Three-dimensional stability of Burgers vortices (Q629911)

Burgers vortices are explicit stationary solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations which are often used to describe the vortex tubes observed in numerical simulations of three-dimensional turbulence. In this model, the velocity field is a two-dimensional perturbation of a linear straining flow with axial symmetry. The only free parameter is the Reynolds number \(\text{Re} = \Gamma/\nu\), where \(\Gamma\) is the total circulation of the vortex and \(\nu\) is the kinematic viscosity. The main result of the paper under review is the asymptotic stability of Burgers vortices under small three-dimensional perturbations, for all values of the Reynolds number. This general result subsumes earlier studies by various authors, which were either restricted to small Reynolds numbers or to two-dimensional perturbations.