Global stability and anisotropic large-time behavior of the three-dimensional compressible Navier--Stokes equations with eddy diffusion

Abstract

We study the Cauchy problem for the three-dimensional compressible Navier--Stokes equations with eddy diffusion, an anisotropic dissipative mechanism that arises naturally in geophysical fluid dynamics (cf.~\cite{Jabin-Bresch-2018,Temam-Ziane-2004}). In contrast to the classical compressible Navier--Stokes system, the momentum equation here carries no full vertical Laplacian: the velocity is diffused only in the horizontal directions, and the sole vertical regularization it receives is the partial one transmitted through the compressible mode $\operatorname{div}\mathbf{u}$. This degeneracy invalidates the standard parabolic energy framework as well as the classical high--low frequency Green-function bounds. We prove that the constant non-vacuum equilibrium $(\bar{\rho},0)$ is globally nonlinearly stable against small Sobolev perturbations: global classical solutions exist in $H^{N}(\mathbb{R}^{3})$ for every $N\ge 3$, and the density and velocity relax to equilibrium with explicit, genuinely anisotropic decay rates. The mechanism behind the result is a hidden dissipation produced by the pressure--divergence coupling between $\nabla\rho$ and $\operatorname{div}\mathbf{u}$, which compensates for the missing vertical smoothing of the density and the compressible part of the velocity; the solenoidal part of the velocity, by contrast, is governed by a purely horizontal heat flow and therefore decays only at the two-dimensional rate. The analysis rests on a refined anisotropic spectral decomposition of the Green matrix, a div--curl treatment of the velocity, and time-weighted nonlinear energy estimates tailored to the degenerate dissipation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first global stability and large-time behavior result for the three-dimensional compressible Navier--Stokes equations with eddy diffusion in the whole space.