Linear Stability and Inviscid Damping of Monotone Shear Flows for 2D Compressible Euler Equations

Abstract

We study 2D compressible Euler equations linearized around monotone shear flows $(U(y),0)$ on $\mathbb{T} \times \mathbb{R}$. The shear rate $U'$ is strictly positive, not necessarily close to any constant, and varies sufficiently slowly. For every fixed Mach number $M > 0$, we prove that the density and the irrotational velocity obey algebraic growth bounds, whereas the solenoidal velocity undergoes componentwise inviscid damping. Although a non-uniform shear couples the transverse Fourier frequencies and precludes the full Fourier reduction available for Couette flow, we are still able to recover the Couette rates without loss. The proof hinges on two new ingredients: a time-dependent pseudodifferential energy that restores a coercive structure for the variable-coefficient shear dynamics, and terminal-time-dependent higher- and lower-order weighted energies that capture the long-time effects of shear mixing.