Global solutions to the relativistic Landau-Maxwell system in the whole space (Q429240)

The purpose of this paper is to prove the global existence of classical solutions to the relativistic Landau-Maxwell system. Some additional results are obtained on the convergence to the steady-state for the simpler Landau-Poisson system. The equations being studied are \[ \partial_t F_+ + \frac{p}{p^0} \cdot \nabla_x F_ + + \Big (E + \frac{p}{p^0} \times B \Big ) \cdot \nabla_p F_+ = {\mathcal C}(F_+,F_+) + {\mathcal C}(F_+,F_-), \] \[ \partial_t F_- + \frac{p}{p^0} \cdot \nabla_x F_ - - \Big (E + \frac{p}{p^0} \times B \Big ) \cdot \nabla_p F_- = {\mathcal C}(F_-,F_-) + {\mathcal C}(F_-,F_+), \] with \(F_{\pm}(0,x,p) = F_{0,\pm}(x,p)\). In (1) \(F_{\pm}(t,x,p)\) are number densities for ions (\(+\)) and electrons (\(-\)) with position \(x=(x_1,x_2,x_3) \in {\mathbb R}^3\), momentum \(p=(p_1,p_2,p_3) \in {\mathbb R}^3\), and \(p_0 = \sqrt{1+|p|^2}\). Equations (1) are coupled with Maxwell's equations for the internally consistent electric field \(E=E(t,x)\) and magnetic field \(B=B(t,x)\). The relativistic collision operator given in normalized form is \[ {\mathcal C}(g,h)(p) = \nabla_p \cdot \Big \{ \int_{{\mathbb R}^3} \Phi(P,Q)\{\nabla_pg(p)h(q) - g(p) \nabla_qh(q) \} dq \Big \}, \] where \(P = (p_0,p_1,p_2,p_3),\; Q = (q_0,q_1,q_2,q_3)\), and the collision kernel \(\Phi(P,Q)\) is a non negative \(3 \times 3\) matrix. The authors consider the system for small perturbations of the equilibrium state. The normalized global relativistic Maxwellian is \(J(p) = e^{-p_0}\). The small perturbation \(f_{\pm}(t,x,p)\) around \(J(p)\) is defined by \(F_{\pm} = J(p) + \sqrt{J(p)} f_{\pm}\). The relativistic Landau-Maxwell system in then reformulated in terms of \(f(t,x,p) = [f_+(t,x,p),f_-(t,x,p)]\). In terms of derivatives of \(f,E,B\), and an orthogonal projection operator \({\mathbf P}\) the instant energy functional \({\mathcal E}(t)\) and dissipation rate \({\mathcal D}(t)\) are defined. The main result of the paper is a theorem which proves that if \({\mathcal E}(0)\) is sufficiently small then there exists a unique global classical solution to the reformulated Landau-Maxwell system. In addition \({\mathcal E},{\mathcal D}\) satisfy \[ {\mathcal E}(t) + \int_0^t {\mathcal D}(s) ds \leq {\mathcal E}(0). \] The type of analysis applied to the Landau-Maxwell system is also applied to the simpler Landau-Poisson system. In this case in addition to the existence and uniqueness of solutions the authors also derive an optimal convergence rate for the solution sufficiently close to the equilibrium.