Extensions of Serrin’s Uniqueness and Regularity Conditions for the Navier–Stokes Equations

Abstract

Consider a smooth bounded domain \({\Omega \subseteq {\mathbb{R}}^3}\) , a time interval [0, T), 0 < T ≤ ∞, and a weak solution u of the Navier–Stokes system. Our aim is to develop several new sufficient conditions on u yielding uniqueness and/or regularity. Based on semigroup properties of the Stokes operator we obtain that the local left-hand Serrin condition for each \({t\in (0,T)}\) is sufficient for the regularity of u. Somehow optimal conditions are obtained in terms of Besov spaces. In particular we obtain such properties under the limiting Serrin condition \({u \in L_{\rm loc}^\infty([0,T);L^3(\Omega))}\). The complete regularity under this condition has been shown recently for bounded domains using some additional assumptions in particular on the pressure. Our result avoids such assumptions but yields global uniqueness and the right-hand regularity at each time when \({u \in L_{\rm loc}^\infty([0,T);L^3(\Omega))}\) or when \({u(t)\in L^3(\Omega)}\) pointwise and u satisfies the energy equality. In the last section we obtain uniqueness and right-hand regularity for completely general domains.