On the global regularity for the supercritical SQG equation

Abstract

We consider the initial value problem for the fractionally dissipative quasi-geostrophic equation \[ \partial_t θ+ \mathcal{R}^\perp θ\cdot \nabla θ+ Λ^γθ= 0, \qquad θ(\cdot,0) =θ_0 \] on $\mathbb{T}^2 = [0,1]^2$, with $γ\in (0,1)$. The coefficient in front of the dissipative term $Λ^γ= (-Δ)^{γ/2}$ is normalized to $1$. We show that given a smooth initial datum with $\|θ_0\|_{L^2}^{γ/2} \|θ_0\|_{\dot{H}^2}^{1-γ/2}\leq R$, where {\em $R$ is arbitrarily large}, there exists $γ_1 = γ_1(R) \in (0,1)$ such that for $γ\geq γ_1$, the solution of the supercritical SQG equation with dissipation $Λ^γ$ does not blow up in finite time. The main ingredient in the proof is a new concise proof of eventual regularity for the supercritical SQG equation, that relies solely on nonlinear lower bounds for the fractional Laplacian and the maximum principle.