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JANUARY 2005 NOTICES OF THE AMS 9

Topological FluidDynamics

Boris Khesin

Topological fluid dynamics is a youngmathematical discipline that studiestopological features of flows with com-plicated trajectories and their applica-tions to fluid motions, and develops

group-theoretic and geometric points of view onvarious problems of hydrodynamical origin. It is sit-uated at a crossroads of several disciplines, in-cluding Lie groups, knot theory, partial differentialequations, stability theory, integrable systems, geo-metric inequalities, and symplectic geometry. Itsmain ideas can be traced back to the seminal 1966paper [1] by V. Arnold on the Euler equation for anideal fluid as the geodesic equation on the groupof volume-preserving diffeomorphisms.

One of the most intriguing observations of topo-logical fluid dynamics is that one simple con-struction in Lie groups enables a unified approachto a great variety of different dynamical systems,from the simple (Euler) equation of a rotating topto the (also Euler) hydrodynamics equation, one ofthe most challenging equations of our time.

A curious application of this theory is an ex-planation of why long-term dynamical weatherforecasts are not reliable: Arnold’s explicit esti-mates related to curvatures of diffeomorphismgroups show that the earth weather is essentiallyunpredictable after two weeks as the error in theinitial condition grows by a factor of 105 for thisperiod, that is, one loses 5 digits of accuracy. (Iron-ically, 15 day(!) weather forecasts for any countryin the world are now readily available online atwww.accuweather.com.) Another application isrelated to the Sakharov–Zeldovich problem onwhether a neutron star can extinguish by “re-shaping” and turning to radiation the excessivemagnetic energy.

In this introductory article we will touch onthese and several other purely mathematicalproblems motivated by fluid mechanics, referring

the interested reader to the book [4] for further de-tails and the extensive bibliography.

Energy Relaxation

The Minimization ProblemsThe first problem we are going to discuss is re-

lated to topological obstructions to energy relax-ation of a magnetic field in a perfectly conductingmedium. A motivation for this problem is the fol-lowing model of a magnetic field of a star. Imag-ine that the star is filled with some perfectly con-ducting medium (say, plasma), which carries a“frozen in” magnetic field. Then the topology of thefield’s trajectories cannot change under the fluidflow, but its magnetic energy can. The conductingfluid keeps moving (due to Maxwell’s equations)until the excess of magnetic energy over its possi-ble minimum is fully dissipated (this process iscalled “energy relaxation”). It turns out that mutuallinking of magnetic lines may prevent complete dis-sipation of the magnetic energy. The problem is todescribe lower bounds for energy of the magneticfield in terms of topological characteristics of itstrajectories.

More precisely, consider a divergence-free (“mag-netic”1) vector field ξ in a (simply connected)bounded domain M ⊂ R3 tangent to its boundary.By the energy of the field ξ we will mean the squareof its L2-norm, i.e., the integral

E(ξ) =∫M

(ξ, ξ)d3x ,

where (., .) is the Euclidean inner product on M .Given a divergence-free field ξ, the problem is tofind the minimum energy (or to give an appropri-ate lower bound for) infh E(h∗ξ) of the push-forwardfields h∗ξ under the action of all volume-preserving diffeomorphisms h of M .

A topological obstruction to the energy relax-ation can be seen in the example of a magnetic fieldconfined to two linked solid tori. Assume that the

Boris Khesin is professor of mathematics at the Universityof Toronto. His email address is [email protected].

1Note that magnetic fields are always divergence-freedue to the absence of magnetic charges.

http://www.accuweather.com

10 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 52, NUMBER 1

field vanishes outside those tubes and that thefield trajectories are all closed and oriented alongthe tube axes inside. To minimize the energy of avector field with closed orbits, one has to shortenthe length of most trajectories. This, however, leadsto a fattening of the solid tori (because the actingdiffeomorphisms are volume-preserving). For alinked configuration, as in Figure 1, the solid toriprevent each other from endless fattening andtherefore from further shrinking of the orbits.Therefore, heuristically, in the volume-preservingrelaxation process the magnetic energy of the fieldsupported on a pair of linked tubes is bounded frombelow and cannot attain arbitrarily small values.

The topological obstruction is even more evidentin the two-dimensional case of the energy mini-mization problem. Let M be a bounded domain inR2. The problem is to describe the infimum and theminimizers of the Dirichlet integral

E(u) =∫M

(∇u,∇u) d2x

among all the smooth functions u (in the domainM) that can be obtained from a given function u0

by the action of area-preserving diffeomorphismsof M to itself.

To see that this is the two-dimensional coun-terpart of the above 3D problem, one considers theskew gradient J∇u , the pointwise rotation by π/2of the true gradient ∇u, on which the functional Ehas, of course, the same value. Then u can be re-garded as a Hamiltonian (or stream) function of thefield J∇u and its definition is invariant: Any area-preserving change of coordinates for the functionu implies the corresponding diffeomorphism ac-tion on the field J∇u .

For instance, consider a function u vanishingon the boundary of a 2D disk M = {x2 + y2 ≤ 1}and having a single critical point inside. Then the minimum of the Dirichlet functional is attainedon the function u0 that depends only on the distance to the center of the disk and whose sets {(x, y) | u0(x, y) ≤ c} of smaller values havethe same areas as those of the initial function u, see [2]. This can be shown by applying the Cauchy–Schwarz and isoperimetric inequalities. If the initial function has several critical points (say, twomaxima and a saddle point), the situation is moresubtle and far from being solved. P. Laurence andE. Stredulinsky (2000) showed the existence ofweak minimizers with some topological constraints.Numerical experiments suggest various types of(nonsmooth) minimizers depending on the steep-ness of the initial function u.

What Is Helicity?To describe the first obstruction to energy min-

imization in 3D we need the following notion.

Definition (H. K. Moffatt 1969, [10]). The helicityof the field ξ in a domain M ⊂ R3 is the number

H (ξ) =∫M

(ξ, curl−1ξ) d3x,

where the vector field curl−1ξ is a divergence-freevector potential of the field ξ, i.e., ∇× (curl−1ξ) =ξ and div(curl−1ξ) = 0.

