Vlad Vicol

A new threshold for the existence of weak solutions to the incompressible Euler equationsTo gain insight into the nature of turbulent fluids, mathematicians start from experimental facts, translate them into mathematical properties for solutions of the fundamental fluids PDEs, and construct solutions to these PDEs that exhibit turbulent properties. This book belongs to such a program, one that has brought convex integration techniques into hydrodynamics. Convex integration techniques have been used to produce solutions with precise regularity, which are necessary for the resolution of the Onsager conjecture for the 3D Euler equations, or solutions with intermittency, which are necessary for the construction of dissipative weak solutions for the Navier-Stokes equations. In this book, weak solutions to the 3D Euler equations are constructed for the first time with both non-negligible regularity and intermittency. These solutions enjoy a spatial regularity index in L^2 that can be taken as close as desired to 1/2, thus lying at the threshold of all known convex integration methods. This property matches the measured intermittent nature of turbulent flows. The construction of such solutions requires technology specifically adapted to the inhomogeneities inherent in intermittent solutions. The main technical contribution of this book is to develop convex integration techniques at the local rather than global level. This localization procedure functions as an ad hoc wavelet decomposition of the solution, carrying information about position, amplitude, and frequency in both Lagrangian and Eulerian coordinates.

A new threshold for the existence of weak solutions to the incompressible Euler equationsTo gain insight into the nature of turbulent fluids, mathematicians start from experimental facts, translate them into mathematical properties for solutions of the fundamental fluids PDEs, and construct solutions to these PDEs that exhibit turbulent properties. This book belongs to such a program, one that has brought convex integration techniques into hydrodynamics. Convex integration techniques have been used to produce solutions with precise regularity, which are necessary for the resolution of the Onsager conjecture for the 3D Euler equations, or solutions with intermittency, which are necessary for the construction of dissipative weak solutions for the Navier-Stokes equations. In this book, weak solutions to the 3D Euler equations are constructed for the first time with both non-negligible regularity and intermittency. These solutions enjoy a spatial regularity index in L^2 that can be taken as close as desired to 1/2, thus lying at the threshold of all known convex integration methods. This property matches the measured intermittent nature of turbulent flows. The construction of such solutions requires technology specifically adapted to the inhomogeneities inherent in intermittent solutions. The main technical contribution of this book is to develop convex integration techniques at the local rather than global level. This localization procedure functions as an ad hoc wavelet decomposition of the solution, carrying information about position, amplitude, and frequency in both Lagrangian and Eulerian coordinates.

The aim of this book is to provide beginning graduate students who completed the first two semesters of graduate-level analysis and PDE courses with a first exposure to the mathematical analysis of the incompressible Euler and Navier-Stokes equations. The book gives a concise introduction to the fundamental results in the well-posedness theory of these PDEs, leaving aside some of the technical challenges presented by bounded domains or by intricate functional spaces. Chapters 1 and 2 cover the fundamentals of the Euler theory: derivation, Eulerian and Lagrangian perspectives, vorticity, special solutions, existence theory for smooth solutions, and blowup criteria. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 cover the fundamentals of the Navier-Stokes theory: derivation, special solutions, existence theory for strong solutions, Leray theory of weak solutions, weak-strong uniqueness, existence theory of mild solutions, and Prodi-Serrin regularity criteria. Chapter 6 provides a short guide to the must-read topics, including active research directions, for an advanced graduate student working in incompressible fluids. It may be used as a roadmap for a topics course in a subsequent semester. The appendix recalls basic results from real, harmonic, and functional analysis. Each chapter concludes with exercises, making the text suitable for a one-semester graduate course. Prerequisites to this book are the first two semesters of graduate-level analysis and PDE courses.