Maximal regularity of the Stokes operator in an exterior domain with moving boundary and application to the Navier–Stokes equations

Abstract

Consider the (Navier–) Stokes system on an exterior domain with moving boundary and Dirichlet boundary conditions. In 2003 Saal proved that the Stokes operator in a domain with moving boundary has the property of maximal regularity provided that the operator is invertible. Hence his result can be applied if the domain is bounded or by adding a shift to the Stokes operator if the domain is unbounded or the time interval is finite. In this paper, we will generalize his result to a result global in time if the reference domain is an exterior domain. Finally, we will apply this result to the Navier–Stokes equations to obtain a global in time existence theorem for small data.