Uniqueness for the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equation with a measure as initial vorticity (Q1779182)

The authors show that any solution of two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations with vorticity distribution uniformly bounded in \(L^1(\mathbb{R}^2)\) for positive times is entirely determined by the trace of the vorticity at \(t= 0\), which is a finite measure. In particular, this uniqueness property implies that the Cauchy problem for the vorticity equation in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) is globally well-posed in the space of finite measures. The proof starts with the decomposition of the initial measure into a finite sum of isolated Dirac masses and a remainder whose atomic part is arbitrarily small. This implies the decomposition of the solution into a sum of Oseen vortices and a remainder. The final step is the derivation of an integral equation satisfied by the remainder term and estimates obtained by a Gronwall-type argument.