Global axisymmetric Euler flows with rotation (Q2689268)

The question of whether the following three-dimensional Euler equations equations can develop a finite-time singularity from general initial data is an outstanding open problem in fluid dynamics and mathematics \[ \begin{cases} &\partial_{t}U+(U \cdot \nabla)U+\nabla P=0,\\ &\nabla\cdot U=0, \\ &U(x, 0)=U_{0}(x). \end{cases}\tag{1} \] Setting \[ U_{rot}=(-x_{2},x_{1},0),\quad P_{rot}=\frac{x_{1}^{2}+x_{2}^{2}}{2}, \] we have that \(U\) solves (1) iff the velocity field \(u\triangleq U-U_{rot}\) obeys the Euler-Coriolis equations \[ \begin{cases} &\partial_{t}u+(u \cdot \nabla)u+e_{3}\times u+\nabla p=0,\\ &\nabla\cdot u=0, \\ &u(x, 0)=u_{0}(x), \end{cases}\tag{2} \] where \(e_{3}\) is the unit vector in the \(x_{3}\) direction. The main target of this paper is to show that sufficiently small and smooth initial data \(u_{0}\) that are axisymmetric lead to global, unique solutions to (2). Precisely, the main theorem is as follows: There exist \(N_{0}>0\) and a norm \(\mathcal{Z}\), finite for Schwartz data, and \(\epsilon_{0}>0\) such that if \(u_{0}\in H^3(\mathbb{R}^{3})\) is axisymmetric and satisfies \[ \|u_{0}\|_{H^{2N_{0}}}+\|u_{0}\|_{\mathcal{Z}}\leq \epsilon<\epsilon_{0}, \] then there exists a unique global solution \(u\in C(R: H^{2N_{0}})\) of (2) with initial data \(u_{0}\), and thus also a global solution \(U\) for (1) with initial data \(U_{0}=U_{rot}+u_{0}\). Moreover, \(u(t)\) decays over time at the optimal rate \[ \|u(t)\|_{L^{\infty}}\lesssim \epsilon (1+t)^{-1} \] and scatters linearly in \(L^2\): There exists \(u_{0}^{\infty}\) such that the solution \(u_{lin}(t)\) of the linearization of (2) with initial data \(u_{0}^{\infty}\), \[ \begin{cases} &\partial_{t}u_{lin}+e_{3}\times u_{lin}+\nabla p=0,\\ &\nabla\cdot u_{lin}=0, \\ &u_{lin}(x, 0)=u_{0}^{\infty}, \end{cases}\tag{3} \] satisfies \[ \|u(t)-u_{lin}(t)\|_{L^{2}}\rightarrow 0,\qquad t\rightarrow\infty. \] To prove this theorem, the authors of this important paper take fully exploit the dispersive effect induced by the rotation, which is a novelty of the this paper. This is a linear mechanism that on \(\mathbb{R}^3\) leads to amplitude decay of solutions of the linearization (3) of the Euler-Coriolis system, which enables a fine analysis of the geometry of nonlinear interactions and allows us to propagate sharp decay bounds. Moreover, the techniques and ideas carried out in this paper are developed with a precise adaptation to the geometry of the Euler-Coriolis system, which can be of much wider use and may open directions towards new results. The proof is strongly computational, involving many technical estimates. The paper is well organized, carefully written and is impressive.