In the above example of a divergence-free fieldξ confined to two narrow linked flux tubes, the he-licity can be found explicitly. Suppose that the tubeaxes are closed curves C1 and C2, the fluxes of thefield in the tubes are Flux1 and Flux2, Figure 1. As-sume also that there is no net twist within each tubeor, more precisely, that the field trajectories foli-ate each of the tubes into pairwise unlinked circles.One can show that the helicity invariant of such afield is given by

H (ξ) = 2 lk(C1, C2) · |Flux1| · |Flux2|,

where lk(C1, C2) is the (Gauss) linking number ofC1 and C2, which explains the term “helicity” coinedin [10]. Recall that the number lk(C1, C2) for two oriented closed curves is the signed number of theintersection points of one curve with an arbitraryoriented surface spanning the other curve.

Although helicity was defined above by using theRiemannian metric on M , it is actually a topologi-cal characteristic of a divergence-free vector field,depending only on the choice of a volume form onthe manifold. Indeed, consider a simply connectedmanifold M (possibly with boundary) with a volumeform µ, and let ξ be a divergence-free vector fieldon M (tangent to the boundary). The divergence-free condition means that the Lie derivative of µalong ξ vanishes: Lξµ = 0, or, which is the same,the substitution iξµ =: ωξ of the field ξ into the3-form µ is a closed 2-form: dωξ = 0. On a simplyconnected manifold M this means that ωξ is exact:ωξ = dα for some 1-form α, called a potential. (IfM is not simply connected, we have to require thatthe field ξ is null-homologous, i.e., that the 2-formωξ is exact.)

Definition (V. Arnold 1973, [2]). The helicity H (ξ)of a null-homologous field ξ on a three-dimensionalmanifold M equipped with a volume element µ isthe integral of the wedge product of the formωξ := iξµ and its potential:

H (ξ) =∫Mdα∧α, where dα =ωξ.

An immediate consequence of this purely topo-logical (metric-free) definition is the following

Theorem. The helicity H (ξ) is preserved under theaction on ξ of a volume-preserving diffeomorphismof M .


In this sense H (ξ) is a topological invariant: itwas defined without coordinates or a choice ofmetric, and hence every volume-preserving dif-feomorphism carries a field ξ into a field with thesame helicity. Thus for magnetic fields frozen into(and hence, transported by) the medium, their he-licity is preserved. Furthermore, the physical sig-nificance of helicity is due to the fact that it appearsas a conservation law not only in magnetohydro-dynamics (L. Woltjer 1958) but also in ideal fluidmechanics (H. K. Moffatt 1969): Kelvin’s law impliesthe invariance of helicity of the vorticity field foran ideal fluid motion (cf. the discussion of con-served quantities below).

V. Arnold proposed the following ergodic in-terpretation of helicity in the general case of anydivergence-free field (when the trajectories are notnecessarily closed or confined to invariant tori) asthe asymptotic Hopf invariant, i.e., the average link-ing number of the field’s trajectories. Let ξ be adivergence-free field on M . We will associate toeach pair of points in M a number that character-izes the “asymptotic linking” of the ξ-trajectoriespassing through these points. Given any two pointsx1, x2 in M and two large numbers T1 and T2, weconsider “long segments” of the trajectories of ξissuing from x1 and x2. For each of these two longtrajectory segments, connect their endpoints by theshortest geodesics to obtain two closed curves, Γ1and Γ2; see Figure 2. Assume that these curves donot intersect (which is true for almost all pairsx1, x2 and for almost all T1, T2). Then the linkingnumber lkξ(x1, x2;T1, T2) := lk(Γ1, Γ2) of the curvesΓ1 and Γ2 is well defined.

Definition. The asymptotic linking number of apair of trajectories of the field ξ issuing from thepoints x1 and x2 is defined as the limit

λξ(x1, x2) = limT1,T2→∞

lkξ(x1, x2;T1, T2)T1 · T2

,

where T1 and T2 are to vary so that Γ1 and Γ2 donot intersect.

(T. Vogel (2003) showed that this limit exists asan element of the space L1(M ×M) of the Lebesgue-integrable functions and is independent of the system of geodesics, i.e., of the Riemannian metric, universally for any divergence-free field ξ.)

Theorem (V. Arnold 1973, [2]). For a divergence-freevector field ξ on a simply connected manifold M witha volume element µ, the average self-linking of tra-jectories of this field, i.e., the asymptotic linkingnumber λξ(x1, x2) of trajectory pairs integratedover M ×M, is equal to the field’s helicity:∫

M

∫M

λξ(x1, x2) µ1µ2 =H (ξ).

This elegant result prompted numerous gener-alizations (see the survey in [4]).Energy Estimates

It turns out that a nonzero helicity (or averageself-linking of the trajectories) of a field ξ pro-vides a lower bound for the energy.

Theorem. [2] For a divergence-free vector field ξ

E(ξ) ≥ C · |H (ξ)|,

where C is a positive constant depending on theshape and size of the compact domain M .

The constant C can be taken as the reciprocalof the norm of the compact operator curl−1, in thedefinition of helicity, on an appropriate space ofvector fields. For instance, for any relaxation of thefield confined to a pair of tori, the energy has a pos-itive bound via helicity, once the linking numberof tori is nonzero.

However, heuristically, there should be a lowerbound for the energy of a field that has at least onelinked pair of solid tori, as in the example above,even if the total helicity vanishes. One of the bestresults in this direction is

Figure 2. The long segments of the trajectoriesare closed by the “short paths”.

C2

C1

Flux1 Flux2

Figure 1. C1, C2 are axes of the tubes; Flux1, Flux2

are the corresponding fluxes.


precisely “frozen in”, but rather “diffuse their topol-ogy”, yet this problem exhibits a number of curi-ous topological features; see [4].Extremals and Steady Fluid Flows

One can explicitly describe the extremals in theabove minimization problem. It turns out thatthese extremals appear in various parts of idealfluid dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics.

