A sufficiency class for global (in time) solutions to the 3D Navier-Stokes equations

Let Ω be an open domain of class C² contained in R³, let L²(Ω)³ be the Hilbert space of square integrable functions on Ω and let HΩ]?H be the completion of the set, , with respect to the inner product of L²(Ω)³. A well-known unsolved problem is that of the construction of a sufficient class of functions in H which will allow global, in time, strong solutions to the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations. These equations describe the time evolution of the fluid velocity and pressure of an incompressible viscous homogeneous Newtonian fluid in terms of a given initial velocity and given external body forces. In this paper, we use the analytic nature of the Stokes semigroup to construct an equivalent norm for H, which provides strong bounds on the nonlinear term. This allows us to prove that, under appropriate conditions, there exists a number u₊, depending only on the domain, the viscosity, the body forces and the eigenvalues of the Stokes operator, such that, for all functions in a dense set D contained in the closed ball B(Ω)?B of radius in H, the Navier-Stokes equations have unique, strong, solutions in C¹((0,∞),H).