Global Regular Axially-Symmetric Solutions to the Navier-Stokes Equations with Small Swirl

Axially symmetric solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations in a bounded cylinder are considered. On the boundary the normal component of the velocity and the angular components of the velocity and vorticity are assumed to vanish. If the norm of the initial swirl is sufficiently small, then the regularity of axially symmetric, weak solutions is shown. The key tool is a new estimate for the stream function in certain weighted Sobolev spaces.