Resolvent estimates for 2 dimensional perturbations of plane Couette Flow

Abstract

We present results concerning resolvent estimates for the linear operator associated with the system of differential equations governing perturbations of the Couette flow. We prove estimates on the L_2 norm of the resolvent of this operator showing this norm to be proportional to the Reynolds number R for a region of the unstable half plane. For the remaining region, we show that the problem can be reduced to estimating the solution of a homogeneous ordinary differential equation with non-homogeneous boundary conditions. Numerical approximations indicate that the norm of the resolvent is proportional to R in the whole region of interest.