Time-asymptotic study of a viscous axisymmetric fluid without swirl (Q2154523)

The author is concerned with the long-time behaviour of axisymmetric solutions without swirl for the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations in the whole space. In the first main theorem, assuming that both the initial vorticity \(\omega_0\) and \(r^2\omega_0\) (where \(r\) stands for the distance to the symmetry axis) are integrable, he establishes the following asymptotic expansion \[ \omega_\theta(r,t,z)=\frac{rI_0}{16\sqrt\pi} t^{-\frac 52}e^{-\frac{r^2+z^2}{4t}}+o\left(t^{\frac1p-2}\right) \] in \(L^p\) for all \(p\in[1,\infty],\) where \(I_0=\int_{{\mathbb R}_+^2} r^2\omega_\theta(r,z)\,dr\,dz,\) a conserved quantity. Under a stronger localization assumption, the author succeeds in computing the next term in the expansion. Expansions in the same spirit are proved for the velocity (Theorem 1.2). The method relies on accurate \(L^p\)-\(L^q\) estimates for the linearized vorticity equation and its Taylor expansion in self-similar variables.