On existence of Sadovskii vortex patch: A touching pair of symmetric counter-rotating uniform vortex

Abstract

The Sadovskii vortex patch is a traveling wave for the two-dimensional incompressible Euler equations consisting of an odd symmetric pair of vortex patches touching the symmetry axis. Its existence was first suggested by numerical computations of Sadovskii in [J. Appl. Math. Mech., 1971], and has gained significant interest due to its relevance in inviscid limit of planar flows via Prandtl--Batchelor theory and as the asymptotic state for vortex ring dynamics. In this work, we prove the existence of a Sadovskii vortex patch, by solving the energy maximization problem under the exact impulse condition and an upper bound on the circulation.

43 pages, 1 figure, this version to appear in Annals of PDE