Invariant subspaces of the periodic Navier–Stokes and magnetohydrodynamics equations: Symmetries and inverse cascades

Abstract

It is shown that when the initial condition and the forcing term of the periodic Navier–Stokes or magnetohydrodynamics equations have Fourier coefficients which vanish outside a certain semigroup of frequencies, the same happens to the solutions for all time. Subgroups of frequencies correspond to solutions possessing certain symmetries. By taking as a semigroup the frequencies whose Fourier components are non-negative integers, we get a class of solutions for which the higher modes do not influence the evolution of the lower ones; therefore, the phenomenon of inverse cascading cannot occur for them.