English

Incompressible Euler Blowup at the $C^{1,\frac{1}{3}}$ Threshold

Analysis of PDEs 2026-05-06 v2

Abstract

We prove finite-time Type-I blowup for the three-dimensional incompressible Euler equations in the axisymmetric no-swirl class, with initial velocity in C1,α(R3)L2(R3)C^{1,\alpha}(\mathbb{R}^3)\cap L^2(\mathbb{R}^3), odd symmetry in zz, and 0<α<130<\alpha<\tfrac13, for an explicit class of finite-energy initial data. The singularity forms at a stagnation point on the symmetry axis. The on-axis axial strain and the global vorticity norm blow up at the Type-I rates zuz(0,0,t)(Tt)1-\partial_z u_z(0,0,t)\sim (T^*-t)^{-1} and ω(,t)L(Tt)1\|\omega(\cdot,t)\|_{L^\infty}\sim (T^*-t)^{-1}, while the meridional Jacobian collapses according to J(t)(Tt)1/(13α)J(t)\sim (T^*-t)^{1/(1-3\alpha)}. The proof introduces a Lagrangian clock-and-strain framework that replaces the Eulerian self-similar ansatz used in prior work with a Lagrangian flow decomposition. The collapse dynamics are governed by a Riccati law for the on-axis axial strain, coupled to a clock ODE for the meridional Jacobian. The decisive step is a non-perturbative strain-pressure comparison showing that the pressure Hessian cannot cancel the quadratic compressive strain responsible for collapse. This gives a dynamical explanation of the threshold α=13\alpha=\tfrac13. The blowup mechanism is structurally stable and persists for an open set of admissible angular profiles in a weighted H\"older topology.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.10945,
  title  = {Incompressible Euler Blowup at the $C^{1,\frac{1}{3}}$ Threshold},
  author = {Steve Shkoller},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.10945},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

187 pages, corrected notational overload for cylindrical/spherical radius, and made the stability argument fully Lagrangian