On solutions of the transport equation in the presence of singularities

Abstract: We consider the transport equation on $[0,T]\times \mathbb{R}^n$ in the situation where the vector field is $BV$ off a set $S\subset [0,T]\times \mathbb{R}^n$. We demonstrate that solutions exist and are unique provided that the set of singularities has a sufficiently small anisotropic fractal dimension and the normal component of the vector field is sufficiently integrable near the singularities. This result improves upon recent results of Ambrosio who requires the vector field to be of bounded variation everywhere. In addition, we demonstrate that under these conditions almost every trajectory of the associated regular Lagrangian flow does not intersect the set $S$ of singularities. Finally, we consider the particular case of an initial set of singularities that evolve in time so the singularities consists of curves in the phase space, which is typical in applications such as vortex dynamics. We demonstrate that solutions of the transport equation exist and are unique provided that the box-counting dimension of the singularities is bounded in terms of the H\"older exponent of the curves.