Asymptotic regularity conditions for the strong convergence towards weak limit sets and weak attractors of the 3D Navier-Stokes equations

The asymptotic behavior of solutions of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations is considered on bounded smooth domains with no-slip boundary conditions and on periodic domains. Asymptotic regularity conditions are presented to ensure that the convergence of a Leray-Hopf weak solution to its weak omega-limit set (weak in the sense of the weak topology of the space H of square-integrable divergence-free velocity fields with the appropriate boundary conditions) are achieved also in the strong topology. It is proved that the weak omega-limit set is strongly compact and strongly attracts the corresponding solution if and only if all the solutions in the weak omega-limit set are continuous in the strong topology of H. Corresponding results for the strong convergence towards the weak global attractor of Foias and Temam are also presented. In this case, it is proved that the weak global attractor is strongly compact and strongly attracts the weak solutions, uniformly with respect to uniformly bounded sets of weak solutions, if and only if all the global weak solutions in the weak global attractor are strongly continuous in H. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.