Asymptotic stability of a nonlinear wave for the compressible Navier-Stokes-Korteweg equations in the half space (Q6113501)

The authors consider the 1D, isentropic and compressible Navier-Stokes-Korteweg equation: \(\rho _{t}+(\rho u)_{x}=0\), \((\rho u)_{t}+(\rho u^{2}+p(\rho ))_{x}=\mu u_{xx}+\kappa \rho \rho _{xxx}\), posed in \((0,+\infty )\times \mathbb{R}^{+}\), where \(\rho \) is the density, \(u\) the velocity, \(p(\rho )\) the pressure defined by \(p(\rho )=K\rho ^{\gamma }\) , with \(K>0\) and \(\gamma \geq 1\), \(\mu >0\) the viscosity coefficient, and \( \kappa >0\) the capillary coefficient, also called Weber number. The initial conditions \((\rho ,u)(0,x)=(\rho _{0},u_{0})(x)\) for \(x>0\), with \(\inf_{x\in \mathbb{R}^{+}}\rho _{0}(x)>0\), are added, together with the boundary conditions \(u(t,0)=u_{b}\), \(\rho _{x}(t,0)=\rho _{1b}\), for any \(t\geq 0\) , and the far-field states: \(\lim_{x\rightarrow +\infty }(\rho ,u)(t,x)=(\rho _{+},u_{+})\), for any \(t\geq 0\), with \(\rho _{+}>0\). The authors recall that the system of compressible Euler equations: \(\rho _{t}+(\rho u)_{x}=0\), \( (\rho u)_{t}+(\rho u^{2}+p(\rho ))_{x}=0\), has two eigenvalues \(\lambda _{1}(\rho ,u)=u-C(\rho )\), \(\lambda _{2}(\rho ,u)=u-C(\rho )\), with \(C(\rho )=\sqrt{K\gamma \rho ^{\gamma -1}}\). They introduce the constant state \( (\rho _{\ast },u_{\ast })\) defined by \(u_{\ast }=-C(\rho _{\ast })\), \( u_{+}-u_{\ast }=\int_{\rho _{\ast }}^{\rho _{+}}C(s)s^{-1}ds\), the stationary solution \((\widetilde{\rho },\widetilde{u})(x)\) to \((\widetilde{ \rho }\widetilde{u})_{x}=0\), \(\widetilde{\rho }\widetilde{u}^{2}+p( \widetilde{\rho })_{x}=\mu \widetilde{u}_{xx}+\kappa \widetilde{\rho } \widetilde{\rho }_{xxx}\), with the boundary conditions \(\widetilde{u} (0)=u_{b}\), \(\widetilde{\rho }_{x}(0)=\rho _{1b}\), and the spatial asymptotic conditions \(\lim_{x\rightarrow +\infty }(\widetilde{\rho }, \widetilde{u})=(\rho _{\ast },u_{\ast })\), \(\inf_{x\in \mathbb{R}^{+}} \widetilde{\rho }(x)>0\), the rarefaction wave \((\rho ^{R},u^{R})(x,t)\), as a weak solution to the compressible Euler equations with the Riemann initial data \((\rho ,u)(0,x)=(\rho _{\ast },u_{\ast })\), if \(x<0\), \((\rho ,u)(0,x)=( \rho _{+},u_{+})\), if \(x>0\), and a nonlinear wave \((\overline{\rho }, \overline{u})(t,x)=(\widetilde{\rho },\widetilde{u})(x)+(\rho ^{r},u^{r})(t,x)-(\rho _{\ast },u_{\ast })\), where \((\rho ^{r},u^{r})(t,x)\) is a suitably smoothed function of \((\rho ^{R},u^{R})(x,t)\). For the main result, the authors assume that \(\rho _{b}=\frac{u_{\ast }}{u_{b}}\rho _{\ast }\), that \(u_{b},u_{\ast }\) and the infinite states satisfy \(u_{b}<0\) and either \(-C(\rho _{+})<u_{+}<0\) and \(u_{b}<u_{\ast }\), or \(u_{+}>0\) and \( u_{b}<u_{\ast }\), that \((\rho _{0}-\rho _{+},u_{\ast }-u_{+})\in H^{2}( \mathbb{R}^{+})\times H^{1}(\mathbb{R}^{+})\), that \(\delta =\left\vert u_{\ast }-u_{b}\right\vert +\left\vert \rho _{1b}\right\vert \) and \( \left\Vert \rho _{0}-\rho _{+}\right\Vert _{2}+\left\Vert u_{0}-u_{+}\right\Vert _{1}\) are suitably small, together with some parameter \(\varepsilon \), and that the compatibility conditions \( u_{0}(0)=u_{b}\) and \(\rho _{0}x(0)=\rho _{1b}\) are satisfied. They prove the existence of a unique classical global solution \((\rho ,u)(t,x)\) to the above problem such that \(\rho -\overline{\rho }\in C([0,\infty );H^{2}( \mathbb{R}^{+}))\), \(u-\overline{u}\in C([0,\infty );H^{1}(\mathbb{R}^{+}))\), \((\rho -\overline{\rho })_{x},(\rho -\overline{\rho })_{xx}\), \((u-\overline{u })_{x}\in C([0,\infty );L^{2}(\mathbb{R}^{+}))\cap L^{2}([0,\infty );L^{2}( \mathbb{R}^{+}))\), \((\rho -\overline{\rho })_{xxx}\), \((u-\overline{u} )_{xx}\in L^{2}([0,\infty );L^{2}(\mathbb{R}^{+})\). Moreover, the solution \( (\rho ,u)(t,x)\) converges as \(t\rightarrow +\infty \) to the nonlinear wave \(( \overline{\rho },\overline{u})(t,x)\). For the proof, the authors first prove a local existence theorem using a dual argument and an iteration technique, and some a priori estimates, using the energy method.