Spatial decay of the velocity field of an incompressible viscous fluid in \(\mathbb R^d\) (Q2576174)

This article studies mild solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations and their spatial localisation. Applying Leray's projector \(\mathbb P = Id-\nabla \Delta^{-1}\text{div}\) to the Navier-Stokes equation: \[ \begin{cases}\partial_t u-\nu\Delta u +(u\cdot \nabla)u=-\nabla p,\\ \text{div\,}u=0,\\ u(0)=u_0,\quad x\in \mathbb R^d,\;t>0\text{ and constant }\nu>0,\end{cases} \tag{1} \] this equation becomes \[ u(t) = e^{\nu t\Delta}u_0 -\int^t_0 e^{\nu(t-s)\Delta}\mathbb P\text{\,div}(u\otimes u)(s)\,ds.\tag{2} \] The main result states, that if the initial velocity \(u_0\) belongs to a weighted Lebesgue space \(L^p(\mathbb R^d;(1 + |x|)^{pv}\,dx):= L^p_v(\mathbb R^d)\) with \(p > d \geq 2\), \(v\geq 0\) and \(v+\frac dp<d+1\), then there is a real \(T > 0\) and a unique velocity \(u = u(t,x)\) in the space \(C([0,T], L^p_v (\mathbb R^d))\) which satisfies \((2)\) (so called mild solution of \((1)\)). To construct a solution, one uses the classical Picard contracting mapping principle in the Banach function space \(C([0,T];L^p_\nu(\mathbb R^d))\).