Contrary to what the article claims here:
> the exact same fluid from the exact same starting conditions could end up in two distinct physical states, which makes no physical sense
it makes quite a lot of "physical sense" to get two possible outcomes out of one initial state, though we would not expect the Navier-Stokes equations to describe that situation.
The article is simply wrong in arguing that because we expect classical fluids to behave classically and because Navier-Stokes may break down in certain limits, NS may be a bad model. I actually struggle to put together a coherent sentence which comes close to what the article tries to say regarding the relation between "physical sense" and our expectations for the results of Navier-Stokes.
>>> Nonunique Leray solutions would mean that, according to the rules of Navier-Stokes, the exact same fluid from the exact same starting conditions could end up in two distinct physical states, which makes no physical sense and implies that the equations aren’t really describing what they’re supposed to describe.
This basically say that from one given starting conditions one only expect one (and only one) outcome. Doesn't this conflate a model with the actual physical reality ?