Flows of vector fields with point singularities and the vortex-wave system

Abstract: The vortex-wave system is a model for the evolution of 2D incompressible fluids in which the vorticity is split into a finite sum of Dirac masses plus an Lp part. Existence of a weak solution for this system was recently proved by Lopes Filho, Miot and Nussenzveig Lopes, for p > 2, but their result left open the existence and basic properties of the underlying Lagrangian flow. In this article we study existence, uniqueness and the qualitative properties of the (Lagrangian flow for the) linear transport problem associated to the vortex-wave system. To this end, we study the flow associated to a two-dimensional vector field which is singular at a moving point. We also present an approximation scheme for the flow, with explicit error estimates obtained by adapting results by Crippa and De Lellis for Sobolev vector-fields.