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The planar divergence is $\nabla \cdot F=-(\Omega +x^2)<0$ for $\Omega >0$. Since the plane is simply connected, the Bendixson-Dulac theorem excludes any nonconstant periodic orbit: the flux across a closed trajectory would be zero because the vector field is tangent, whereas Green's theorem makes it the strictly negative integral of the divergence over the enclosed region.

Alternatively define $E=y^2/2-x^2/2+x^4/4$. Direct differentiation givesA nonconstant periodic solution would require the integral of this strictly dissipative expression over a period to vanish. That forces $y\equiv 0$ and hence an equilibrium, a contradiction. This energy argument identifies the damping mechanism behind the geometric criterion.

The Lorenz vector field has constant divergence $\nabla \cdot F=-\sigma -1-b$. Liouville formula for a fundamental matrix for the derivative of the flow therefore givesThis concerns transported three-dimensional phase volume, not the Euclidean distance between each pair of trajectories.

A quasiperiodic orbit with the usual smooth two-frequency torus closure would lie on an invariant embedded two-torus. That torus bounds a solid torus of positive finite volume in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$. Since the vector field is tangent to its boundary, its outward flux is zero, contradicting the divergence theorem, whose volume integral is $-(\sigma +1+b)V<0$. This negative-divergence obstruction to invariant tori excludes such quasiperiodic tori. The argument uses global negative divergence and the enclosed volume; saying only that an attracting torus has zero volume would not exclude it.

At an equilibrium the sum of eigenvalues is $-(\sigma +1+b)<0$, so they cannot all have positive real parts: no equilibrium is a fully repelling source. For a periodic orbit of period $T$, one Floquet multiplier equals one in the flow direction. The product of the other two is $e^{-(\sigma +1+b)T}<1$, so they cannot both have modulus greater than one: no periodic orbit is fully repelling either. Saddle equilibria and saddle periodic orbits remain possible; contraction of volume does not imply contraction in every direction.

The Poincaré-Bendixson theorem states that the omega-limit set of a forward orbit confined to a compact region of the plane, containing no equilibrium points, is a periodic orbit.

Put $x=R\cos \theta$, $y=R\sin \theta$. Direct calculation givesHere $1/2\le H\le 17/16$ and $|\cos \theta {\sin }^3\theta |\le 3\sqrt{3}/16$. Thus on the inner circle $R=\sqrt{3}/2$ the radial velocity is positive, and on the outer circle $R=3/2$ it is negative. In their closed annulus,so there is no equilibrium. The theorem gives a periodic orbit in this trapping annulus.

It is asymptotically stable: the vector-field divergence isthroughout the annulus. Its nontrivial Floquet multiplier is $\exp {\int }_0^T\mathrm{div}Fdt<1$. This proves an attracting periodic orbit exists. There can be only one there: two such nested orbits would enclose an annular region with zero outward flux, contradicting the strictly negative divergence via the divergence theorem.

The four dimensional equations express mass conservation, momentum balance with pressure, gravity and viscous stress, heat advection and conduction, and a linear thermal-expansion equation of state. For heating from below, suitable plate conditions are $\mathbf{u}=0$ and $T=T_0+\Delta T$ at $z=0$, and $\mathbf{u}=0$, $T=T_0$ at $z=d$. No slip and thermal insulation on the sidewall provide one suitable lateral completion; prescribed lateral temperatures would be another specified thermal setup.

Let $\kappa =k/({\rho }_0{c}_p)$ be thermal diffusivity and $\nu =\mu /{\rho }_0$ kinematic viscosity. Use $d$, $d^2/\kappa$, $\kappa /d$ and $\Delta T$ as length, time, velocity and temperature scales. Subtract the static reference pressure $p_H$ with $\nabla p_H=-{\rho }_{0}g\mathbf{k}$ and scale its remainder by $\mu \kappa /d^2$. ThenDensity becomes ${\rho }_0(1-BT)$. Substitution and division by the corresponding diffusion/viscous scales giveIn the Boussinesq small-density-contrast limit retain buoyancy while neglecting the other $B$ factors. At infinite Prandtl number, after any fast initial adjustment, the equations areThe velocity is instantaneously constrained by a viscous elliptic balance; the temperature still evolves.

Take the divergence of the vector Poisson equation. Derivatives commute, and divergence of a curl is zero, so $\Delta (\nabla \cdot \mathbf{A})=0$. Its boundary value is zero, hence the maximum principle gives $\nabla \cdot \mathbf{A}=0$ throughout $D$. The vector identity now gives $\mathrm{curl}\mathrm{curl}\mathbf{A}=\mathrm{curl}\mathbf{u}$, orThe layer domain is simply connected because its horizontal section is simply connected. For a curl-free field on such a domain, define $\chi (x)$ as its line integral from a fixed base point to $x$. Contractibility of loops and Stokes theorem make the integral path independent, and differentiation gives its gradient equal to the field. Thus $\mathrm{curl}\mathbf{A}-\mathbf{u}=\nabla \chi$.

