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We enable a theory of intrinsic asymptotic expansions for the steady state solutions of the full Navier-Stokes equations. Such a theory was first developed in Foias et al (2024 Commun. Pure Appl. Anal. 23, 269-303) for Galerkin approximations. To overcome the lack of local compactness in infinite dimensional spaces, we introduce the notion of asymptotic expansions in nested spaces. When the inclusion maps between these spaces are compact, we establish the existence of such an asymptotic expansion for a subsequence of any bounded sequence. This consequently yields an intrinsic asymptotic expansion in a single normed space. We apply this result to the steady states of the Navier-Stokes equations by utilizing the spectral fractional Sobolev spaces. In the case of the two-dimensional periodic boundary conditions, more properties relating the terms of the asymptotic expansion are obtained., Comment: Nonlinearity, in press

We consider the behaviour of a passive tracer $\theta$ governed by $\partial_t\theta + u\cdot\nabla\theta = \Delta\theta + g$ in two space dimensions with prescribed smooth random incompressible velocity $u(x,t)$ and source $g(x)$. In 1959, Batchelor, Howells and Townsend (J.\ Fluid Mech.\ 5:113) predicted that the tracer (power) spectrum should then scale as $|\theta_k|^2\propto|k|^{-4}|u_k|^2$ for $|k|$ large depending on the velocity $u$. For smaller $|k|$, Obukhov and Corrsin earlier predicted a different spectral scaling. In this paper, we prove that the BHT scaling does indeed hold probabilistically for sufficiently large $|k|$, asymptotically up to controlled remainders, using only bounds on the smaller $|k|$ component., Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure

We examine how stationary solutions to Galerkin approximations of the Navier--Stokes equations behave in the limit as the Grashof number $G$ tends to $\infty$. An appropriate scaling is used to place the Grashof number as a new coefficient of the nonlinear term, while the body force is fixed. A new type of asymptotic expansion, as $G\to\infty$, for a family of solutions is introduced. Relations among the terms in the expansion are obtained by following a procedure that compares and totally orders positive sequences generated by the expansion. The same methodology applies to the case of perturbed body forces and similar results are obtained. We demonstrate with a class of forces and solutions that have convergent asymptotic expansions in $G$. All the results hold in both two and three dimensions, as well as for both no-slip and periodic boundary conditions., Comment: 36 pp., corrections, accepted for publication

The efficacy of a nudging data assimilation algorithm using higher order finite element interpolating operators is studied. Numerical experiments are presented for the 2D Navier-Stokes equations in two cases: shear flow in an annulus and a forced flow in a disk with an off-center cavity. In both cases second order interpolation of coarse-grain data is shown to outperform first order interpolation. Convergence of the nudged solution to that of a direct numerical reference solution is proved. The analysis points to a trade-off in the estimates for higher order interpolating operators., Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 1 table

This paper studies a family of generalized surface quasi-geostrophic (SQG) equations for an active scalar $\theta$ on the whole plane whose velocities have been mildly regularized, for instance, logarithmically. The well-posedness of these regularized models in borderline Sobolev regularity have previously been studied by D. Chae and J. Wu when the velocity $u$ is of lower singularity, i.e., $u=-\nabla^{\perp}\Lambda^{\beta-2}p(\Lambda)\theta$, where $p$ is a logarithmic smoothing operator and $\beta \in [0,1]$. We complete this study by considering the more singular regime $\beta\in(1,2)$. The main tool is the identification of a suitable linearized system that preserves the underlying commutator structure for the original equation. We observe that this structure is ultimately crucial for obtaining continuity of the flow map. In particular, straightforward applications of previous methods for active transport equations fail to capture the more nuanced commutator structure of the equation in this more singular regime. The proposed linearized system nontrivially modifies the flux of the original system in such a way that it coincides with the original flux when evaluated along solutions of the original system. The requisite estimates are developed for this modified linear system to ensure its well-posedness., Comment: Minor revisions. Accepted to Communications on Pure and Applied Analysis. 18 pages

