Nonlinear Evolution Toward the Linear Diffusive Profile in the Presence of Couette Flow

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the long-time behavior of solutions to the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations with initial data evolving under the influence of the planar Couette flow. We focus on general perturbations, which may be large and of low regularity, including singular configurations such as point vortices, and show that the vorticity asymptotically approaches a constant multiple of the fundamental solution of the corresponding linearized vorticity equation after a long-time evolution determined by the relative Reynolds number.