1}{6},\) we have
Using the Schauder theory to (1.1)\(_{3}\) and (1.1)\(_{4},\) we have
Hence,
Using the Schauder theory to (1.1)\(_{3}\) and (1.1)\(_{4}\) again, we also get
For \(\rho \) and v, denote \(G(x,t)=-(|n_{x}|^{2}+|m_{x}|^{2}+2|n \cdot m_{x}|^{2})_{x}. \) Then, \( ||G||_{C^{\alpha ,\frac{\alpha }{2}}(Q_{T^{*}})}< +\infty . \)
In Lagrangian coordinate, (1.1)\(_{1}\) and (1.1)\(_{2}\) are changed to
From Lemma 3.4 to Lemma 3.6 in the Lagrangian coordinate, we have
By a similar argument as in [2], we get that
Hence, both (i) and (ii) are right if \(T^*\) is finite. This is a contradiction. Then, \(T^{*} \) is infinite.
Theorem 1.1 is proved. \(\square \)
4 Global strong solution: Existence and uniqueness
In this section, we will establish global existence and uniqueness of strong solution for initial density with possible vacuum states. In order to use the result of Theorem 1.1, we will construct approximate solutions firstly. For any large \(k>0,\) define a family of approximate initial datas
where \({\widetilde{m}}_0^k={\widehat{m}}_0^k-({\widehat{m}}_0^k\cdot n_0^k)n_0^k\) and \({\widehat{m}}_0^k=\eta _k*m_0.\) Then, we have \(\rho _0^k\ge k^{-1},\) \(n_0^k\cdot m_0^k=0\) and
Let \((\rho ^k, v^k, n^k, m^k)\) be the unique global classical solution to (1.1) with initial data \((\rho _0^k, v_0^k, n_0^k, m_0^k)\) and boundary condition \((v^k, n_x^k, m^k_x)=(0,0,0)\) constructed by Theorem 1.1.
In order to prove Theorem 1.2, we will establish several new estimates for \((\rho ^k,v^k,n^k,m^k)\) that are independent of k. We will omit the superscripts of \((\rho ^k,v^k,n^k,m^k)\) for simplicity.
By a same argument in Lemma 3.1, Lemma 3.2 and Lemma 3.3, we have the following lemma.
Lemma 4.1
For any \(T>0, \) there is a constant \(C>0\) independent of k, such that
Lemma 4.2
For any \(T>0, \) there is a positive constant C independent of k, such that
Proof
Let
Then, we have
Then,
here we have used Lemma 4.1.
Let x(z, t) solve
Let \(g=e^{f}.\) Then, we have
Then,
Hence, we get (4.2) from the definition of g.
Lemma 4.2 is proved. \(\square \)
Lemma 4.3
For any \(T>0, \) there is a positive constant C independent on of k, such that
Proof
As Lemma 3.5, multiplying (3.26) by \( v_{t} \) and integrating over I, we have
where we have used Lemma 4.2 and \(\Vert v\Vert _{\infty }^2\le C\Vert v\Vert _{2}^2.\) For the second term on the right of (4.4), we have
where we have used (4.1) in the last inequality.
For the third term on the right of (4.4), we have
where we have used \(\Vert n_{x}\Vert _{\infty }\le C\Vert n_{xx}\Vert _2<C\) and \(\Vert m_{x}\Vert _{\infty }\le C\Vert m_{xx}\Vert _2<C\) by Lemma 4.1 and Poincare’s inequality.
Putting above two estimates into (4.4), we have
Then integrating (4.5) over (0, t) and using Lemma 4.1, we have
Then, we have
From \(\Vert v\Vert _{2}^2(t)\in L^1(0,T)\) and the Gronwall’s inequality, we obtain (4.3).
Hence, Lemma 4.3 is proved. \(\square \)
Lemma 4.4
For any \(T>0,\) there has a positive constant C independent of k, such that
Proof
From (1.1)\(_1\) and (1.1)\(_2,\) we have
Next we are going to estimate \( \rho _{x}.\)
From Lemma 4.3 and Gronwall’s inequality, we get
Finally, we estimate \(\Vert v_{xx}\Vert _{L^2(Q_T)}.\) In fact, (3.26) implies that
Then, it is easy to get
Hence, Lemma 4.4 is proved. \(\square \)
By a similar argument as in [2], we also have an important estimate as follows.