Incompressibility then gives $\Delta \chi =0$, while the prescribed normal curl gives ${\partial }_n\chi =0$. Green's identity yieldsHence $\chi$ is constant on the connected domain and $\boxed{\mathrm{curl}\mathbf{A}=\mathbf{u}}$. The extra condition $\mathbf{A}\cdot \mathbf{n}=0$ belongs to the stated potential boundary problem; the reconstruction argument above uses the divergence and normal-curl conditions. On a multiply connected domain a curl-free field need not be a globally single-valued gradient.

Finally $\mathrm{curl}(T\mathbf{k})=(T_y,-T_x,0)$. Taking the curl of the infinite-Prandtl momentum balance and using $\mathrm{curl}\mathbf{u}=-\Delta \mathbf{A}$ givesThe derivation is an instance of velocity reconstruction from a mixed-boundary vector Poisson problem.

Define ${\chi }_1$ to be one in phase 1 and zero in phase 2, including its dependence on both transverse coordinates even though the averaged fields depend only on $x,t$. With no interphase mass transfer, its distributional phase-mass equation is ${\partial }_t(\rho {\chi }_1)+\nabla \cdot (\rho \mathbf{v}{\chi }_1)=0$. At a pipe cross section $\Sigma$ of area $A$, setThus ${\rho }_1$ is an intrinsic phase density and $u_1$ is the density-weighted mean axial velocity. This weighting is necessary when density varies within the phase; it becomes the ordinary intrinsic mean for an incompressible phase of constant density.

Integrate over the cross section. The transverse divergence contributes no boundary mass flux at the impermeable pipe wall, and the material interface has no mass leakage. The section area is constant, soFor phase 2 use ${\chi }_2=1-{\chi }_1$ and fraction $1-\alpha$, with the analogous intrinsic density and density-weighted velocity:The intrinsic quantities are defined where their phase fraction is nonzero. These are the intrinsic phase averages in a two-fluid pipe model.

The product rule and fluctuation incompressibility give the pointwise identityAveraging therefore givesThe fluctuation term is consequently the divergence of a Reynolds stress. The eddy viscosity model represents this momentum transport through a coefficient multiplying the mean strain-rate tensor:for its shear or deviatoric part. For example, $-\rho \overline{u^{\prime }{v}^{\prime }}\simeq {\mu }_T{U}_y$ in a thin parallel shear flow. The dynamic viscosity ${\mu }_T$ is an effective flow-dependent transport coefficient, rather than a molecular material property. Large eddies carry linear momentum between regions of different mean velocity.

There is a necessary qualification to the printed tensor equation (4). Taking its trace literally gives $0=-\rho \overline{u_i^{\prime }{u}_i^{\prime }}$, which would exclude nonzero turbulence. A consistent deviatoric eddy-viscosity closure in $d$ fluctuating dimensions isThe isotropic term is absorbed into the effective pressure $P_{\mathrm{eff}}=P+2\rho e_t/d$. Here $d=2$ for a strictly two-dimensional fluctuation model. The subsequent equations use $P$ for this effective pressure, or equivalently use (4) as a shear-stress closure. This preserves the intended thin-layer model without asserting an impossible full covariance identity.

For turbulent motions of scale $l$ and velocity scale $u_l$, the estimate ${\mu }_T\sim \rho u_{l}l$ gives ${\mu }_T/\mu \sim u_{l}l/\nu$. It is much greater than one on energetic large scales and in the inertial range well above the Kolmogorov length scale. At the molecular dissipation scales it is no longer large, and molecular transport also dominates very near a smooth solid wall.

Let $\delta \ll L$ be a representative mixing-layer thickness, ${ϵ}_m=\delta /L$, and let $U_s$ be a representative streamwise velocity. Use the scalesThe transverse velocity scale follows from the mean continuity equation. For turbulent transverse transport to balance streamwise inertia,With this ordering, the streamwise eddy-stress divergence isThus transverse diffusion of streamwise linear momentum is retained, while streamwise diffusion and the $V_x$ contribution are smaller by ${ϵ}_m^2$. Molecular kinematic viscosity is neglected where ${\nu }_T\gg \nu$.

