Stability of planar exterior stationary flows with suction

Abstract: We consider the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes system in a domain exterior to a disk. The system admits a stationary solution with critical decay $O(|x|^{-1})$ written as a linear combination of the pure rotating flow and the flux carrier. We prove its nonlinear stability in large time for initial disturbances in $L^2$ under smallness conditions, assuming that there is suction across the boundary, namely that the sign of coefficients of the flux carrier is negative. This result partially solves an open problem in the literature.