A characterization of 3D steady Euler flows using commuting zero-flux homologies

Abstract

We characterize, using commuting zero-flux homologies, those volume-preserving vector fields on a 3-manifold that are steady solutions of the Euler equations for some Riemannian metric. This result extends Sullivan’s homological characterization of geodesible flows in the volume-preserving case. As an application, we show that steady Euler flows cannot be constructed using plugs (as in Wilson’s or Kuperberg’s constructions). Analogous results in higher dimensions are also proved.