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Abstract:We introduce and analyze a class of Surface Quasi-Geostrophic (SQG) equations in the presence of moving rigid obstacles. The model is motivated both by vortex-wave type asymptotics for singular structures in active scalar equations and by geophysical phenomena exhibiting rigid-like coherent regions, such as cyclone eyes or long-lived atmospheric dust clouds. We consider the critical SQG equation in a time-dependent exterior domain generated by a prescribed rigid motion and reconstruct the velocity through a nonlocal elliptic formulation adapted to impermeability constraints. The active scalar is assumed to remain constant inside the rigid region and in a neighborhood of its boundary, yielding a plateau structure compatible with the transport dynamics. For a single moving obstacle, we establish local well-posedness of classical solutions in Sobolev spaces $H^k$, $k\geq 4$ together with uniqueness, local stability, and a blow-up criterion. The analysis relies on a reformulation in adapted coordinates reducing the problem to a fixed domain, combined with integral representations for the fractional elliptic operator, regularization procedures, and a nonlinear fixed-point argument. A central difficulty comes from the critical singularity of the SQG Biot-Savart kernel in the case $s=\frac{1}{2}$, for which the velocity reconstruction near the moving boundary requires commutator estimates. We further prove propagation of the plateau property and derive a priori estimates controlling both the support of the scalar gradient and the Sobolev norm of the solution. This work provides, to our knowledge, the first well-posedness theory for SQG equations with moving rigid obstacles and constitutes a first step toward the rigorous derivation of point-vortex type dynamics from shrinking rigid bodies in SQG flows.

Submission history

From: Arnab Roy [view email]
[v1] Fri, 22 May 2026 07:01:48 UTC (36 KB)