On the stability of steady-state solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations in the whole space (Q2680648)

The authors consider the steady-state Navier-Stokes equation \[ w\cdot \nabla w+\nabla \pi _{w}=\Delta w+f, \quad \nabla \cdot w=0 \] in \(\mathbb{R}^{3}\). They first prove that if \(f=\operatorname{div} F\) where \(F\) is a second-order tensor satisfying \(\mathcal{D}=\left\Vert F\right\Vert _{2}+\left\Vert f\right\Vert_{3} < \infty \), then there exists an absolute constant \(C_{0}>0\) such that if \(\mathcal{D} < C_{0}\), this exterior Stokes problem has a unique solution \((w,\pi _{w})\), \(w\) satisfying \(\left\Vert w\right\Vert _{2}\leq C_{1} \mathcal{D}\), for another absolute constant \(C_{1} > 0\). For the second main result of their paper, the authors consider the Cauchy problem \[ v_{t}+v\cdot \nabla (v+w)+w\cdot \nabla v+\nabla \pi =\Delta v, \quad \nabla \cdot v=0 \] in \((0,T)\times \mathbb{R}^{3}\), with the initial condition \(v=v_{0}\in L_{\alpha }^{p}(\mathbb{R}^{3})\) in \(\mathbb{R}^{3}\), with \(p>3\), \(\alpha =1- \frac{3}{p}\). They prove the following stability result: If \[ c[(\left\Vert w\right\Vert _{1})^{1-3/p}\left\Vert w\right\Vert _{3}+\left\Vert w\right\Vert _{2}]+2((1+c)\left\Vert v_{0}\right\Vert _{L_{\alpha }^{p}( \mathbb{R}^{3})})^{1/2}<1 \] and \[ 4c[(\left\Vert w\right\Vert _{1})^{1-3/p}\left\Vert w\right\Vert _{3}+\left\Vert w\right\Vert _{2}]<1, \] then for an absolute constant \(c>0\), there exists a unique solution to the Cauchy problem which is smooth for all \(t>0\) and which satisfies \(\lim_{t\rightarrow 0}(v(t),\varphi) = (v_{0},\varphi)\) for all \(\varphi \in C_{0}(\mathbb{R}^{3})\), \[ t^{1/2}\left\Vert v(t)\right\Vert _{\infty}+\left\Vert v(t)\right\Vert _{L_{\alpha}^{p}}\leq c\left\Vert v_{0}\right\Vert _{L_{\alpha}^{p}}\quad \text{and}\quad t^{1/2}\left\Vert \pi (t)\right\Vert _{L_{\alpha }^{p}}\leq c\left\Vert v_{0}\right\Vert _{L_{\alpha }^{p}}[\left\Vert v_{0}\right\Vert _{L_{\alpha }^{p}}+2\left\Vert w\right\Vert _{2}] \] for all \(t>0\). For the proof of the existence result to the steady-state Navier-Stokes problem, the authors quote from the book [\textit{G. P. Galdi}, An introduction to the mathematical theory of the Navier-Stokes equations. Steady-state problems. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Springer (2011; Zbl 1245.35002)] by the first author the existence of a unique solution \(w\in D^{1,q}(\mathbb{R}^{3})\times L^{q}(\mathbb{R}^{3})\) for all \( q>3/2\) satisfying \(\left\Vert w\right\Vert _{1}\leq c\left\Vert F\right\Vert _{2}\). They then represent the solution in terms of the Stokes fundamental solution and they prove properties and estimates on this Stokes fundamental solution. For the proof of the stability result, the authors rewrite the Cauchy problem through an integral equation which involves the Oseen tensor. They prove different estimates and they introduce an approximation scheme as this integral equation. They prove that the sequence built through this approximation scheme converges in some sense to a solution to the Cauchy problem.