Global solutions of the Navier-Stokes equation with strong viscosity (Q1202529)

This paper is based on previous work by Ebin and Marsden which applies the geometrical methods of Arnold to the study of the flow of a viscosity-free fluid. The authors of this paper show that the phenomenon of viscosity can prevent a solution to the Navier-Stokes equation from ``exploding'' so that it continues for all time. The authors view the Navier-Stokes equation as a perturbation of a geodesic flow on the group of volume preserving diffeomorphisms on a compact Riemannian manifold (i.e., the vessel in which the fluid flows). Existence and uniqueness of bounded solutions for all positive time is shown under the assumption that the viscosity term is raised to the power \(r\) where \(r>{m\over 4}+{1\over 2}\) and \(m\) is the dimension of the space in which the fluids flows.