Theorem. [2, 3] The extremals of the above energyminimization problem are those divergence-freevector fields ξ on M which commute with their vorticities curl ξ . Moreover, these extremals are solutions of the stationary Euler equation in the domain M :

(ξ · ∇)ξ = −∇p.

In 3D one can reformulate the above conditionthis way: the cross-product of the fields ξ andcurl ξ is a potential vector field, i.e., ξ × curl ξ =−∇f. The extremal fields ξ have a very specialtopology [2, 3]. For instance, for a closed manifoldM, every noncritical set of the function f is a torus,while the commuting fields ξ and curl ξ are tangent to these tori and define the R2 action onthem. This way a steady 3D flow looks like a com-pletely integrable Hamiltonian system with twodegrees of freedom. In the case of M with bound-ary, the noncritical levels of f must be either torior annuli, while the flow lines of ξ on the annuliare all closed.

Of special interest is the case where ξ is aneigen field for the curl operator: curl ξ = λξ. (Thiscorresponds to a constant function f, or to collinearfields ξ and curl ξ .) For instance, the so-called ABCflows on a 3D torus are eigen fields for the curl operator. They exhibit chaotic behavior and drawspecial attention in fast dynamo constructions. Restrictions on the geometry and topology of the curl eigen fields on manifolds with boundarywere considered by J. Cantarella, D. DeTurck, andH. Gluck (2000).

In the 2D fluid, the extremal fields, or station-ary solutions of the Euler equation, obey the following condition: The gradients of the functionsu and ∆u are collinear at every point of the Riemannian manifold M . In other words, the ex-tremal functions u have the “same” level curves as their Laplacians: Locally there is a functionF : R → R such that ∆u = F (u). This can be thoughtof as a two-dimensional reformulation of thecollinearity of the field and its vorticity.

Euler Equations and Geodesics

Example: Fluid MotionImagine an incompressible fluid occupying a

domain M in Rn. The fluid motion is described bya velocity field v(t, x) and a pressure field p(t, x)which satisfy the classical Euler equation:

Theorem (M. Freedman and Z. X. He 1991). Supposea divergence-free vector field ξ in R3 has an in-variant torus K forming an nontrivial knot K. Then

E(ξ) ≥(

16π · Vol(K)

)1/3· |Flux ξ|2 · (2 · genus(K)− 1),

where Flux ξ is the flux of ξ through a cross-section of K, Vol(K) is the volume of the solidtorus, and genus(K) is the genus of the knot K.

Recall that for any knot its genus is the minimalnumber of handles of a spanning (oriented) surfacefor this knot. For an unknot the genus is 0, sinceone can take a disk as a spanning surface. For a non-trivial knot one has genus(K) ≥ 1 and, therefore,the above energy is bounded away from zero:E(ξ) > 0.

Note that this result has a wide range of applic-ability, as there is no restriction on the behavior ofthe field inside the invariant torus. In particular, itis sufficient for the field to have at least one closedknotted trajectory of elliptic type, i.e., a trajectorywhose Poincaré map has two eigenvalues of modulus 1. Then the KAM theory implies that ageneric elliptic orbit is confined to a set of nestedinvariant tori, and hence the energy of the corre-sponding field has a nonzero lower bound. Thefollowing question still remains one of the mainchallenges in this area:

Question. Does the presence of any nontriviallyknotted closed trajectory (of any type: hyperbolic,nongeneric, etc.) or the presence of chaotic behav-ior of trajectories for a field provide a positive lowerbound for the energy (even if the averaged linkingof all trajectories totals zero) and therefore preventa relaxation of the field to arbitrarily small energies?

Remark. The rotation field in the three-dimensionalball is an example of an opposite type: all its tra-jectories are pairwise unlinked. It was suggested byA. Sakharov and Ya. Zeldovich (in the 1970s) andproved by M. Freedman (1991), that this field canbe transformed by a volume-preserving diffeo-morphism to a field whose energy is less than anygiven ε. Physically this means that a neutron starwith the rotation magnetic field can radiate all ofits magnetic energy!

Somewhat opposite to the above minimizationproblem is the fast dynamo theory, which studiesthe growth of magnetic field in a given plasmaflow. A bit more precisely, this theory regards theplasma velocity as given (stationary, periodic, etc.),neglecting the reciprocal (Lorentz) action of themagnetic field on the plasma velocity. It studies therate of growth of the magnetic energy in time forsufficiently small magnetic diffusivity. The nonzerodiffusivity means that magnetic field lines are not


(1) ∂tv + (v · ∇)v = −∇p,where div v = 0 and the field v is tangent to theboundary of M. The function p is defined uniquelymodulo an additive constant by the condition thatv has zero divergence. (Note that stationary Eulerflows are defined by the equation (v · ∇)v = −∇p,discussed in the preceding section.)

The flow (t, x) → g(t, x) describing the motion offluid particles is defined by its velocity field v(t, x) :

∂tg(t, x) = v(t, g(t, x)), g(0, x) = x.

The chain rule immediately gives ∂2t g(t, x) =

(∂tv + (v · ∇)v)(t, g(t, x)) , and hence the Euler equation is equivalent to

∂2t g(t, x) = −(∇p)(t, g(t, x)),

while the incompressibility condition isdet(∂xg(t, x)) = 1. The latter form of the Euler equa-tion (for a smooth flow g(t, x)) says that the accel-eration of the flow is given by a gradient and henceit is L2-orthogonal to the set of volume-preservingdiffeomorphisms (or, rather, to its tangent spaceof divergence-free fields). In other words, the fluidmotion g(t, x) is a geodesic line on the set of suchdiffeomorphisms of the domain M with respect tothe induced L2-metric. The same equation describesthe motion of an ideal incompressible fluid fillingan arbitrary Riemannian manifold M equipped witha volume form µ [1, 6]. In the latter case v is adivergence-free vector field on M , while (v · ∇)vstands for the Riemannian covariant derivative ofv in the direction of itself.

