Maximal L1 regularity for solutions to inhomogeneous incompressible Navier-Stokes equations

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the maximal L1 regularity and asymptotic behavior for solutions to the inhomogeneous incompressible Navier-Stokes equations under a scaling-invariant smallness assumption on the initial velocity. We obtain a new global L1-in-time estimate for the Lipschitz seminorm of the velocity field without any smallness assumption on the initial density fluctuation. In the derivation of this estimate, we study the maximal L1 regularity for a linear Stokes system with variable coefficients. The analysis tools are a use of the semigroup generated by a generalized Stokes operator to characterize some Besov norms and a new gradient estimate for a class of second-order elliptic equations of divergence form. Our method can be used to study some other issues arising from incompressible or compressible viscous fluids.