Coupled Domain-Boundary Variational Formulations for Hodge-Helmholtz Operators

We couple the mixed variational problem for the generalized Hodge-Helmholtz or Hodge-Laplace equation posed on a bounded 3D Lipschitz domain with the first-kind boundary integral equations arising from the latter when constant coefficients are assumed in the unbounded complement. Recently developed Calderón projectors for the relevant boundary integral operators are used to perform a symmetric coupling. We prove stability of the coupled problem away from resonant frequencies by establishing a generalized Gårding inequality (T-coercivity). The resulting system of equations describes the scattering of monochromatic electromagnetic waves at a bounded inhomogeneous isotropic body possibly having a "rough" surface. The low-frequency robustness of the potential formulation of Maxwell's equations makes this model a promising starting point for Galerkin discretization.

Money flow network among firms' accounts in a regional bank of Japan

In this study, we investigate the flow of money among bank accounts possessed by firms in a region by employing an exhaustive list of all the bank transfers in a regional bank in Japan, to clarify how the network of money flow is related to the economic activities of the firms. The network statistics and structures are examined and shown to be similar to those of a nationwide production network. Specifically, the bowtie analysis indicates what we refer to as a "walnut" structure with core and upstream/downstream components. To quantify the location of an individual account in the network, we used the Hodge decomposition method and found that the Hodge potential of the account has a significant correlation to its position in the bowtie structure as well as to its net flow of incoming and outgoing money and links, namely the net demand/supply of individual accounts. In addition, we used non-negative matrix factorization to identify important factors underlying the entire flow of money; it can be interpreted that these factors are associated with regional economic activities. One factor has a feature whereby the remittance source is localized to the largest city in the region, while the destination is scattered. The other factors correspond to the economic activities specific to different local places. This study serves as a basis for further investigation on the relationship between money flow and economic activities of firms.

Hodge decomposition of wall shear stress vector fields characterizing biological flows

A discrete boundary-sensitive Hodge decomposition is proposed as a central tool for the analysis of wall shear stress (WSS) vector fields in aortic blood flows. The method is based on novel results for the smooth and discrete Hodge-Morrey-Friedrichs decomposition on manifolds with boundary and subdivides the WSS vector field into five components: gradient (curl-free), co-gradient (divergence-free) and three harmonic fields induced from the boundary, which are called the centre, Neumann and Dirichlet fields. First, an analysis of WSS in several simulated simplified phantom geometries (duct and idealized aorta) was performed in order to understand the nature of the five components. It was shown that the decomposition is able to distinguish harmonic blood flow arising from the inlet from harmonic circulations induced by the interior topology of the geometry. Finally, a comparative analysis of 11 patients with coarctation of the aorta (CoA) before and after treatment as well as 10 control patients was done. The study shows a significant difference between the CoA patients before and after the treatment, and the healthy controls. This means a global difference between aortic shapes of diseased and healthy subjects, thus leading to a new type of WSS-based analysis and classification of pathological and physiological blood flow.

Optimal partial regularity of very weak solutions to nonhomogeneous A-harmonic systems

We study partial regularity of very weak solutions to some nonhomogeneous A-harmonic systems. To obtain the reverse Hölder inequality of the gradient of a very weak solution, we construct a suitable test function by Hodge decomposition. With the aid of Gehring's lemma, we prove that these very weak solutions are weak solutions. Further, we show that these solutions are in fact optimal Hölder continuity based on A-harmonic approximation technique.

Hodge Decomposition of Information Flow on Small-World Networks

We investigate the influence of the small-world topology on the composition of information flow on networks. By appealing to the combinatorial Hodge theory, we decompose information flow generated by random threshold networks on the Watts-Strogatz model into three components: gradient, harmonic and curl flows. The harmonic and curl flows represent globally circular and locally circular components, respectively. The Watts-Strogatz model bridges the two extreme network topologies, a lattice network and a random network, by a single parameter that is the probability of random rewiring. The small-world topology is realized within a certain range between them. By numerical simulation we found that as networks become more random the ratio of harmonic flow to the total magnitude of information flow increases whereas the ratio of curl flow decreases. Furthermore, both quantities are significantly enhanced from the level when only network structure is considered for the network close to a random network and a lattice network, respectively. Finally, the sum of these two ratios takes its maximum value within the small-world region. These findings suggest that the dynamical information counterpart of global integration and that of local segregation are the harmonic flow and the curl flow, respectively, and that a part of the small-world region is dominated by internal circulation of information flow.