On the Decay of Infinite Energy Solutions to the Navier-Stokes Equations in the Plane

Abstract: Infinite energy solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations in $\mathbb{R}^2$ may be constructed by decomposing the initial data into a finite energy piece and an infinite energy piece, which are then treated separately. We prove that the finite energy part of such solutions is bounded for all time and decays algebraically in time when the same can be said of heat energy starting from the same data. As a consequence, we describe the asymptotic behavior of the infinite energy solutions. Specifically, we consider the solutions of Gallagher and Planchon [5] as well as solutions constructed from a "radial energy decomposition". Our proof uses the Fourier Splitting technique of M. E. Schonbek.