On the local pressure expansion for the Navier-Stokes equations

Abstract

We show that the pressure associated with a distributional solution of the Navier-Stokes equations on the whole space satisfies a local expansion defined as a distribution if and only if the solution is mild. This gives a new perspective on Lemari\'e-Rieusset's "equivalence theorem." Here, the Leray projection operator composed with a gradient is defined without using the Littlewood-Paley decomposition. Prior sufficient conditions for the local expansion assumed spatial decay or estimates on the gradient and imply the considered solution is mild. An important tool is an explicit description of the bounded mean oscillation solution to a Poisson equation, which we examine in detail. As applications we include an improvement of a uniqueness criteria by the authors in Morrey spaces and revisit a proof of a regularity criteria in dynamically restricted local Morrey spaces due to Gruji\'c and Xu.