A posteriori regularity of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations from numerical computations

In this paper we consider the rôle that numerical computations – in particular Galerkin approximations – can play in problems modelled by the 3d Navier-Stokes equations, for which no rigorous proof of the existence of unique solutions is currently available. We prove a robustness theorem for strong solutions, from which we derive an a posteriori check that can be applied to a numerical solution to guarantee the existence of a strong solution of the corresponding exact problem. We then consider Galerkin approximations, and show that if a strong solution exists the Galerkin approximations will converge to it; thus if one is prepared to assume that the Navier-Stokes equations are regular one can justify this particular numerical method rigorously. Combining these two results we show that if a strong solution of the exact problem exists then this can be verified numerically using an algorithm that can be guaranteed to terminate in a finite time. We thus introduce the possibility of rigorous computations of the solutions of the 3d Navier-Stokes equations (despite the lack of rigorous existence and uniqueness results), and demonstrate that numerical investigation can be used to rule out the occurrence of possible singularities in particular examples.