Helically symmetric solution of 3D Euler equations with vorticity and its free boundary

Abstract

This paper investigates an incompressible steady free boundary problem of Euler equations with helical symmetry in $3$ dimensions and with nontrivial vorticity. The velocity field of the fluid arises from the spiral of its velocity within a cross-section, whose global existence, uniqueness and well-posedness with fixed boundary were established by a series of brilliant works. A perplexing issue, untouched in the literature, concerns the free boundary problem with (partial) unknown domain boundary in this helically symmetric configuration. We address this gap through the analysis of the optimal regularity property of the scalar stream function as a minimizer in a semilinear minimal problem, establishing the $C^{0,1}$-regularity of the minimizer, and the $C^{1,\alpha}$-regularity of its free boundary. More specifically, the regularity results are obtained in arbitrary cross-sections through smooth helical transformation by virtue of variational method and the rule of "flatness implies $C^{1,\alpha}$".