Solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations with forced rapid space-time decay

Abstract

We study the pointwise decay properties of solutions to the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, both in the space and time variables. It is well known that generic global solutions on $\mathbb{R}^n$ do not decay faster at infinity than $|x|^{-(n+1)}$ and $t^{-(n+1)/2}$ in the pointwise sense. In this paper, we address the control problem of constructing an external forcing and a solution to the Navier-Stokes equations whose space-time decay properties go beyond these limiting rates. A distinctive feature of the forcing term is that its spatial profile can be fixed once and for all, independently of the initial data of the problem, and localized in an arbitrarily small region of $\mathbb{R}^n$. Only the temporal profile of the external force displays a dependency on the initial datum.