Stability by rescaled weak convergence for the Navier-Stokes equations

Abstract

We prove a weak stability result for the three-dimensional homogeneous incompressible Navier-Stokes system. More precisely, we investigate the following problem : if a sequence $(u_{0, n})_{n\in \N}$ of initial data, bounded in some scaling invariant space, converges weakly to an initial data $u_0$ which generates a global regular solution, does $u_{0, n}$ generate a global regular solution ? A positive answer in general to this question would imply global regularity for any data, through the following examples $u_{0,n} = n \vf_0(n\cdot)$ or $u_{0,n} = \vf_0(\cdot-x_n)$ with $|x_n|\to \infty$. We therefore introduce a new concept of weak convergence (rescaled weak convergence) under which we are able to give a positive answer. The proof relies on profile decompositions in anisotropic spaces and their propagation by the Navier-Stokes equations.