Rigorous bounds on the heat flux in turbulent convection

We are interested in thermal convection as described by the Rayleigh-B ?enard convection model. In this model the Navier-Stokes equations for the (divergence-free) velocity u with no-slip bound- ary conditions is coupled to an advection-diffusion equation for the temperature T with inhomo- geneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. The problem of understanding the (average) upward- heat-transport properties is of great interest for the applications and challenging for the rigorous analysis. We show how the PDE theory (in particular, regularity analysis) can contribute to the understanding of the scaling regimes for the heat transport. After reviewing the theory of Constantin& Doering ’99 we will present some recent results and discuss new challenges.