Active vector models generalising 3D Euler and electron–MHD equations

Abstract

Abstract We introduce an active vector system, which generalises both the 3D Euler equations and the electron–magnetohydrodynamic equations (E–MHD). We may as well view the system as singularised systems for the 3D Euler equations, in which case the equations of (E–MHD) correspond to the order two more singular one than the 3D Euler equations. The generalised surface quasi-geostrophic equation (gSQG) can be also embedded into a special case of our system when the unknown functions are constant in one coordinate direction. We investigate some basic properties of this system as well as the conservation laws. In the case when the system corresponds up to order one more singular than the 3D Euler equations, we prove local well-posedness in the standard Sobolev spaces. The proof crucially depends on a sharp commutator estimate similar to the one used for (gSQG) in Chae et al (2012 Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 65 1037–66). Since the system covers many areas of both physically and mathematically interesting cases, one can expect that there are various related problems to be investigated, parts of which are discussed here.