Leray’s inequality in general multi-connected domains in ${\mathbb{R}^n}$

Abstract

Consider the stationary Navier–Stokes equations in a bounded domain ${\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^n}$ whose boundary ${\partial\Omega}$ consists of L + 1 smooth (n − 1)-dimensional closed hypersurfaces Γ₀, Γ₁, . . . , Γ _L , where Γ₁, . . . , Γ _L lie inside of Γ₀ and outside of one another. The Leray inequality of the given boundary data β on ${\partial\Omega}$ plays an important role for the existence of solutions. It is known that if the flux ${\gamma_i \equiv \int_{\Gamma_i}\beta \cdot \nu dS = 0}$ on Γ _i (ν: the unit outer normal to Γ _i ) is zero for each i = 0, 1, . . . , L, then the Leray inequality holds. We prove that if there exists a sphere S in Ω separating ${\partial\Omega}$ in such a way that Γ₁, . . . , Γ _k (1 ≦ k ≦ L) are contained inside of S and that the others Γ _k+1, . . . , Γ _L are outside of S, then the Leray inequality necessarily implies that γ ₁ + · · · +  γ _k =  0. In particular, suppose that there are L spheres S ₁, . . . , S _L in Ω lying outside of one another such that Γ _i lies inside of S _i for all i = 1, . . . , L. Then the Leray inequality holds if and only if γ ₀ = γ ₁ = · · · = γ _L = 0.