Classical solutions of the Boltzmann equation with irregular initial data

barrier method Boltzmann equation classical solutions existence and uniqueness result propagation of regularity regularity estimates rough initial data

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Existence problems for PDEs: global existence, local existence, non-existence (35A01) Uniqueness problems for PDEs: global uniqueness, local uniqueness, non-uniqueness (35A02) Classical solutions to PDEs (35A09) Smoothness and regularity of solutions to PDEs (35B65) Weak solutions to PDEs (35D30) Boltzmann equations (35Q20) PDEs in connection with statistical mechanics (35Q82) Integro-partial differential equations (35R09) Kinetic theory of gases in time-dependent statistical mechanics (82C40)

Review text

The authors consider the Bolzmann equation: \(\partial _{t}f+v\cdot \nabla _{x}f=Q(f,f)\), where \(f(t,x,v)\) represents the particle density of a diffuse gas in phase space at time \(t>0\), location \(x\in \mathbb{R}^{3}\), and velocity \(x\in \mathbb{R}^{3}\), and \(Q(f,g)\) is the Boltzmann collision operator with non-cutoff collision kernel defined for functions \(f,g:\mathbb{ R}^{3}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) by: \(Q(f,g)=\int_{\mathbb{R}^{3}}\int_{\mathbb{ S}^{2}}B(v-v_{\ast },\sigma )[f(v_{\ast }^{\prime })g(v^{\prime })-f(v_{\ast })g(v)]d\sigma dv_{\ast }\), \(B\) being the standard non-cutoff collision kernel defined by \(B(v-v_{\ast },\sigma )=b(\cos\theta )\left\vert v-v_{\ast }\right\vert ^{\gamma }\), with \(\cos\theta =\sigma \cdot \frac{v-v_{\ast }}{ v-v_{\ast }}\), for some \(\gamma >3\), the angular cross-section \(b\) satisfying the bounds: \(c_{b}\theta ^{-1-2s}\leq b(\cos\theta )\sin\theta \leq \frac{1}{c_{b}}\theta ^{-1-2s}\), for some positive \(c_{b}\) and \(s\in (0,1)\) . In the expression of \(Q\): \(v^{\prime }=\frac{v+v_{\ast }}{2}+\frac{ \left\vert v-v_{\ast }\right\vert }{2}\sigma \) and \(v_{\ast }^{\prime }= \frac{v+v_{\ast }}{2}-\frac{\left\vert v-v_{\ast }\right\vert }{2}\sigma \). The authors first prove the existence of classical solutions to this problem: If \(\gamma \in (-3,0)\), \(s\in (0,1)\), the nonnegative initial data \( f_{in}\) lies in \(L_{q}^{\infty }(\mathbb{R}^{6})\) with \(q>3+2s\), and for some \(x_{m}\), \(v_{m}\in \mathbb{R}^{3}\) and \(\delta ,r>0\), \(f_{in}(x,v)\geq \delta \), for all \((x,v)\in B_{r}(x_{m},v_{m})\), there exists \(T>0\) depending on \(q\) and \(\left\Vert f_{in}\right\Vert _{L_{q}^{1}}\) and a nonnegative solution \(f(t,x,v)\) to the Boltzmann equation in \( L_{q}^{1}([0,T]\times \mathbb{R}^{6})\). This solution is locally of class \( C_{\ell }^{2s}\). More precisely, for each compact \(\Omega \subset \lbrack 0,T]\times \mathbb{R}^{6}\), there exist \(C,\alpha >0\) depending on \(q,\Omega ,x_{m},v_{m},r,\delta ,\left\Vert f_{in}\right\Vert _{L_{q}^{1}}\), such that \(\left\Vert f\right\Vert _{C_{\ell }^{2s}(\Omega )}\leq C\). Under further regularity hypotheses on the initial data \(f_{in}\), this solution is proved more regular and the solution agrees with \(f_{in}\) at \(t=0\) in a weak sense.\ From this existence result, the authors deduce the existence of a classical solution in the case \(\gamma =0\). They also prove the existence of weak solutions to the Bolzmann equation, assuming \(\gamma \in (-3,0)\), \(s\in (0,1)\), and the nonnegative initial data \(f_{in}\) lies in \(L_{q}^{\infty }( \mathbb{R}^{6})\) with \(q>3+\gamma +2s\). The authors finally prove the equality between a classical solution \(f\) and a weak solution \(g\), assuming that \(f_{in}\) lies in \(L_{q}^{\infty }(\mathbb{R}^{6})\cap C_{\ell }^{\alpha }(\mathbb{R}^{6})\) and \(g\in L^{1}([0,T_{U}],L_{q}^{\infty }(\mathbb{R}^{6})) \), for some positive \(T_{U}\) depending on the data. To prove the existence, the authors first recall properties of kinetic Hölder spaces. They quote from the literature two short-time existence results in the case of smooth initial data. They decompose the collision operator \(Q(f,g)\) as a sum of two terms \(Q=Q_{s}+Q_{ns}\), where the first term \(Q_{s}\) acts as a nonlocal diffusion operator of order 2s, and the second term \(Q_{ns}\) is a lower-order convolution term. They recall their main result obtained in [Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 59, No. 6, Paper No. 191, 12 p. (2020; Zbl 1475.35225)]: if the initial data \(f_{in}\) is uniformly positive in some ball in the \((x,v)\) space, this positivity is spread instantly to the entire domain. They recall local regularity estimates for linear kinetic equations, the scaled form of the Schauder estimate on cylinders and estimates for the collision operator. They prove global regularity estimates for solutions to the Boltzmann equation, combining a local De Giorgi-Nash-Moser type estimate with an appropriate change of variables, from which they derive a time-weighted Schauder estimate. They prove a continuation criterion for smooth solutions, see the paper by \textit{C. Imbert} and \textit{L.E.\ Silvestre} in [J. Am. Math. Soc. 35, No. 3, 625--703 (2022; Zbl 1491.35081)]. They prove decay estimates for any suitable solution \(f\) to the Boltzmann equation on the torus \(\mathbb{T} _{M}^{3}\) of side length \(M>0\), assuming that the initial data satisfies \( f_{in}\in C^{\infty }(\mathbb{T}_{M}^{3}\times \mathbb{R}^{3})\cap L_{q^{\prime }}^{\infty }(\mathbb{T}_{M}^{3}\times \mathbb{R}^{3})\) for all \( q^{\prime }\geq 0\). They use a barrier argument, showing that polynomial upper bounds of order larger than \(3+\gamma +2s\) are propagated forward in time, using barriers of the form \(g=Ne^{\beta t}\left\langle v\right\rangle ^{-q}\), with positive \(N,\beta ,q\). In the case where the initial data \( f_{in}\in L_{q_{base}}^{\infty }(\mathbb{T}_{M}^{3}\times \mathbb{R}^{3})\) with \(q_{base}>3+\gamma +2s\), they build an approximate initial data \(f_{in}\) that involves a small parameter \(\varepsilon \), through smoothing, cutting off large values of \(x\) and \(v\), extending by \(x\)-periodicity, and adding a region of uniform positivity. They conclude the proof of the existence using regularity estimates that allow passing to the limit when \(\varepsilon \rightarrow 0\). To prove the uniqueness of solutions to the Bolzmann equation, they prove that solutions are Hölder continuous for positive times with uniform bounds as \(t\rightarrow 0\) as long as the initial data \( f_{in}\) is Hölder continuous, and they build a cut-off function.\N\NThe proofs of the different results are given with large details, the paper ending with Appendices. The authors also give some open problems and links with other kinetic equations.

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