This paper studies the dissipative generalized surface quasi-geostrophic equations in a supercritical regime where the order of the dissipation is small relative to order of the velocity, and the velocities are less regular than the advected scalar by up to one order of derivative. We also consider a non-degenerate modification of the endpoint case in which the velocity is less smooth than the advected scalar by slightly more than one order. The existence and uniqueness theory of these equations in the borderline Sobolev spaces is addressed, as well as the instantaneous smoothing effect of their corresponding solutions. In particular, it is shown that solutions emanating from initial data belonging to these Sobolev classes immediately enter a Gevrey class. Such results appear to be the first of its kind for a quasilinear parabolic equation whose coefficients are of higher order than its linear term; they rely on an approximation scheme which modifies the flux in such a way that preserves the underlying commutator structure lost by having to work in the critical space setting, as well as delicate adaptations of well-known commutator estimates to Gevrey classes., Comment: 34 pages and 1 figure

We develop, analyze, and test an approximate, global data assimilation/synchronization algorithm based on purely local observations for the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations on the torus. We prove that, for any error threshold, if the reference flow is analytic with sufficiently large analyticity radius, then it can be recovered within that threshold. Numerical computations are included to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach, as well as variants with data on moving subdomains. In particular, we demonstrate numerically that machine precision synchronization is achieved for mobile data collected from a small fraction of the domain., Comment: 11 figures, 27 pages

Given a velocity field $u(x,t)$, we consider the evolution of a passive tracer $\theta$ governed by $\partial_t\theta + u\cdot\nabla\theta = \Delta\theta + g$ with time-independent source $g(x)$. When $\|u\|$ is small, Batchelor, Howells and Townsend (1959, J.\ Fluid Mech.\ 5:134) predicted that the tracer spectrum scales as $|\theta_k|^2\propto|k|^{-4}|u_k|^2$. In this paper, we prove that this scaling does indeed hold for large $|k|$, in a probabilistic sense, for random synthetic two-dimensional incompressible velocity fields $u(x,t)$ with given energy spectra. We also propose an asymptotic correction factor to the BHT scaling arising from the time-dependence of $u$., Comment: 15 pages

We construct a determining form for the 2D Rayleigh-B\'enard (RB) system in a strip with solid horizontal boundaries, in the cases of no-slip and stress-free boundary conditions. The determining form is an ODE in a Banach space of trajectories whose steady states comprise the long-time dynamics of the RB system. In fact, solutions on the global attractor of the RB system can be further identified through the zeros of a scalar equation to which the ODE reduces for each initial trajectory. The twist in this work is that the trajectories are for the velocity field only, which in turn determines the corresponding trajectories of the temperature.

The Rayleigh-B\'enard system with stress-free boundary conditions is shown to have a global attractor in each affine space where velocity has fixed spatial average. The physical problem is shown to be equivalent to one with periodic boundary conditions and certain symmetries. This enables a Gronwall estimate on enstrophy. That estimate is then used to bound the $L^2$ norm of the temperature gradient on the global attractor, which, in turn, is used to find a bounding region for the attractor in the enstrophy, palinstrophy-plane. All final bounds are algebraic in the viscosity and thermal diffusivity, a significant improvement over previously established estimates. The sharpness of the bounds are tested with numerical simulations.

An intrinsic property of almost any physical measuring device is that it makes observations which are slightly blurred in time. We consider a nudging-based approach for data assimilation that constructs an approximate solution based on a feedback control mechanism that is designed to account for observations that have been blurred by a moving time average. Analysis of this nudging model in the context of the subcritical surface quasi-geostrophic equation shows, provided the time-averaging window is sufficiently small and the resolution of the observations sufficiently fine, that the approximating solution converges exponentially fast to the observed solution over time. In particular, we demonstrate that observational data with a small blur in time possess no significant obstructions to data assimilation provided that the nudging properly takes the time averaging into account. Two key ingredients in our analysis are additional boundedness properties for the relevant interpolant observation operators and a non-local Gronwall inequality., Comment: 44 pages

We introduce a continuous (downscaling) data assimilation algorithm for the 2D B\'enard convection problem using vorticity or local circulation measurements only. In this algorithm, a nudging term is added to the vorticity equation to constrain the model. Our numerical results indicate that the approximate solution of the algorithm is converging to the unknown reference solution (vorticity and temperature) corresponding to the measurements of the 2D B\'enard convection problem when only spatial coarse-grain measurements of vorticity are assimilated. Moreover, this convergence is realized using data which is much more coarse than the resolution needed to satisfy rigorous analytical estimates.

