Improved Liouville theorems for axially symmetric Navier-Stokes equations

Abstract: In this paper, we consider the Liouville property for ancient solutions of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. In 2D and the 3D axially symmetric case without swirl, we prove sharp Liouville theorems for smooth ancient mild solutions: velocity fields $v$ are constants if vorticity fields satisfy certain condition and $v$ are sublinear with respect to spatial variables, and we also give counterexamples when $v$ are linear with respect to spatial variables. The condition which vorticity fields need to satisfy is $\lim\limits_{|x|\rightarrow +\infty}|w(x,t)|=0$ and $\lim\limits_{r\rightarrow +\infty}\frac{|w|}{\sqrt{x_1^2+x_2^2}}=0$ uniformly for all $t\in(-\infty,0)$ in 2D and 3D axially symmetric case without swirl, respectively. In the case when solutions are axially symmetric with nontrivial swirl, we prove that if $\Gamma=rv_\theta\in L^\infty_tL^p_x(\mathbb{R}^3\times(-\infty,0))$ where $1\leq p<\infty$, then bounded ancient mild solutions are constants.