In the transverse momentum equation, inertia and the retained eddy stresses have scale ${ϵ}_m{U}_s^2/L$, whereas an order-one transverse pressure variation would give $P_y/\rho \sim U_s^2/({ϵ}_{m}L)$. Hence the leading dimensionless transverse balance is $P_y=0$. The resulting boundary layer equations for the planar turbulent mixing layer areHere ${\nu }_T={\mu }_T/\rho$. The effective pressure convention explained in part (a)(iii) is understood. Since the outer streams have uniform horizontal velocities, their inviscid momentum equations give $P_x=0$; choosing the far-field gauge pressure as zero gives $P=0$ throughout this approximation.

For an arbitrary material volume $V(t)$, Newton's second law equates the rate of change of linear momentum to the resultant contact force, since there is no body force:Use the Reynolds transport theorem on the left. Expanding the product and using the continuity equation leavesOn the right, the divergence theorem applied to each row of the Cauchy stress tensor givesConsequently the volume integral of $\rho D{u}_i/Dt-{\partial }_j{\sigma }_{ij}$ vanishes on every material volume. Localizing as in part (i) gives the Cauchy momentum equation:The left side is mass density times material acceleration; the right side is the divergence of the Cauchy stress tensor.

The divergence of the vector field generating a flow on phase space. Its time integral determines the Jacobian determinant of the characteristic flow map: $d\log |\det D{\Phi }_t|/dt=({\nabla }_z\cdot b)({\Phi }_t,t)$. A Hamiltonian vector field has zero phase-space divergence in canonical coordinates.

The Jacobian determinant of a differentiable characteristic flow map measures its change of volume. The variational equation and the Liouville formula for a fundamental matrix give the displayed formula for a complete smooth field $b$. For kinetic advection with $b=(v,F)$, its divergence is ${\nabla }_v\cdot F$. A zero divergence preserves phase-space Lebesgue measure.

In an orthonormal tetrad, $J^{\hat{0}}=\int f{d}^{3}p$ is the photon number density and $J^{\hat{i}}=\int f{e}^i{d}^{3}p$ is its number flux. Integrating the Boltzmann equation gives ${\nabla }_{\mu }{J}^{\mu }=\int C[f]d^{3}p/E$ when momentum-boundary terms vanish. Collisionless propagation and photon-number-conserving scattering give zero divergence. Photon emission, photon absorption, electron-positron annihilation in cosmology, bremsstrahlung and double Compton scattering generally do not. This is a number current, not an electric charge current: photons are neutral.

For a twice continuously differentiable deformation map, each row of its cofactor matrix has zero divergence in reference coordinates. In three dimensions write $(\mathrm{cof}Dy{)}_{iA}=\frac{1}{2}{\epsilon }_{ijk}{\epsilon }_{ABC}{y}_{j,B}{y}_{k,C}$. Applying ${\partial }_A$ gives terms in which a symmetric pair of second partial derivatives contracts with an antisymmetric Levi-Civita symbol, so each term vanishes. This identity is the cancellation that makes the Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor transform force balance correctly between configurations.

Deflection changes one light ray's direction; focusing concerns relative directions of neighboring light rays and their bundle's cross section. To see the difference for a point-mass gravitational lens, send parallel incident light rays past the lens. A ray at impact parameter $b$ meets the optical axis approximately $f(b)=b/\hat{\alpha }=c^2{b}^2/(4GM)$ beyond the lens. Doubling $b$ quadruples this crossing distance. Thus the lens does not have a common focal length for all rays, although it can produce lensing magnification and an Einstein ring for a specified source-observer geometry.

The point-mass gravitational lens also illustrates why focusing must not be identified just with positive lensing convergence. Away from the central mass, differentiate the reduced deflection $\mathbf{\alpha }={\theta }_E^2\mathbf{\theta }/r^2$: its two-dimensional divergence is zero, so $\kappa =0$ there. Nevertheless its radial and tangential derivatives differ, giving lensing shear of magnitude ${\theta }_E^2/r^2$ and $\det A=1-{\theta }_E^4/r^4$. A vacuum ray bundle can be distorted and magnified. In the same ideal transparent geometrical optics model, surface brightness is preserved; the larger apparent solid angle supplies the increased received light.

A spherical poloidal-toroidal decomposition represents a solenoidal vector field with zero flux through each sphere by scalar potentials $S,T$. The second term is tangent to concentric spheres; the first carries the radial component. Requiring zero angular means for the potentials fixes their otherwise irrelevant radial additions. In a plane layer, the analogous fluctuating components are $\nabla \times \nabla \times (\varphi \hat{\mathbf{z}})$ and $\nabla \times (\psi \hat{\mathbf{z}})$, with any horizontally uniform components handled separately. These constructions enforce the divergence-free condition because the divergence of a curl vanishes.