We construct a determining form for the surface quasi-geostrophic (SQG) equation with subcritical dissipation. In particular, we show that the global attractor for this equation can be embedded in the long-time dynamics of an ordinary differential equation (ODE) called a determining form. Indeed, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the trajectories in the global attractor of the SQG equation and the steady state solutions of the determining form. The determining form is a true ODE in the sense that its vector field is Lipschitz. This is shown by combining De Giorgi techniques and elementary harmonic analysis. Finally, we provide elementary proofs of the existence of time-periodic solutions, steady state solutions, as well as the existence of finitely many determining parameters for the SQG equation., Comment: 34 pages

In this article, we prove that data assimilation by feedback nudging can be achieved for the three-dimensional quasi-geostrophic equation in a simplified scenario using only large spatial scale observables on the dynamical boundary. On this boundary, a scalar unknown (buoyancy or surface temperature of the fluid) satisfies the surface quasi-geostrophic equation. The feedback nudging is done on this two-dimensional model, yet ultimately synchronizes the streamfunction of the three-dimensional flow. The main analytical difficulties are due to the presence of a nonlocal dissipative operator in the surface quasi-geostrophic equation. This is overcome by exploiting a suitable partition of unity, the modulus of continuity characterization of Sobolev space norms, and the Littlewood-Paley decomposition to ultimately establish various boundedness and approximation-of-identity properties for the observation operators., Comment: 28 pages, referee comments incorporated, references added, abstract and introduction modified, main theorems cover full subcritical range of dissipation, certain boundedness properties of observation operators extended

The evolution of a determining form for the 2D Navier-Stokes equations (NSE), which is an ODE on a space of trajectories is completely described. It is proved that at every stage of its evolution, the solution is a convex combination of the initial trajectory and the fixed steady state, with a dynamical convexity parameter $\theta$, which will be called the characteristic determining parameter. That is, we show a remarkable separation of variables formula for the solution of the determining form. Moreover, for a given initial trajectory, the dynamics of the infinite-dimensional determining form are equivalent to those of the characteristic determining parameter $\theta$ which is governed by a one-dimensional ODE. %for the parameter specifying the position on the line segment. This one-dimensional ODE is used to show that if the solution to the determining form converges to the fixed state it does so no faster than $\mathcal{O}(\tau^{-1/2})$, otherwise it converges to a projection of some other trajectory in the global attractor of the NSE, but no faster than $\mathcal{O}(\tau^{-1})$, as $\tau \to \infty$, where $\tau$ is the evolutionary variable in determining form. The one-dimensional ODE also exploited in computations which suggest that the one-sided convergence rate estimates are in fact achieved. The ODE is then modified to accelerate the convergence to an exponential rate. Remarkably, it is shown that the zeros of the scalar function that governs the dynamics of $\theta$, which are called characteristic determining values, identify in a unique fashion the trajectories in the global attractor of the 2D NSE. Furthermore, the one-dimensional characteristic determining form enables us to find unanticipated geometric features of the global attractor, a subject of future research.

We show that the global attractor of a weakly damped and driven Korteweg-de Vries equation (KdV) is embedded in the long-time dynamics of an ordinary differential equation called a determining form. In particular, there is a one-to-one identification of the trajectories in the global attractor of the damped and driven KdV and the steady state solutions of the determining form. Moreover, we analyze a data assimilation algorithm (down-scaling) for the weakly damped and driven KdV. We show that given a certain number of low Fourier modes of a reference solution of the KdV equation, the algorithm recovers the full reference solution at an exponential rate in time.

Bounding curves in the energy,enstrophy-plane are derived for the 3D Navier-Stokes equations under an assumption on coherence of the vorticity direction. The analysis in the critical case where the direction is H\"older continuous with exponent $r=1/2$ results in a curve with extraordinarily large maximal enstrophy (exponential in Grashof), in marked contrast to the subcritical case, $r>1/2$ (algebraic in Grashof)., Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures

An algorithm for continuous data assimilation for the two- dimensional B\'enard convection problem is introduced and analyzed. It is inspired by the data assimilation algorithm developed for the Navier-Stokes equations, which allows for the implementation of variety of observables: low Fourier modes, nodal values, finite volume averages, and finite elements. The novelty here is that the observed data is obtained for the velocity field alone; i.e. no temperature measurements are needed for this algorithm. We provide conditions on the spatial resolution of the observed data, under the assumption that the observed data is free of noise, which are sufficient to show that the solution of the algorithm approaches, at an exponential rate, the unique exact unknown solution of the B\'enard convection problem associated with the observed (finite dimensional projection of) velocity.

