Time asymptotics, time regularity and separation rates for Navier-Stokes flows in supercritical solution classes

Abstract

This paper extends the weak solution theory for the 3D Navier-Stokes equations of Barker, Seregin and Sverak from a critical setting to a supercritical setting making sure to include a useful a priori energy bound as well as a statement about stability under weak-star convergence. Two applications of the a priori bound are then explored. The first provides a spatially local, short-time asymptotic expansion in the time variable starting at $t=0$ which, as a corollary, provides an upper bound on how fast hypothetical non-unique solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations can separate locally. The second establishes higher-order time regularity at a singular time and at spatial points positioned away from the singularity. This quantifies the degree to which the non-local nature of the pressure allows a far flung singularity to disrupt the time regularity at a regular point.