We construct a new type of planar Euler flows with localized vorticity. Let $\kappa _i\not =0$ , $i=1,\ldots , m$ , be m arbitrarily fixed constants. For any given nondegenerate critical point $\mathbf {x}_0=(x_{0,1},\ldots ,x_{0,m})$ of the Kirchhoff–Routh function defined on $\Omega ^m$ corresponding to $(\kappa _1,\ldots , \kappa _m)$ , we construct a family of stationary planar flows with vortex sheets that have large vorticity amplitude and concentrate on curves perturbed from small circles centered near $x_{0,i}$ , $i=1,\ldots ,m$ . The proof is accomplished via the implicit function theorem with suitable choice of function spaces.

We prove an implicit function theorem for functions on infinite-dimensional Banach manifolds, invariant under the (local) action of a finite-dimensional Lie group. Motivated by some geometric variational problems, we consider group actions that are not necessarily differentiable everywhere, but only on some dense subset. Applications are discussed in the context of harmonic maps, closed (pseudo-) Riemannian geodesics and constant mean curvature hypersurfaces.

We study graded group-valued continuously differentiable mappings defined on stratified groups, where differentiability is understood with respect to the group structure. We characterize these mappings by a system of nonlinear first-order PDEs, establishing a quantitative estimate for their difference quotient. This provides us with a mean value estimate that allows us to prove both the inverse mapping theorem and the implicit function theorem. The latter theorem also relies on the fact that the differential admits a proper factorization of the domain into a suitable inner semidirect product. When this splitting property of the differential holds in the target group, then the inverse mapping theorem leads us to the rank theorem. Both implicit function theorem and rank theorem naturally introduce the classes of image sets and level sets. For commutative groups, these two classes of sets coincide and correspond to the usual submanifolds. In noncommutative groups, we have two distinct classes of intrinsic submanifolds. They constitute the so-called intrinsic graphs, that are defined with respect to the algebraic splitting and everywhere possess a unique metric tangent cone equipped with a natural group structure.

A justification of the two-dimensional nonlinear “membrane”equations for a plate made of a Saint Venant-Kirchhoff material hasbeen given by Fox et al. [9] by means of the method of formal asymptotic expansions applied to the three-dimensional equations of nonlinear elasticity. This model, which retains the material-frame indifference of the originalthree dimensional problem in the sense that its energy density isinvariant under the rotations of ${\mathbb{R}}^3$ , is equivalent to finding thecritical points of a functional whose nonlinear part depends on the firstfundamental form of the unknown deformed surface. We establish here an existence result for these equations in the case of themembrane submitted to a boundary condition of “tension”, and we show that thesolution found in our analysis is injective and is the unique minimizer of thenonlinear membrane functional, which is not sequentially weakly lowersemi-continuous.We also analyze the behaviour of the membrane when the “tension” goes toinfinityand we conclude that a “well-extended” membrane may undergo largeloadings.