Instability of Boundary Layers with the Navier Boundary Condition

We study the $L^{\infty}$ stability of the 2D Navier-Stokes equations with a viscosity-dependent Navier boundary condition around shear profiles which are linearly unstable for the Euler equation. The dependence from the viscosity is given in the Navier boundary condition as $\partial_y u = ν^{-γ}u$ for some $γ\in\mathbb{R}$, where $u$ is the tangential velocity. With the no-slip boundary condition, which corresponds to the limit $γ\to +\infty$, a celebrated result from E. Grenier provides an instability of order $ν^{1/4}$. M. Paddick proved the same result in the case $γ=1/2$, furthermore improving the instability to order one. In this paper, we extend these two results to all $γ\in \mathbb{R}$, obtaining an instability of order $ν^θ$, where $θ:=\begin{cases} \frac{1}{4} &\text{if } γ\geq \frac{3}{4};\\ γ- \frac{1}{2} &\text{if } \frac{1}{2}<γ< \frac{3}{4};\\ 0 &\text{if } γ\leq \frac{1}{2}. \end{cases}$ When $γ\geq 1/2$, the result denies the validity of the Prandtl boundary layer expansion around the chosen shear profile.

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