Remark. Note that the dynamics of an ideal fluidis, in a sense, dual to the Monge-Kantorovich masstransport problem, which asks for the most eco-nomical way to move, say, a pile of sand to a pre-scribed location. Mass (or density) is transportedmost effectively by gradient vector fields. The lat-ter are L2 -orthogonal to divergence-free ones,which, in turn, preserve volume (or mass). The cor-responding transportation (or Wasserstein) metricon the space of densities and the L2-metric onvolume-preserving diffeomorphisms can be viewedas a natural extensions of each other (F. Otto 2001,[5]).

Geodesics on Lie Groups and Equations ofMathematical Physics

V. Arnold (1966) [1] proposed the following gen-eral framework for the Euler equation on anarbitrary group, which describes the geodesic flowwith respect to a suitable one-sided invariant Rie-mannian metric on this group.

Consider a (possibly infinite-dimensional) Liegroup G , which can be thought of as the configu-ration space of some physical system. (Examplesfrom [1]: SO(3) for a rigid body or the group

SDiff(M) of volume-preserving diffeomorphismsfor an ideal fluid filling a domain M .) The tangentspace at the identity of the Lie group G is the cor-responding Lie algebra g. Fix some (positive defi-nite) quadratic form, the energy, on g and extendit through right translations to the tangent spaceat each point of the group (the “translational sym-metry” of the energy). This way the energy definesa right-invariant Riemannian metric on the groupG . The geodesic flow on G with respect to this met-ric represents the extremals of the least actionprinciple, i.e., the actual motions of the physical sys-tem. (For a rigid body one has to consider lefttranslations, but in our exposition we stick to theright-invariant case in view of its applications tothe groups of diffeomorphisms.)

Given a geodesic on the Lie group with an ini-tial velocity v(0), we can right-translate its veloc-ity vector at any moment t to the identity of thegroup. This way we obtain the evolution law for v(t)given by a (nonlinear) dynamical systemdv/dt = F (v) on the Lie algebra g.

Definition. The system on the Lie algebra g, de-scribing the evolution of the velocity vector along ageodesic in a right-invariant metric on the Lie group

g

v(0)

g(t)e

G

Figure 3. The vector v(0) in the Lie algebra g is the velocity atthe identity e of a geodesic g(t) on the Lie group G .

Figure 4. Energy levels on a coadjoint orbit ofthe Lie algebra so(3) of a rigid body.

G , is called the Euler equation corresponding tothis metric on G .

Many conservative dynamical systems in math-ematical physics describe geodesic flows on ap-propriate Lie groups. In the table above we list sev-eral examples of such systems to emphasize therange of applications of this approach. The choiceof a group G (column 1) and an energy metric E(column 2) defines the corresponding Euler equa-tion (column 3). This list is by no means complete.There are many other interesting conservative sys-tems, e.g., the super-KdV equations or equationsof gas dynamics. We refer to [4] for more details.

Remark. It is curious to note that the similaritypointed out by V. Arnold between the Euler top onthe group SO(3) and Euler ideal fluid equations onSDiff(M) has a “magnetic analog”: a similarity be-tween the Kirchhoff and magnetohydrodynamicsequations, which are related to the semidirect prod-uct groups. The Kirchhoff equation for a rigid bodydynamics in a fluid is associated with the groupE(3) = SO(3)* R3 of Euclidean motions of R3. Thelatter are described by pairs (a, b) consisting of arotation a ∈ SO(3) and a translation by a vectorb ∈ R3. Similarly, magnetohydrodynamics is gov-erned by the group SDiff(M)* SVect(M), where elements (g, B) consist of a fluid configuration gand a magnetic field B (S. Vishik and F. Dolzhan-skii 1978, [8]).

Remark. The differential-geometric description ofthe Euler equation as a geodesic flow on a Lie grouphas a Hamiltonian reformulation. Namely, identifythe Lie algebra g and its dual with the help of theenergy quadratic form E(v) = 1

2〈v, Iv〉. This iden-tification I : g → g∗ (called the inertia operator) allows one to rewrite the Euler equation on thedual space g∗. It turns out that the Euler equationon g∗ is Hamiltonian with respect to the naturalLie-Poisson structure on the dual space. This means,in particular, that the trajectories of this dynamical system on the dual space are always tangent to the orbits of coadjoint action of the

Group Metric Equation

SO(3) < ω, Iω > Euler topSO(3)* R3 quadratic forms Kirchhoff equations for a body in a fluid

SO(n) Manakov′s metrics n−dimensional topDiff(S1) L2 Hopf (or, inviscid Burgers) equation

Virasoro L2 KdV equationVirasoro H1 Camassa−Holm equationVirasoro H1 Hunter− Saxton (or Dym) equationSDiff(M) L2 Euler ideal fluidSDiff(M) H1 Averaged Euler flow

SDiff(M)* SVect(M) L2 + L2 MagnetohydrodynamicsMaps(S1, SO(3)) H−1 Heisenberg magnetic chain


2Although one can extract more subtle ergodic invariantsfrom the asymptotic linking of trajectories of curl v.

group, while invariants of the group action (calledCasimir functions) provide a source of first inte-grals for the Euler equation.

Applications of the Geometric Approach

Conservation Laws in Ideal HydrodynamicsAs the first application of the group-geodesic

point of view, developed in [1], consider the con-struction of first integrals for fluid motion on man-ifolds of various dimensions. The Euler equationfor an ideal fluid (1) filling a three-dimensionalsimply connected manifold has the helicity (orHopf) invariant discussed in the first section of thisarticle. This invariant describes the mutual linkingof the trajectories of the vorticity field curl v , andin the Euclidean space R3 it has the form

J(v) :=H (curl v) =∫

R3(curl v, v) d3x .

