Enhanced dissipation in the Navier-Stokes equations near the Poiseuille flow

Abstract: We consider solutions to the 2d Navier-Stokes equations on $\mathbb{T}\times\mathbb{R}$ close to the Poiseuille flow, with small viscosity $\nu>0$. Our first result concerns a semigroup estimate for the linearized problem. Here we show that the $x$-dependent modes of linear solutions decay on a time-scale proportional to $\nu^{-1/2}|\log\nu|$. This effect is often referred to as \emph{enhanced dissipation} or \emph{metastability} since it gives a much faster decay than the regular dissipative time-scale $\nu^{-1}$ (this is also the time-scale on which the $x$-independent mode naturally decays). We achieve this using an adaptation of the method of hypocoercivity. Our second result concerns the full nonlinear equations. We show that when the perturbation from the Poiseuille flow is initially of size at most $\nu^{3/4+}$, then it remains so for all time. Moreover, the enhanced dissipation also persists in this scenario, so that the $x$-dependent modes of the solution are dissipated on a time scale of order $\nu^{-1/2}|\log\nu|$. This transition threshold is established by a bootstrap argument using the semigroup estimate and a careful analysis of the nonlinear term in order to deal with the unboundedness of the domain and the Poiseuille flow itself.