In this paper we show that the global attractor of the 1D damped, driven, nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation (NLS) is embedded in the long-time dynamics of a determining form. The determining form is an ordinary differential equation in a space of trajectories $X=C_b^1(\mathbb{R}, P_mH^2)$ where $P_m$ is the $L^2$-projector onto the span of the first $m$ Fourier modes. There is a one-to-one identification with the trajectories in the global attractor of the NLS and the steady states of the determining form. We also give an improved estimate for the number of the determining modes.

This paper establishes bounds on norms of all orders for solutions on the global attractor of the 2D Navier-Stokes equations, complexified in time. Specifically, for periodic boundary conditions on $[0,L]^2$, and a force $g\in\calD(A^{\frac{\alpha-1}{2}})$, we show there is a fixed strip about the real time axis on which a uniform bound $|A^{\alpha}u|< m_\alpha\nu\kappa_0^\alpha$ holds for each $\alpha \in \bN$. Here $\nu$ is viscosity, $\k0=2\pi/L$, and $m_\alpha$ is explicitly given in terms of $g$ and $\alpha$. We show that if any element in $\calA$ is in $\D(A^\alpha)$, then all of $\calA$ is in $\D(A^\alpha)$, and likewise with $\D(A^\alpha)$ replaced by $C^\infty(\Omega)$. We demonstrate the universality of this "all for one, one for all" law on the union of a hierarchal set of function classes. Finally, we treat the question of whether the zero solution can be in the global attractor for a nonzero force by showing that if this is so, the force must be in a particular function class., Comment: 40 pages

In this paper, a lower bound estimate on the uniform radius of spatial analyticity is established for solutions to the incompressible, forced Navier-Stokes system on an n-torus. This estimate improves or matches previously known estimates provided that certain bounds on the initial data are satisfied. It is argued that for 2D or 3D turbulent flows, the initial data is guaranteed to satisfy these hypothesized bounds on a significant portion of the 2D global attractor or the 3D weak attractor. In these scenarios, the estimate obtained for 3D generalizes and improves upon that of [Doering-Titi], while in 2D, the estimate matches the best known one found in [Kukavica]. A key feature in the approach taken here is the choice of the Wiener algebra as the phase space, i.e., the Banach algebra of functions with absolutely convergent Fourier series, whose structure is suitable for the use of the so-called Gevrey norms., Comment: 26 pages

In this paper we show that the long time dynamics (the global attractor) of the 2D Navier-Stokes equation is embedded in the long time dynamics of an ordinary differential equation, named {\it determining form}, in a space of trajectories which is isomorphic to $C^1_b(\bR; \bR^N)$, for $N$ large enough depending on the physical parameters of the Navier-Stokes equations. We present a unified approach based on interpolant operators that are induced by any of the determining parameters for the Navier-Stokes equations, namely, determining nodal values, Fourier modes, finite volume elements, finite elements, etc... There are two immediate and interesting consequences of this unified approach. The first is that the constructed determining form has a Lyapunov function, thus its solutions converge, as time goes to infinity, to the set of steady states of the determining form. The second is that these steady states of the determining form are identified, one-to-one, with the trajectories on the global attractor of the Navier-Stokes equations. It is worth adding that this unified approach is general enough that it applies, in an almost straightforward manner, to a whole class of dissipative dynamical systems.

The determining modes for the two-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations (NSE) are shown to satisfy an ordinary differential equation of the form $dv/dt=F(v)$, in the Banach space, $X$, of all bounded continuous functions of the variable $s\in\mathbb{R}$ with values in certain finite-dimensional linear space. This new evolution ODE, named {\it determining form}, induces an infinite-dimensional dynamical system in the space $X$ which is noteworthy for two reasons. One is that $F$ is globally Lipschitz from $X$ into itself. The other is that the long-term dynamics of the determining form contains that of the NSE; the traveling wave solutions of the determining form, i.e., those of the form $v(t,s)=v_0(t+s)$, correspond exactly to initial data $v_0$ that are projections of solutions of the global attractor of the NSE onto the determining modes. The determining form is also shown to be dissipative; an estimate for the radius of an absorbing ball is derived in terms of the number of determining modes and the Grashof number (a dimensionless physical parameter). Finally, a unified approach is outlined for an ODE satisfied by a variety of other determining parameters such as nodal values, finite volumes, and finite elements.