A local smoothness criterion for solutions of the 3D Navier-Stokes equations (Q396493)

Summary: We consider the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations on the whole space \(\mathbb R^3\) and on the three-dimensional torus \(\mathbb T^3\). We give a simple proof of the local existence of (finite energy) solutions in \(L^3\) for initial data \(u_0\in L^2\cup L^3\), based on energy estimates and regularisation of the initial data with the heat semigroup. We also provide a lower bound on the existence time of a strong solution in terms of the solution \(v(t)\) of the heat equation with such initial data: there is an absolute constant \(\varepsilon>0\) such that solutions remain regular on \([0,T]\) if \(\| u_0\|_{L^3}^3\int\limits_0^T\int\limits_{\mathbb R^3}|\nabla v(s)|^2|v(s)|\,\mathrm dx\,\mathrm d t\leq\varepsilon\). This implies the \(u\in C^0([0,T];L^3)\) regularity criterion due to von Wahl. We also derive simple a priori estimates in \(L^p\) for \(p>3\) that recover the well known lower bound \(\| u(T-t)\|_{L^p}\geq ct^{-(p-3)/2p}\) on any solution that blows up in \(L^p\) at time \(T\). The key ingredients are a calculus inequality \(\| u\|_{L^{3p}}^p\leq c\int |u|^{p-2}|\nabla u|^2\) (valid on \(\mathbb R^3\) and for functions on bounded domains with zero average) and the bound on the pressure \(\| p\|_{L^r}\leq c_r\| u\|_{L^{2r}}^2\), valid both on the whole space and for periodic boundary conditions.