Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Adler, James H., Hu, Xiaozhe, Lee, Seulip
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.24650
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915701114011648
author Adler, James H.
Hu, Xiaozhe
Lee, Seulip
author_facet Adler, James H.
Hu, Xiaozhe
Lee, Seulip
contents We propose a unified four-dimensional (4D) spatiotemporal formulation for time-dependent convection-diffusion problems that preserves underlying physical structures. By treating time as an additional space-like coordinate, the evolution problem is reformulated as a stationary convection-diffusion equation on a 4D space-time domain. Using exterior calculus, we extend this framework to the full family of convection-diffusion problems posed on $H(\textbf{grad})$, $H(\textbf{curl})$, and $H(\text{div})$. The resulting formulation is based on a 4D Hodge-Laplacian operator with a spatiotemporal diffusion tensor and convection field, augmented by a small temporal perturbation to ensure nondegeneracy. This formulation naturally incorporates fundamental physical constraints, including divergence-free and curl-free conditions. We further introduce an exponentially-fitted 4D spatiotemporal flux operator that symmetrizes the convection-diffusion operator and enables a well-posed variational formulation. Finally, we prove that the temporally-perturbed formulation converges to the original time-dependent convection-diffusion model as the perturbation parameter tends to zero.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_24650
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A unified spatiotemporal formulation with physics-preserving structure for time-dependent convection-diffusion problems
Adler, James H.
Hu, Xiaozhe
Lee, Seulip
Analysis of PDEs
Numerical Analysis
35K10, 58A10, 35B30
We propose a unified four-dimensional (4D) spatiotemporal formulation for time-dependent convection-diffusion problems that preserves underlying physical structures. By treating time as an additional space-like coordinate, the evolution problem is reformulated as a stationary convection-diffusion equation on a 4D space-time domain. Using exterior calculus, we extend this framework to the full family of convection-diffusion problems posed on $H(\textbf{grad})$, $H(\textbf{curl})$, and $H(\text{div})$. The resulting formulation is based on a 4D Hodge-Laplacian operator with a spatiotemporal diffusion tensor and convection field, augmented by a small temporal perturbation to ensure nondegeneracy. This formulation naturally incorporates fundamental physical constraints, including divergence-free and curl-free conditions. We further introduce an exponentially-fitted 4D spatiotemporal flux operator that symmetrizes the convection-diffusion operator and enables a well-posed variational formulation. Finally, we prove that the temporally-perturbed formulation converges to the original time-dependent convection-diffusion model as the perturbation parameter tends to zero.
title A unified spatiotemporal formulation with physics-preserving structure for time-dependent convection-diffusion problems
topic Analysis of PDEs
Numerical Analysis
35K10, 58A10, 35B30
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.24650