On Global-in-$x$ Stability of Blasius Profiles

Abstract: We characterize the well known self-similar Blasius profiles, $[\bar{u}, \bar{v}]$, as downstream attractors to solutions $[u,v]$ to the 2D, stationary Prandtl system. It was established in \cite{Serrin} that $| u - \bar{u}|_{L^\infty_y} \rightarrow 0$ as $x \rightarrow \infty$. Our result furthers \cite{Serrin} in the case of localized data near Blasius by establishing convergence in stronger norms and by characterizing the decay rates. Central to our analysis is a "division estimate", in turn based on the introduction of a new quantity, $\Omega$, which is globally nonnegative precisely for Blasius solutions. Coupled with an energy cascade and a new weighted Nash-type inequality, these ingredients yield convergence of $u - \bar{u}$ and $v - \bar{v}$ at the essentially the sharpest expected rates in $W^{k,p}$ norms.