On the initial boundary-value problem for the Vlasov-Poisson system: Existence of weak solutions and stability (Q1894121)

The Vlasov-Poisson system \(\partial_t f+ v\cdot \partial_x f- \partial_x U\cdot \partial_v f= 0\), \(\Delta U= -4\pi\rho\), \(\rho(t, x)= \int f(t, x, v)dv\) describes a plasma which interacts only by a selfconsistent Coulomb potential \(U= U(t, x)\), \(\rho(t, x)\) denotes the spatial charge density, and \(f= f(t, x, v)\) denotes the phase-space density of the plasma particles. The initial value problem to this system is by now well understood if the system is considered on the whole space \(R^3\). This is not so if one considers the system on a bounded domain \(\Omega\subset R^3\) in space and poses boundary conditions, say \(U_{|\partial\Omega}= 0\), and specular reflection or reverse reflection for the particles. In particular, no classical solutions can be expected for the initial- boundary value problem in general. The author proves global existence of weak solutions to the initial- boundary value problem for a class of boundary conditions which include the examples mentioned above. To this end, he first analyzes the effects of reflections at the boundary on the characteristic flow, which an be defined on an open subset of phase space whose complement has measure zero. Using this measure preserving flow, global strong solutions to a regularized problem are constructed where the singularity of the Coulomb potential is smoothed out. Global weak solutions are then obtained by a compactness argument, letting the smoothing parameter tend to zero. The weak solutions obtained in this way are sufficiently well behaved to allow for a stability analysis of static solutions using the energy- Casimir method.