Dust and self-similarity for the Smoluchowski coagulation equation (Q2490930)

The Smoluchowski coagulation equation is the classical starting point for the description of the aggregation of particles. In this paper, the authors consider such equation for a class of situations in which the coagulation rate of colliding particles is a homogeneous function of the sizes. Given initial distribution, they build a weak solution which conserves mass when the degree of homogeneity is less or equal than 1 and loses mass in a finite time (gelation phenomenon) when it is higher than 1. A special feature of the present paper is the inclusion of a dust phase -composed of particles much smaller than the observable particles, a situation which is often found in physical contexts (combustion, aerosols). The dust contribution may be introduced either as initial data or injected continuously to the system as a source term. The work has three parts. In the first one, the Cauchy problem is revisited, a regularisation effect of the coagulation equation near the origin is proved, and new estimates of the long and short time behaviour of the moments of the distribution are obtained for degree of homogeneity less than 1. In a second part a dust source term is included; the main result is that the dust becomes instantaneously part of the particle phase. Finally, in the third part, several qualitative properties of self-similar solutions are investigated for a degree of homogeneity less than 1, a topic already explored by the authors in other situations [\textit{M. Escobedo}, \textit{S. Mischler} and \textit{M. R. Ricard}, Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré, Anal. Non Linéaire 22, No. 1, 99--125 (2005; Zbl 1130.35025)], regularity results are proved, the small and large-size behaviour for self-similar profiles is considered, and some new estimates for some moments of the solutions are obtained.