Lemma 4.5
For any \(T>0,\) there is a positive constant C, independent of k, such that
Proof
Differentiating (3.26) w.r.t. t, multiplying \(v_{t} \) and integrating over I, it is not hard to get that
Multiplying (4.10) by \(t>0,\) one has
By Lemma 4.3, we have
Integrating (4.11) from \(t_i\) to t and using (4.12), we obtain the result of Lemma 4.5 according to Lemma 4.1, Lemma 4.3 and Lemma 4.4.
Therefore Lemma 4.5 is proved. \(\square \)
The following Aubin–Lions’s lemma is needed in proving Theorem 1.2.
Lemma 4.6
[25] Assume \( X\subset E\subset Y\) are Banach spaces and \(X\hookrightarrow \hookrightarrow E.\) Then, the following embedding is compact:
Now we are going to prove Theorem 1.2.
Proof of Theorem 1.2
Let \((\rho ^k,v^k,n^k,m^k)\) be the unique global classical solution to (1.1) with the initial data \((\rho _0^k,v_0^k,n_0^k,m_0^k)\) and boundary condition \((v^k,n_x^k,m^k_x)=(0,0,0)\) constructed by Theorem 1.1. From Lemma 4.1 to Lemma 4.5, we get that
where the positive constant C is independent of k.
Then, there is a subsequences of \((\rho ^k,v^k,n^k,m^k)\) (still denoted by \((\rho ^k,v^k,n^k,m^k)\)) and \((\rho ,v,n,m),\) such that
and
Moreover, because \(\rho ^{k }\) is bounded in \( L^{\infty }(0,T;H^{1}(I))\) and \(\rho _{t}^{k }\) bounded in \( L^{\infty }(0,T;L^{2}(I)),\) we have from Lemma 4.6 that
Similarly, because \(\rho ^kv^k\) and \((\rho ^kv^k)_t\) are bounded in \(L^1(0,T;H^1(I))\) and \(L^2(0,T;L^2(I))\), respectively, we know that
by Lemma 4.6.
It is easy to see that
since \([\rho ^{k }(v^{k })^2]_x\) is bounded in \( L^{\infty }(0,T;L^{2}(I)).\)
Lemma 4.6 also implies
Therefore, we get
Therefore, we know that \((\rho ,v,n,m)\) is a strong solution to (1.1)–(1.2).
Finally, we will prove the uniqueness of the global strong solutions.
Denote \({\bar{\rho }}=\rho _{1}-\rho _{2}, \) \({\bar{v}}=v _{1}-v _{2}, \) \({\bar{n}}=n _{1}-n _{2}, \) \({\bar{m}}=m _{1}-m _{2}, \) where \( (\rho _{i},v_{i},n_{i},m_{i})(i=1,2) \) are two strong solutions to (1.1)–(1.2). Hence, \(({\bar{\rho }},{\bar{v}},{\bar{n}},{\bar{m}})\) solves
with the following initial and boundary conditions
Multiplying (4.13)\(_{1}\) by \({\bar{\rho }}\) and integrating over I, we get
where we have used the regularities of \(\rho _i\) and \(v_i\) for \(i=1,2.\) The Gronwall’s inequality implies that for \(t\in [0,T],\)
Multiplying (4.13)\(_{2}\) by \({\bar{v}},\) integrating over I and using the Cauchy’s inequality, we get
Multiplying (4.13)\(_{3}\) by \({\bar{n}},\) (4.13)\(_{4}\) by \({\bar{m}} \) and integrating over I, we get
where we have used the Cauchy’s inequality and \(\epsilon \) is small enough to be chosen later.
Hence, we get
Then by taking \(\epsilon =\frac{1}{8C},\) we get from (4.16) and (4.17) that
From the initial data of \(({\bar{\rho }},{\bar{v}},{\bar{n}},{\bar{m}})\) and the Gronwall’s inequality, we have
Therefore, the uniqueness of global strong solutions is proved.
