Asymptotic regularity conditions for the strong convergence towards weak limit sets and weak attractors of the 3D Navier-Stokes equations (Q855808)

The author studies the structure of the weak attractor of the inhomogeneous Navier Stokes equations \[ \partial_tu+\nu \text{Au}+B(u,u)=f,\quad A=-P\Delta,\quad B(u,v)=P(u\nabla)v,\tag{1} \] considered on a smooth bounded domain \(\Omega\), with no-slip conditions. The spaces underlying (1) are based on \({\mathcal V}=\{w\mid \;w\in C^\infty_0(\Omega)^3,\;\text{div}\,w=0\}\); the space \(H\subseteq {\mathcal L}^2(\Omega)^3\) is the completion of \(\mathcal V\) under the \({\mathcal L}^2(\Omega)^3\)-norm \(|\;|\), while \(V\) is the completion of \(\mathcal V\) under the norm \(\|\;\|\) of \(H^1(\Omega)^3\); \(H_w\) is \(H\) supplied with the weak topology, \(V'\) is the dual of \(V\), and \(f\in V'\) is assumed. Leray-Hopf weak solutions on an interval \((t_0,t_1)\) with \(-\infty\leq t_0<t_1\leq \infty\) and likewise on \([t_0,t_1)\) with \(-\infty< t_0<t_1\leq \infty\) are introduced; in the latter case the weak solution \(u(\;)\) is required to be stronlgy continuous at \(t_0\), ie. \(|u(t)-u(t_0)|\to0\) as \(t\downarrow t_0\). Weak solutions are by definition in \(C(I,H_w)\) \((I=(t_0,t_1)\) or \(=[t_0,t_1))\). The global weak attractor \(A_w\) is then defined as follows: (2) \(v_0\in A_w\) iff there is a global weak solution \(v(t)\), \(t\in \mathbb R\), uniformly bounded in \(H\) (ie. \(\sup_{t\in \mathbb R}|v(t)|<\infty)\) such that \(v(0)=v_0\). It was proved by \textit{C. Foiaş} and \textit{R. Temam} [Publ. Math. Res. Cent. Univ. Wis. Madison 54, 55--73 (1987; Zbl 0673.35084 )] that the global weak attractor in fact exists, is weakly compact, and attracts all weak solutions in the following sense: if \(u(t)\), \(t\in[t_0,\infty)\) is a weak solution, then for any weak (in \(H_w)\) neighbourhood \({\mathcal O}\supseteq A_w\) there is \(T\geq t_0\) such that \(u(t)\in {\mathcal O}\) for \(t\geq T\). The weak attractor \(A_w\) is now said to strongly attract weak solutions uniformly with respect to uniformly bounded sets of weak solutions if: (3) for \(t_0\in \mathbb R\), \(R>0\), \(\varepsilon>0\) there is \(T\geq t_0\) such that \[ \sup_{v_0\in A_w}|u(t)-v_0|<\varepsilon\text{ for }t\geq T \] for all weak solutions \(u(t)\), \(t\in [t_0,\infty)\) with \(\sup_{t\geq t_0}|u(t)|\leq R.\) The principal result of the paper is Theorem 5.1 which gives necessary and sufficient conditions for \(A_w\) to be strongly attracting in the sense of (3). It states that (i), (ii), (iii) below are equivalent: (i) \(A_w\) is strongly compact in \(H\), (ii) all the global weak solutions in \(A_w\) are strongly continuous in \(H\), (iii) \(A_w\) is strongly compact and strongly attracts weak solutions in the sense of (3). There is a similar result (Thm. 4.1) about weak \(\omega\)-limit sets \(\omega_w(u)\) of weak solutions \(u(t)\), \(t\in[t_0,\infty)\). The proofs underlying Thm. 4.1, 5.1 are based on topological arguments.