We consider the inviscid limit for the two-dimensional incompressible
Navier-Stokes equation in the particular case where the initial flow is a
finite collection of point vortices. We suppose that the initial positions and
the circulations of the vortices do not depend on the viscosity parameter \nu,
and we choose a time T > 0 such that the Helmholtz-Kirchhoff point vortex
system is well-posed on the interval [0,T]. Under these assumptions, we prove
that the solution of the Navier-Stokes equation converges, as \nu -> 0, to a
superposition of Lamb-Oseen vortices whose centers evolve according to a
viscous regularization of the point vortex system. Convergence holds uniformly
in time, in a strong topology which allows to give an accurate description of
the asymptotic profile of each individual vortex. In particular, we compute to
leading order the deformations of the vortices due to mutual interactions. This
allows to estimate the self-interactions, which play an important role in the
convergence proof.Comment: 39 pages, 1 figur