Asymptotic Criticality of the Navier-Stokes Regularity Problem

The problem of global-in-time regularity for the 3D Navier-Stokes equations, i.e., the question of whether a smooth flow can exhibit spontaneous formation of singularities, is a fundamental open problem in mathematical physics. Due to the super-criticality of the equations, the problem has been super-critical in the sense that there has been a 'scaling gap' between any regularity criterion and the corresponding a priori bound (regardless of the functional setup utilized). The purpose of this work is to present a mathematical framework-based on a suitably defined 'scale of sparseness' of the super-level sets of the positive and negative parts of the components of the higher-order spatial derivatives of the velocity field-in which the scaling gap between the regularity class and the corresponding a priori bound vanishes as the order of the derivative goes to infinity.