// Target: fluid-mechanics.bigb

For the upper curved half of $x^2/a^2+y^2/b^2+z^2/c^2=1$, take the vector field $(x{y}^2,y^2,C)$ and outward unit normal. Its divergence is $y^2+2y$. The odd term integrates to zero over the half-ellipsoid. Scaling a unit half-ball gives $\int y^{2}dV=2\pi a{b}^{3}c/15$. The equatorial closing disk has downward flux $-C\pi ab$. The divergence theorem therefore gives the displayed curved-surface flux. The constant vertical component is not detected by the divergence, but is recovered by accounting for the closing disk.

The Poynting theorem is the local energy balance of classical electromagnetism. For vacuum field laws, with current density $\mathbf{J}$, the electromagnetic energy per unit volume isandThus a decrease in local electromagnetic energy can supply outward energy flux or work on electric charge. The term $\mathbf{J}\cdot \mathbf{E}$ is power transferred to matter per unit volume. Its sign matters: positive values remove field energy, while negative values describe matter supplying the field. The magnetic part of the Lorentz force supplies no work term.

For a fixed volume $V$, the divergence theorem gives the directly measurable balanceFor example, $2.0\mathrm{W}$ entering a region with $0.50\mathrm{W}$ leaving and $1.20\mathrm{W}$ transferred to matter means stored electromagnetic energy increases at $0.30\mathrm{W}$. In source-free vacuum only the boundary flux changes the stored energy; a nonzero local Poynting vector can still have zero net closed-surface flux.

A brief proof takes the dot product of the Ampère-Maxwell equation with $\mathbf{E}/{\mu }_0$ and uses Faraday's law with $\mathbf{B}/{\mu }_0$. The identity $\nabla \cdot (\mathbf{E}\times \mathbf{B})=\mathbf{B}\cdot (\nabla \times \mathbf{E})-\mathbf{E}\cdot (\nabla \times \mathbf{B})$ turns the remaining terms into the divergence of the Poynting vector. ^[ref].

For constant $K$, this quadratic combination of two-by-two gradient minors is a divergence. Indeed,because the term containing $u_{j,\beta \alpha }$ vanishes by antisymmetry of the Levi-Civita symbol. Its volume integral vanishes for homogeneous displacement boundary data. It also vanishes pointwise on rank-one matrices, since ${\nu }_{\alpha }{\nu }_{\beta }$ is symmetric. Consequently one can strengthen an elastic energy density by such a term without changing fixed-boundary incremental energies or acoustic tensors.

This convention defines the gyrotactic reorientation time by an aligning rate $1/(2B)$. Multiplying the torque balance by $2B$ and perturbing about the upward direction gives ${\mathbf{p}}_{\perp }=B\mathbf{\omega }\times {\mathbf{e}}_z$. For an incompressible flow, its horizontal divergence is $-B{\nabla }^{2}w$, because $\nabla \times \mathbf{\omega }=-{\nabla }^2\mathbf{u}$. The parameter $B$ is half the reorientation parameter used in the convention with aligning rate $1/B$; writing the governing equation prevents a factor-of-two ambiguity.

For a smooth divergence-free field on ${\mathbb{R}}^3$, the differential form $F={\iota }_{\mathbf{B}}(d{x}^1\wedge d{x}^2\wedge d{x}^3)$ is closed. The radial homotopy formula gives a global magnetic vector potential $\mathbf{A}(\mathbf{x})={\int }_0^{1}s\mathbf{B}(s\mathbf{x})\times \mathbf{x}ds$ with curl $\mathbf{B}$. For constant $\mathbf{B}$, this reduces to $\mathbf{A}=\frac{1}{2}\mathbf{B}\times \mathbf{x}$.

A vector field singular on an axis need not satisfy the classical divergence theorem on the original closed region. Remove a thin tube $\rho <\epsilon$, apply the theorem to the remaining smooth region, then examine the added cylindrical boundary. If its flux tends to zero and the remaining volume integral converges, the improper boundary flux equals the improper integral of the divergence. For $\mathbf{F}=(\log {\rho }^2,\log {\rho }^2,z/\rho )$ with $\rho =\sqrt{x^2+y^2}$, the cylindrical unit normal has zero $z$ component, so the added flux is $O(\epsilon |\log \epsilon |)$ on a bounded axial interval. The divergence $(2\cos \varphi +2\sin \varphi +1)/\rho$ is locally integrable under the cylindrical coordinates measure $\rho d\rho d\varphi dz$. Hence no finite line-source correction survives, despite the field itself being unbounded.