AN OPEN MAPPING THEOREM FOR THE NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS

Abstract

We consider the Navier-Stokes equations in the layer R^n x [0,T] over R^n with finite T > 0. Using the standard fundamental solutions of the Laplace operator and the heat operator, we reduce the Navier-Stokes equations to a nonlinear Fredholm equation of the form (I+K) u = f, where K is a compact continuous operator in anisotropic normed Holder spaces weighted at the point at infinity with respect to the space variables. Actually, the weight function is included to provide a finite energy estimate for solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations for all t in [0,T]. On using the particular properties of the de Rham complex we conclude that the Frechet derivative (I+K)' is continuously invertible at each point of the Banach space under consideration and the map I+K is open and injective in the space. In this way the Navier-Stokes equations prove to induce an open one-to-one mapping in the scale of Holder spaces.