Besides the energy integral, the helicity is essen-tially the only differential invariant for 3D flows(D. Serre 1979).2

On the other hand, for an ideal 2D fluid one hasan infinite number of conserved quantities. Forexample, for the standard metric in R2 there arethe enstrophy invariants

Jk(v) :=∫

R2(curl v)k d2x

=∫

R2(∆ψ)k d2x for k = 1,2, . . . ,

where curl v := ∂v1∂x2− ∂v2

∂x1is the vorticity function,

the Laplacian of the stream function ψ of the flow.It turns out that helicity-type integrals do exist

for all odd-dimensional ideal fluid flows, as do enstrophy-type integrals for all even-dimensionalflows. (In a sense, the situation here is similar to thedichotomy of contact and symplectic geometry inodd- and even-dimensional spaces.) To describe


Stability of Fluid MotionThe following stability experiment was appar-

ently tried by everyone: watch the rotation of a tennis racket (or a book) thrown into the air. Oneimmediately observes that the racket rotates sta-bly about the axis through the handle, as well asthe axis orthogonal to the racket surface. How-ever, a tennis racket thrown up into the air rotat-ing about the third axis (parallel to the surface, butorthogonal to the handle) makes unpredictablewild moves.

To describe the free motion of a rigid body, lookat its inertia ellipsoid. In general, it is not an ellip-soid of revolution, and it “approximates” the shapeof the body. The stable stationary rotations aboutthe two axes correspond to the longest and short-est axes of the inertia ellipsoid, while the rotationabout the middle axis is always unstable. It turns outthat our geodesic point of view is helpful in detecting stability of the corresponding stationarysolutions, and, in the particular case of fluid motions,it yields sufficient conditions for stability in 2D ideal hydrodynamics (V. Arnold 1969, see [3]).

Suppose a (finite-dimensional) dynamical systemhas both an invariant foliation and a first integralE. Consider a point x0 which is critical for the re-striction of E to one of the leaves and suppose that the foliation is regular at that point. One canshow that x0 is a (Lyapunov) stable stationary pointfor the dynamical system, provided that the sec-ond differential of E restricted to the leaf con-taining x0 is positively or negatively defined. (Notethat the converse is not true: a sign-indefinite sec-ond variation does not, in general, imply instabil-ity, as an example of a Hamiltonian system withE =ω1(p2

1 + q21)−ω2(p2

2 + q22) shows.)

A similar consideration for any Lie algebra sug-gests the following sufficient condition for stabil-ity. As we discussed above, the Euler equation ona dual Lie algebra is always Hamiltonian, and thecorresponding dynamical system keeps the coad-joint orbits invariant. These orbits will play therole of the foliation, while the Hamiltonian func-tion (the energy) is the first integral E. In the caseof the rigid body, the coadjoint orbits of the alge-bra g = so(3) are spheres centered at the origin,while the energy levels form a family of ellipsoids.The energy restricted to each orbit has 6 criticalpoints (being points of tangency of the sphere withthe ellipsoids): 2 maxima, 2 minima, and 2 saddles(Figure 4). The maxima and minima correspond tostable rotations of the rigid body about the short-est and the longest axes of the inertia ellipsoid. Thesaddles correspond to unstable rotations about itsmiddle axis.

This stability consideration can be developed inthe infinite-dimensional situation of fluids, whereone can justify the final conclusion about stabilityof flows without having to justify all of the

the first integrals, consider the motion of an idealfluid in a Riemannian manifold M equipped witha volume form µ . Define the 1-form u on M by lifting the indexes of the velocity field vusing the Riemannian metric: u(ξ) = (v, ξ) for allξ ∈ TxM.Theorem (D. Serre and L. Tartar [1984] for Rn; V. Ovsienko, B. Khesin, and Yu. Chekanov [1988] forany M ). The Euler equation of an ideal incom-pressible fluid on an n-dimensional Riemannianmanifold M (possibly with boundary) with a volumeform µ has

(i) the first integral

J(v) =∫Mu∧ (du)m

in the case of an arbitrary odd-dimensional mani-fold M (n = 2m+ 1); and

(ii) an infinite number of functionally independentfirst integrals

Jk(v) =∫M

((du)m

µ

)kµ for k = 1,2, . . .

in the case of an arbitrary even-dimensional manifoldM (n = 2m), where the 1-form u and the vector fieldv are related by means of the metric on M.

One can see that for domains in R2 and R3 theintegrals above become the helicity and enstrophyinvariants. Furthermore, the geometric viewpointimplies that in the odd-dimensional casen = 2m+ 1 the vorticity field ξ defined byiξµ = (du)m is “frozen into the fluid”, i.e., trans-ported by the flow. In the even-dimensional casen = 2m the function (du)m/µ is transported point-wise.

Remark. The above first integrals arise naturallyin the Hamiltonian framework of the Euler equa-tion for incompressible flows. Namely, for an idealfluid the Lie algebra g = SVect(M) consists ofdivergence-free vector field in M. The 1-forms u (de-fined modulo function differentials) can be thoughtof as elements of the corresponding dual space g∗,while the lifting of indexes is the inertia operatorI : g → g∗ . The invariance of the integrals in the the-orem above essentially follows from their coordi-nate-free definition on this dual space. The Eulerequation on g∗ can be rewritten as an equation on1-forms u:

∂tu+ Lvu = −dp,

where one can recognize all the terms of the Eulerequation (1) for an ideal fluid.


intermediate constructions. The analogy betweenthe equations of a rigid body and of an incom-pressible fluid enables one to study stability ofsteady flows by considering critical points of theenergy function on the sets of isovorticed vectorfields, which form the coadjoint orbits of the dif-feomorphism group.

First, recall that in the 2D case stationary flowshave the property that locally the stream functionψ is a function of vorticity, that is, of the Lapla-cian of the stream function ∆ψ. In other words, thegradient vectors of the stream function and of itsLaplacian are collinear and, in particular, the ratio∇ψ/∇∆ψ makes sense.

