Gevrey Stability of Prandtl Expansions for 2D Navier-Stokes

Abstract: We investigate the stability of boundary layer solutions of the two-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. We consider shear flow solutions of Prandtl type : $$ u^\nu(t,x,y) \, = \, \big (U^E(t,y) + U^{BL}(t,\frac{y}{\sqrt{\nu}})\,, \, 0 \big )\, , \quad 0<\nu \ll 1\,. $$ We show that if $U^{BL}$ is monotonic and concave in $Y = y /\sqrt{\nu}$ then $u^\nu$ is stable over some time interval $(0,T)$, $T$ independent of $\nu$, under perturbations with Gevrey regularity in $x$ and Sobolev regularity in $y$. We improve in this way the classical stability results of Sammartino and Caflisch in analytic class (both in $x$ and $y$). Moreover, in the case where $U^{BL}$ is steady and strictly concave, our Gevrey exponent for stability is optimal. The proof relies on new and sharp resolvent estimates for the linearized Orr-Sommerfeld operator.