Moving mesh for the axisymmetric harmonic map flow

Abstract

Abstract. We build corotational symmetric solutions to the harmonic map flow from the unit disc into the unit sphere which have constant degree. First, we prove the existence of such solutions, using a time semi-discrete scheme based on the idea that the harmonic map flow is the L 2 -gradient of the relaxed Dirichlet energy. We prove a partial uniqueness result concerning these solutions. Then, we compute numerically these solutions by a moving-mesh method which allows us to deal with the singularity at the origin. We show numerical evidence of the convergence of the method.Mathematics Subject Classification. 35A05, 35K55, 65N30, 65N50, 65N99.