Theorem. [3] Suppose that the stream function ofa stationary flow, ψ = ψ(x, y), in a region M is afunction of the vorticity function ∆ψ not only locally,but globally. Then the stationary flow is stable pro-vided that its stream function satisfies the follow-ing inequality:

0 < c ≤ ∇ψ∇∆ψ ≤ C <∞

for some constants c and C. Moreover, there is anexplicit estimate of the (time-dependent) deviationfrom the stationary flow in terms of the perturba-tion of the initial condition.

The above condition implies that the second vari-ation δ2E of energy restricted to isovorticed fieldsis positive definite. A similar statement exists alsofor the negative-definite second variation, althoughto ensure the latter one has to impose not onlysome condition on the ratio ∇ψ/∇∆ψ, but also onthe geometry of the domain; see [3]. The underly-ing heuristic idea of the proof is that the first inte-gral, which has a nondegenerate minimum or max-imum at the stationary point ψ , after a normalizationcan be regarded as a “norm” that allows one to con-trol the flow trajectories on the set of isovorticedfields. Note that invariants of such fields (i.e., Casimirfunctions of the group of area-preserving diffeo-morphisms) play the role of Lagrange multipliers inthe above study of the conditional extremum. Werefer to the surveys [4, 8] and references therein forfurther applications and a study of stability by com-bining the energy function with Casimir functionsfor a number of physically interesting infinite-dimensional dynamical systems.

Example. [1, 3] Consider a steadyplanar shear flow in a horizontalstrip in the (x, y)-plane with a ve-locity field (v(y),0) , Figure 5. Theform δ2E is positively or nega-tively defined if the velocity pro-file v(y) has no zeroes and nopoints of inflection (i.e., v ≠ 0

and vyy ≠ 0). The conclusion, that the planar par-allel flows are stable, provided that there are no in-flection points in the velocity profile, is a nonlin-ear analogue of the so-called Rayleigh theorem.Profiles with the ratio v/vyy > 0 and v/vyy < 0 aresketched in Figures 5a and 5b, respectively.

It turns out that the stability test for steadyflows based on the second variation δ2E is incon-clusive in dimensions greater than two: The secondvariation of the kinetic energy is never sign-definite in that case (P. Rouchon 1991, L. Sadun and M. Vishik 1993, cf. [4]).

Remark. One should emphasize that the questionunder discussion is not stability “in a linear ap-proximation”, but the actual Lyapunov stability(i.e., with respect to finite perturbations in the non-linear problem). The difference between these twoforms of stability is substantial in this case, sincethe Euler equation is Hamiltonian. For Hamilton-ian systems asymptotic stability is impossible, sostability in a linear approximation is always neu-tral and inconclusive about the stability of an equi-librium position of the nonlinear problem.

Bihamiltonian and Euler Properties of the KdV,CH, and HS Equations

As we discussed above, the Eulerian nature of anequation implies that it is necessarily Hamiltonian,although, of course, not necessarily integrable (e.g., the equations of ideal fluids or magnetohy-drodynamics). However, on certain lucky occasions,the Euler equations for some metrics and groupsturn out to be bihamiltonian (and so completely integrable), while the geodesic description provides an insight into the corresponding struc-tures.

This is the case, for example, with the family ofequations

α(ut + 3uux)−(2)

β(utxx + 2uxuxx + uuxxx)− cuxxx = 0

on a function u = u(t, x), x ∈ S1, which for differ-ent values of parameters α,β , and c combines sev-eral extensively studied nonlinear equations ofmathematical physics, related to various hydro-dynamical approximations. For nonzero c theseare the Korteweg-de Vries equation (α = 1, β = 0),the shallow water Camassa-Holm equation(α = β = 1), and the Hunter-Saxton equation

= v(y) ∂/∂xvelocity

(a

y y

) (b

xx

)

Figure 5. Lyapunov stable fluid flows in a strip. Profiles with the ratio (a)v/vyy > 0 and (b) v/vyy < 0 .


(α = 0, β = 1); see the previous table. (Note that asa very degenerate case c = β = 0 this family alsoincludes the Hopf, or inviscid Burgers, equation.)All these equations are known to possess infinitelymany conserved quantities, as well as remarkablesoliton or soliton-like solutions. It turns out thatthey all have a common symmetry group, the Virasoro group.

Definition. The Virasoro algebra is a one-dimen-sional extension of the Lie algebra of vector fieldson the circle, where the elements are the pairs (avector field v(x)∂x , a real number a) and the com-mutator between such pairs is given by

[(v∂x, a), (w∂x, b)] =((−vwx + vxw )∂x,

∫S1vwxxx dx

).

Note that the commutator does not depend ona and b, which means that the Virasoro algebra isa central extension of vector fields. The Virasorogroup Vir is the corresponding extension of the dif-feomorphism group of the circle. Given any α andβ , equip this group with the right-invariant met-ric, generated by the following quadratic form,“H1

α,β -energy”, on the Virasoro algebra:

〈(v∂x, a), (w∂x, b)〉H1α,β=∫

S1(αvw + βvxwx)dx+ ab .

For different values of α and β this family includesthe L2, H1, and homogeneous H1-metrics. It turnsout that the above equations can be regarded asequations of the geodesic flow related to differentright-invariant metrics on the Virasoro group.

Theorem (B. Khesin and G. Misiol�ek 2003, [9]). Forany α and β , the equation (2) is the Euler equationof the geodesic flow on the Virasoro group for theright-invariant H1

α,β -energy. This equation is bi-hamiltonian, possessing two Poisson structures: thelinear Lie–Poisson structure (universal for all Eulerequations) and a constant Poisson structure, de-pending on α and β . Moreover, the KdV, CH, andHS equations exactly correspond to (the choice of thisconstant structure at) three generic types of the Virasoro coadjoint orbits.

