The Kneser property of the weak solutions of the three dimensional Navier-Stokes equations (Q977967)

The Knesser theorem for finite-dimensional ODE systems which do not have a unique solution says that the attainability set - the set of values of all solutions of the system with given initial conditions, at a given time - forms a connected set. This paper proves results of this type for the weak solutions of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equation. The connectedness of the attainability sets with respect to the weak topology is proved, simplifying a previous proof given by the authors [Proc. R. Soc. Lond., Ser. A, Math. Phys. Eng. Sci. 463, No. 2082, 1491--1508 (2007; Zbl 1143.35082)]. Connectedness with respect to the strong topology is also proved, conditional on the assumption that the weak solutions satisfying a weak version of the energy inequality are continuous. These results are used to derive connectedness of the global attractor of set-valued semiflows defined by the weak solutions of the Navier-Stokes equation.