Stability of the Inviscid Power-Law Vortex

Abstract

We prove that the power-law vortex $\overline{\omega}(x) = \beta |x|^{-\alpha}$, which explicitly solves the stationary unforced incompressible Euler equations in $\mathbb{R}^2$ in both physical and self-similar coordinates, is exponentially linearly stable in self-similar coordinates with the natural scaling. This result, which is valid for functions in a weighted $L^2$ space and in the un-weighted $L^2$ space with a mild symmetry condition, answers a question from the monograph by Albritton et al. Moreover, we prove that in physical coordinates the linearization around the power law vortex cannot generate an unstable $C_0$-semigroup.