On Factorization of a Differential Operator Arising in Fluid Dynamics

Spectral properties of linear operators are very important in stability analysis of dynamical systems. The paper studies the non-selfadjoint second order differential operator that originated from a steady state stability problem in dynamic of viscous Newtonian fluid on the inner surface of horizontally rotating cylinder in the presence of gravitational field. The linearization of the thin liquid film flow in the lubrication limit about the uniform coating steady state results into the operator which domain couples two subspaces spanned by positive and negative Fourier exponents which are not invariant subspaces of the operator. We prove that the operator admits factorization and use this new representation of the operator to prove compactness of its resolvent and to find its domain.

Keywords

factorization, lubrication approximation, fluid mechanics, forward-backward heat equation.

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