Sharp decay characterization for the Oldroyd-B system with only velocity dissipation

Abstract

We study the incompressible Oldroyd-B system on $\mathbb R^d$, $d\ge2$, in the regime in which the velocity is the only dissipated quantity: the stress tensor undergoes neither relaxation nor diffusion. In this regime the operator $\mathbb P\operatorname{div}$ acting on symmetric stresses has an infinite-dimensional kernel consisting of exact stationary states, so no decay estimate can hold for the full stress tensor and the existing sharp-decay theory for dissipative systems does not apply. We identify the active pair $U=(u,Λ^{-1}\mathbb P\operatorname{div}τ)$ as the correct decaying observable and establish, in a critical hybrid Besov framework, a complete characterization of its large-time behavior. For $-d/2<σ_1<σ\le d/2-1$ we prove that $\|U(t)\|_{\mathcal H^σ}=O(t^{-(σ-σ_1)/2})$ holds if and only if the low-frequency part of $U_0$ belongs to $\dot B^{σ_1}_{2,\infty}$, and, for $σ<d/2-1$, that the two-sided estimate $\|U(t)\|_{\mathcal H^σ}\simeq t^{-(σ-σ_1)/2}$ holds if and only if the low-frequency part of $U_0$ belongs to a nondegenerate subclass $\mathfrak B^{σ_1}_{2,\infty}$ of $\dot B^{σ_1}_{2,\infty}$.