Skew-adjoint form of the convective derivative operator Page 1 of 1

For fixed, real-valued ~u, consider the convective linear operator

1 ~ ~ 1~
L f~ B ~u · ∇ ~
f + ∇ · ~u ⊗ f.
2 2
With appropriate assumptions about R smoothness, theRdomain,
and the boundary conditions, L is skew-adjoint
~ ~ ∗
in the L (Ω) inner product, that is Ω L f ·~g dV = − Ω f · L~g dV where (·)∗ denotes complex conjugation.
2 ∗

Skew-adjointness implies that all the operator’s eigenvalues are imaginary. In conjunction with a first-order
time derivative, a skew-adjoint operator propagates a signal without growth or decay.

Showing that L is skew-adjoint requires two integration by parts formulas. For simplicity, we develop both
using index notation in a Cartesian frame. They do hold in generalized coordinates. The first result is
Z  Z
~ ~

~u · ∇ f · ~g dV =
∗
g∗i u j ∂xi f j dV
Ω Ω
Z Z
= ∂xi gi u j f j dV −
∗
f j ∂xi g∗i u j dV
Ω Ω
Z Z
~ ~ f~ · ∇ ~ · ~u ⊗ ~g∗ dV
   
= ∇ · ~u · f ~g dV −∗

ZΩ  ZΩ
~u · f~ ~g · n̂ dS − f~ · ∇ ~ · ~u ⊗ ~g∗ dV
  
= ∗

Z∂Ω  ZΩ
~g ⊗ f~ ~u · n̂ dS − f~ · ∇ ~ · ~u ⊗ ~g∗ dV.
  
= ∗
∂Ω Ω
The second result is
Z  Z
~ · ~u ⊗ f~ · ~g∗ dV =

∇ g∗i ∂x j ui f j dV
Ω
ZΩ Z
= ∂x j g∗i ui f j dV − ui f j ∂x j g∗i dV
ZΩ Ω
Z
~ ∗ ~ ~ g∗ dV
f~ · ~u · ∇~
 
= ∇ · ~u · ~g f dV −


ZΩ ZΩ
~u · ~g∗ f~ · n̂ dS − ~ g∗ dV
f~ · ~u · ∇~
 
=


Z∂Ω  ZΩ
f~ ⊗ ~g∗ ~u · n̂ dS − ~ g∗ dV.
f~ · ~u · ∇~
  
=
∂Ω Ω
Lastly, we depend on ~u being real-valued so that
1 ~ g∗ + 1 ∇
~ · ~u∗ ⊗ ~g∗ = 1 ~u · ∇~
~ g∗ + 1~
L~g ∗ = ~u∗ · ∇~ ∇ · ~u ⊗ ~g∗ = L~g∗ .


2 2 2 2

By employing the above three results and combining the boundary terms, we see
Z Z Z
~ ~
∗ 1  ~ ∗   ~ ∗ T 
L f · ~g dV = −
∗
f · L~g dV + f ⊗ ~g + f ⊗ ~g ~u · n̂ dS .
Ω Ω ∂Ω 2
Beyond the smoothness requirements necessary to apply integration by parts, the boundary integral must
also vanish for the operator to be self-adjoint.

R
1. J. P. Boyd, Chebyshev and Fourier spectral methods, ch. 11, pp. 213–214, Dover, 2001.
2. Thomas A. Zang, On the rotation and skew-symmetric forms for incompressible flow simulations, Appl. Numer. Math. 7 (1991),
no. 1, 27–40.