In particular, the KdV equation corresponds tothe L2 -metric (α = 1, β = 0 , V. Ovsienko andB. Khesin 1987), while the Camassa-Holm equationcorresponds to H1 (α = β = 1, G. Misiol�ek 1998).The Hunter-Saxton equation is related to the H1-norm (α = 0, β = 1) defining a nondegenerate met-ric on the homogeneous space Vir/Rot(S1).

The main feature of bihamiltonian systems isthat they admit an infinite sequence of conservedquantities (obtained by the expansion of Casimir

functions in the parameter interpolating betweenthe Poisson structures) together with the whole hi-erarchy of commuting flows associated to them.The same family of equations also appears as acontinuous limit of generic discrete Euler equa-tions on the Virasoro group (A. Veselov and A.Penskoi 2003).

Geometry of the Diffeomorphism GroupsIn the preceding two sections we were mostly con-cerned with similarities between the finite and infinite-dimensional groups and Hamiltonian systems and their hydrodynamical implications.However, the dynamics of an ideal fluid has many distinct and very peculiar properties (such as the existence of weak solutions not preserving the energy), while the corresponding configuration space, the group of volume-preserving diffeomor-phisms, exhibits a very subtle differential geome-try that partially explains why the analysis of hy-drodynamics equations is so difficult. In this sectionwe survey several related results.The Diffeomorphism Group as a Metric Space

Consider a volume-preserving diffeomorphismof a bounded domain and think of it as a final fluidconfiguration for a fluid flow starting at the iden-tity diffeomorphism. In order to reach the position prescribed by this diffeomorphism, everyfluid particle has to move along some path in thedomain. The distance of this diffeomorphism fromthe identity in the diffeomorphism group is the averaged characteristic of the path lengths of theparticles.

It turns out that the geometry of diffeomor-phism groups of two-dimensional manifolds differsdrastically from that of higher-dimensional ones.This difference is due to the fact that in three (andmore) dimensions there is enough space for par-ticles to move to their final positions without hit-ting each other. On the other hand, the motion ofthe particles in the plane might necessitate their ro-tations about one another. The latter phenome-non of “braiding” makes the system of paths of par-ticles in 2D necessarily long, in spite of theboundedness of the domain. The distinction be-tween different dimensions can be formulated interms of properties of SDiff (M) as a metric space.

Recall that on a Riemannian manifold Mn thegroup SDiff(Mn) of volume-preserving diffeomor-phisms is equipped with the right-invariant L2-metric, which is defined at the identity by the energy of vector fields. In other words, to any path g(t, .), 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, on SDiff (M) we associate itslength:

:{g(t, .)} =∫ 1

0

(∫Mn|∂tg(t, x)|2dnx

)1/2

dt.

Then the distance between two fluid configura-tions f , h ∈ SDiff (M) is the infimum of the lengths


of all paths in SDiff (M) connecting them:distSDiff(f , h) = inf :{g(t, .)} . It is natural to call thediameter of the group SDiff (M) the supremum ofdistances between any two of its elements:

diam(SDiff(M) ) = supf ,h∈SDiff(M)

distSDiff(f , h).

Theorem. (i) (A. Shnirelman 1985, 1994, [11]) Fora unit n-dimensional cube Mn where n ≥ 3, the di-ameter of the group of smooth volume-preservingdiffeomorphisms SDiff(M) is finite in the right-invariant metric distSDiff :

diam(SDiff(Mn) ) ≤ 2√n3.

(ii ) (Ya. Eliashberg and T. Ratiu 1991, [7]) For an arbitrary manifold M of dimension n = 2, the diameter of the group SDiff(M) is infinite.

Finiteness of the diameter holds for an arbi-trary simply connected manifold M of dimensionthree or higher. However, the diameter can becomeinfinite if the fundamental group of M is nontriv-ial (Ya. Eliashberg and T. Ratiu 1991). The two-dimensional case is completely different: the infiniteness of the diameter is of “local” nature. Themain difference between the geometries of thegroups of diffeomorphisms in two and three di-mensions is based on the observation that for a longpath on SDiff(M3) , which twists the particles inspace, there always exists a “shortcut” untwistingthem by making use of the third coordinate. (Com-pare this with the corresponding linear problems:π1(SL(2)) = Z , while π1(SL(n)) = Z/2Z for n ≥ 3.)

Remark. More precisely, for an n-dimensional cube(n ≥ 3 ) the distance between two volume-preserving diffeomorphisms f , h ∈ SDiff(M) isbounded above by some power of the L2-norm ofthe “difference” between them:

distSDiff(f , h) ≤ C · ||f − h||αL2(M),

where the exponent α in this inequality is at least2/(n+ 4), and, presumably, this estimate is sharp(A. Shnirelman 1994, [11]). This property means thatthe embedding of the group SDiff(Mn) into thevector space L2(M,Rn) for n ≥ 3 is “Hölder-regular”and, apparently, far from being smooth. Certainly,this Hölder property implies the finiteness of thediameter of the diffeomorphism group. A similarestimate exists for a simply connected higher-dimensional M .

However, no such estimate holds for n = 2: onecan find a pair of volume-preserving diffeomor-phisms arbitrarily far from each other on the groupSDiff(M2) , but close in the L2-metric on the squareor a disk. For instance, an explicit example of a longpath on this group is given by the following flowfor sufficiently long time t : in polar coordinates itis defined by

(r ,φ) � (r ,φ+ t · v(r )),

where the angular velocity v(r ) is nonconstant, seeFigure 6. One can show that the distance of this dif-feomorphism from the identity in the group growslinearly in time. As a matter of fact, the lengths ofpaths on the area-preserving diffeomorphism groupin 2D is bounded below by the Calabi invariant insymplectic geometry (Ya. Eliashberg and T. Ratiu1991, [7]).Shortest Paths and Geodesics

The above properties imply the following curi-ous feature of nonexistence of the shortest pathin the diffeomorphism groups:

Theorem (Shnirelman 1985, [11]). For a unit cubeMn of dimension n ≥ 3, there exist a pair of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms that cannot be con-nected within the group SDiff(M) by a shortest path,i.e., for every path connecting the diffeomorphismsthere always exists a shorter path.

