Nonlocal Transport Equations in Fluids, Swarming, and Traffic Flows

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Nonlocal models are relevant to many real-world phenomena and have been an area of active and growing research in recent decades. The development of a mathematical theory of nonlocal interactions plays a significant role in the understanding of complex structures, with rich applications in physics, biology, and social sciences. One example of the effects of nonlocal behavior found in nature is the collective dynamics in animal swarms, where small-scale interactions emerge into intriguing global phenomena. This project develops novel and robust analytical techniques for models that share similar nonlocality. These tools help to advance the understanding of the hidden structures of the models, and ultimately have an impact in applications, such as in traffic flow, where they can be used to study how to integrate nonlocal communications into a smart traffic network to improve efficiency and avoid traffic congestions. The training and professional development of graduate students is an integral part of the project. The project studies three families of nonlocal transport equations. The first family includes the Euler-alignment system describing the flocking phenomenon for animal swarms. The goal is to establish a global well-posedness theory for the system in multi-dimensions, starting from imposing radial symmetry, and to apply the methodology to other models, such as the Euler-Poisson equations and more. The second includes a nonlocal transport equation which describes the evolution of the distribution of polynomial roots under repeated differentiation, the aim is to find a rigorous connection between this equation and the differentiation process. The last is a family of nonlocal traffic flow models, which have received extensive attention in the last decade, and are analyzed to understand the impact of the nonlocal interactions and how the nonlocal phenomenon can help to prevent traffic congestions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.