Theorem 1.2 is proved. \(\square \)
References
Ball, J.: Mathematics and liquid crystals. Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 647, 1–27 (2017)
Ding, S., Lin, J., Wang, C., Wen, H.: Compressible hydrodynamic flow of liquid crystals in 1-D. Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. 32, 539–563 (2012)
Du, H., Huang, T., Wang, C.: Weak compactness of simplified nematic liquid flows in 2D (2020). arXiv:2006.04210v1
Ding, S., Wang, C., Wen, H.: Weak solution to compressible hydrodynamic flow of liquid crystals in dimension one. Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. 15, 357–371 (2011)
Ericksen, J.: Hydrostatic theory of liquid crystals. Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 9, 371–378 (1962)
Gong, H., Huang, T., Li, J.: Nonuniqueness of nematic liquid crystal flows in dimension three. J. Differ. Equ. 263(2), 8630–8648 (2017)
Gong, H., Huang, J., Liu, L., Liu, X.: Global strong solutions of the 2D simplified Ericksen–Leslie system. Nonlinearity 28(10), 3677–3694 (2015)
Gao, J., Tao, Q., Yao, Z.: Strong solutions to the density-dependent incompressible nematic liquid crystal flows. J. Differ. Equ. 260, 3691–3748 (2016)
Govers, E., Vertogen, G.: Elastic continuum theory of biaxial nematics. Phys. Rev. A 30 (1984)
Govers, E., Vertogen, G.: Erratum: Elastic continuum theory of biaxial nematics [Phys. Rev. A, 1984, 30]. Phys. Rev. A 31 (1985)
Huang, T., Wang, C., Wen, H.: Blow up criterion for compressible nematic liquid crystal flows in dimension three. Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 204, 285–311 (2012)
Huang, T., Wang, C., Wen, H.: Strong solutions of the compressible nematic liquid crystal. J. Differ. Equ. 252, 2222–2265 (2012)
Hong, M., Xin, Z.: Global existence of solutions of the liquid crystal flow for the Oseen–Frank model in \(R^2\). Adv. Math. 231, 1364–1400 (2012)
Leslie, F.: Some constitutive equations for liquid crystals. Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 28, 265–283 (1968)
Li, J.: Global strong and weak solutions to inhomogeneous nematic liquid crystal flow in two dimensions. Nonlinear Anal. 99, 80–94 (2014)
Li, J.: Global strong solutions to the inhomogeneous incompressible nematic liquid crystal flow. Methods Appl. Anal. 22(2), 201–220 (2015)
Lin, F., Wang, C.: Global existence of weak solutions of the nematic liquid crystal flow in dimension three. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 69, 1532–1571 (2016)
Lin, F., Lin, J., Wang, C.: Liquid crystal flow in two dimensions. Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 197, 297–336 (2010)
Lin, J., Lai, B., Wang, C.: Global finite energy weak solutions to the compressible nematic liquid crystal flow in dimension three. SIAM J. Math. Anal. 47, 2952–2983 (2015)
Lai, C., Lin, F., Wang, C., Wei, J., Zhou, Y.: Finite time blowup for the nematic liquid crystal flow in dimension two. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1002/cpa.21993
Li, J., Xu, Z., Zhang, J.: Global existence of classical solutions with large oscillations and vacuum to the three dimensional compressible nematic liquid crystal flows. J. Math. Fluid Mech. 20, 2105–2145 (2018)
Lin, F., Wang, C.: Recent developments of analysis for hydrodynamic flow of nematic liquid crystals. Philos. Trans. 2014, 372 (2029)
Jiang, F., Jiang, S., Wang, D.: On multi-dimensional compressible flows of nematic liquid crystals with large initial energy in a bounded domain. J. Funct. Anal. 265, 3369–3397 (2013)
Qin, Y., Huang, L.: Global existence and regularity of a 1D liquid crystal system. Nonlinear Anal. Real World Appl. 15, 172–186 (2014)
Simon, J.: Nonhomogeneous viscous incompressible fluids: existence of velocity, density and pressure. SIAM J. Math. Anal. 21, 1093–1117 (1990)
Wang, C.: Well-posedness for the heat flow of harmonic maps and the liquid crystal flow with rough initial data. Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 200, 1–19 (2011)
Wen, H., Ding, S.: Solution of incompressible hydrodynamic flow of liquid crystals. Nonlinear Anal. Real World Appl. 12, 1510–1531 (2011)
Zarnescu, A.: Mathematical problems of nematic liquid crystals: between fluid mechanics and materials science. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. A Math. Phys. Eng. Sci. 379, 20200432 (2021)
Acknowledgements
The second author is partially supported by NSF of China (No.11571117).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhu, L., Lin, J. Existence and uniqueness of solution to one-dimensional compressible biaxial nematic liquid crystal flows. Z. Angew. Math. Phys. 73, 37 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00033-021-01670-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00033-021-01670-z