Laplacian vector field

In vector calculus, a Laplacian vector field is a vector field which is both irrotational and incompressible.

[1] If the field is denoted as v, then it is described by the following differential equations: From the vector calculus identity

it follows that that is, that the field v satisfies Laplace's equation.

[2] However, the converse is not true; not every vector field that satisfies Laplace's equation is a Laplacian vector field, which can be a point of confusion.

{\displaystyle {\bf {v}}=(xy,yz,zx)}

satisfies Laplace's equation, but it has both nonzero divergence and nonzero curl and is not a Laplacian vector field.

A Laplacian vector field in the plane satisfies the Cauchy–Riemann equations: it is holomorphic.

Suppose the curl of

is zero, it follows that (when the domain of definition is simply connected)

can be expressed as the gradient of a scalar potential (see irrotational field) which we define as

[3] And substituting equation 1 into the equation above yields Therefore, the potential of a Laplacian field satisfies Laplace's equation.

[3] The Laplacian vector field has an impactful application in fluid dynamics.

Consider the Laplacian vector field to be the velocity potential

which is both irrotational and incompressible.

is satisfied by defining a quantity called the velocity potential

always holds true.

[3] Irrotational flow is also called potential flow.

[3] If the fluid is incompressible, then conservation of mass requires that

[4] And substituting the previous equation into the above equation yields

which satisfies the Laplace equation.

[4] In planar flow, the stream function

can be defined with the following equations for incompressible planar flow in the xy-plane:

, we are looking at the Cauchy-Reimann equations.

[3] These equations imply several characteristics of an incompressible planar potential flow.

The lines of constant velocity potential are perpendicular to the streamlines (lines of constant

[4] The Laplacian vector field theory is being used in research in mathematics and medicine.

Math researchers study the boundary values for Laplacian vector fields and investigate an innovative approach where they assume the surface is fractal and then must utilize methods for calculating a well-defined integration over the boundary.

[5] Medical researchers proposed a method to obtain high resolution in vivo measurements of fascicle arrangements in skeletal muscle, where the Laplacian vector field behavior reflects observed characteristics of fascicle trajectories.

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