While the long-time existence and uniqueness forthe Cauchy problem of the 3D Euler hydrodynam-ics equation is still an open problem (see the sur-vey by P. Constantin 1995), the above theoremproves the nonexistence for the correspondingtwo-point boundary problem. Thus, the attractivevariational approach to constructing solutions ofthe Euler equations is not directly available in thehydrodynamical situation. Y. Brenier (1989) founda natural class of “generalized incompressibleflows” for which the variational problem is alwayssolvable (a shortest path always exists) and devel-oped their theory. Generalized flows are a far-reaching generalization of the classical flows, wherefluid particles are not only allowed to move inde-pendently from each other, but also their trajec-tories may meet each other: the particles may splitand collide. In a sense, the particles are replacedby “clouds of particles” with the only restrictions

Figure 6. Profile of the Hamiltonian function (left) whose flow(right) for sufficiently long time provides “a long path” on the

area-preserving diffeomorphism group in 2D.


Dilizhan, Erevan (1973) (in Russian); English transl.: Sel.Math. Sov. 5 (1986), 327–345.

[3] ——— , Mathematical methods in classical mechanics,1974; English transl., Graduate Texts in Mathematics,vol. 60. Springer-Verlag, New York, 1989.

[4] V. I. ARNOLD and B. A. KHESIN, Topological methods inhydrodynamics, Applied Mathematical Sciences,vol. 125, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1998.

[5] Y. BRENIER, The least action principle and the relatedconcept of generalized flows for incompressible per-fect fluids, J. Amer. Math. Soc. 2:2 (1989), 225–255. Top-ics on hydrodynamics and volume preserving maps,Handbook of mathematical fluid dynamics, vol. II,North-Holland, Amsterdam, 2003, 55–86.

[6] D. EBIN and J. MARSDEN, Groups of diffeomorphisms andthe notion of an incompressible fluid, Ann. of Math.(2) 92 (1970), 102–163.

[7] YA. ELIASHBERG and T. RATIU, The diameter of the sym-plectomorphism group is infinite, Invent. Math. 103:2(1991), 327–340.

[8] D. HOLM, J. MARSDEN, T. RATIU, and A. WEINSTEIN, Nonlinearstability of fluid and plasma equilibria, Physics Reports123 (1985), 1–116.

[9] B. KHESIN and G. MISIOL�EK, Euler equations on homoge-neous spaces and Virasoro orbits, Adv. Math. 176(2003), 116–144.

[10] H. K. MOFFATT, The degree of knottedness of tangledvortex lines, J. Fluid. Mech. 35 (1969), 117–129. Somedevelopments in the theory of turbulence, J. FluidMech. 106 (1981), 27–47. Magnetostatic equilibria andanalogous Euler flows of arbitrarily complex topology,J. Fluid Mech. 159 (1985), 359–378.

[11] A. SHNIRELMAN, The geometry of the group of diffeo-morphisms and the dynamics of an ideal incom-pressible fluid, Math. Sbor. (N.S.) 128 (170):1 (1985)82–109, 144. Generalized fluid flows, their approxi-mation and applications, Geom. and Funct. Analysis4:5 (1994) 586–620. Diffeomorphisms, braids andflows, in An Introduction to the Geometry and Topol-ogy of Fluid Flows (R. Ricca, ed., Cambridge, 2001),Kluwer Acad. Publ., 253–270.

that the density of particles remains constant allthe time and that the mean kinetic energy is finite[5].

On the other hand, in 2D the correspondingshortest path problem always has a solution interms of continual braids, yet another “intrusion”of topology to fluid dynamics (A. Shnirelman 2001).These shortest braids have a well-defined L2 -velocity, which gives a weak solution of the 2DEuler equation. (One can compare this with thelong-time existence result in the 2D ideal hydro-dynamics (V. Yudovich 1963).) Furthermore, short-est braids provide minimizers of magnetic energyin a cylinder or in a narrow 3D ring, i.e., give partial answers in the energy relaxation problemdiscussed at the beginning of this article!

Remark. The Riemannian geometry of the groupSDiff(M) not only defines the geodesics, solutionsto the Euler hydrodynamics equation, but alsosheds the light on their properties. D. Ebin and J. Marsden (1970) established the smoothness ofthe geodesic spray on this group, which yieldedlocal existence and uniqueness results in Sobolevspaces. They also showed that in any dimension anytwo sufficiently close diffeomorphisms can alwaysbe connected by a shortest path, [6]. The existenceof conjugate points along the geodesics, wherethey cease to be length minimizing, was addressedby G. Misiol�ek (1996).

The study of sectional curvatures for the right-invariant L2-metric showed that the diffeomor-phism group looks rather like a negatively curvedmanifold and allowed one to give explicit estimateson the divergence of geodesics on the group (V. Arnold 1966, A. Lukatsky 1979, S. Preston 2002).Regarding the Earth’s atmosphere, with the equator length of 40,000km and the characteristicdepth of 14km, as an ideal 2D fluid on a sphere,one obtains, in particular, the low predictability ofmotion of atmospheric flows for two weeks, asdiscussed in the introduction. Curiously, at a recent lecture a former head of the UK Meteoro-logical Office said that he would not trust anyweather forecast beyond three days!AcknowledgmentsThe author is indebted to A. Shnirelman and G. Mi-siol�ek for numerous suggestions on the manu-script and to D. Novikov and B. Casselman fordrawing the figures. The image of the Earth’s at-mosphere was taken by the NASA satelite GOES-7.

References[1] V. I. ARNOLD, Sur la géométrie différentielle des groupes

de Lie de dimension infinie et ses applications à l’hy-drodynamique des fluides parfaits, Ann. Inst.Fourier 16 (1966), 316–361.

[2] ——— , The asymptotic Hopf invariant and its appli-cations, Proc. Summer School in Diff. Equations at

The Earth’s atmosphere can be regarded as atwo-dimensional fluid.

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