Weak solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations with test functions in the weak-\(L^n\) space (Q5937394)

The author studies the existence, uniqueness, and regularity of weak solutions of the Navier-Stokes system for an incompressible fluid with test functions in the weak-\(L^n\) space in a domain \(\Omega\subset {\mathbb R}^n\) with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. The crucial difference between the usual and the weak-\(L^n\) spaces stems from the fact that \(C^\infty_0(\Omega)\) is not dense in the latter space. To get around this difficulty, the author imposes a certain assumption on the distribution functions determined by test functions from \(H^1([0,T], H^1_{0,\sigma})\cap C([0,T], L^n_w)\), which plays a substitutive role for the density property. As an application, a new criterion for uniqueness and regularity of weak solutions is derived. This extends results of Foias--Serrin--Masuda saying that if \(u\) is a weak solution in \(L^s([0,T];L^q(\Omega))\) for \(2/s+n/q\leq 1 \) and \(q>n\), then \(u\) is unique.