Stability of the Rankine Vortex and Perimeter Growth in Vortex Patches

Abstract

We prove that for $\omega :{\mathbb{R}}^2\to [0,1]$ sharing the same total vorticity and center of vorticity as the Rankine vortex, the $L^1$ deviation from the Rankine patch can be bounded by a function of the pseudo-energy deviation and the angular momentum of $\omega$. In the case of $m-$fold symmetry, the dependence on the angular momentum can be dropped. Using this, we affirm the results of prior simulations by demonstrating linear in time perimeter growth for a simply connected perturbation of the Rankine vortex.