Bounded solutions of the Boltzmann equation in the whole space (Q631345)

The authors consider the Boltzmann equation, which is a fundamental equation in kinetic theory of gases. Let \(f(t,x,v)\) be the density distribution function of particles at time \(t\), position \(x\in\mathbb R^3\) and with velocity \(v\in\mathbb R^3\). Then \(f(t,x,v)\) should satisfy \(f_t +v\cdot \nabla_x f =Q(f,f)\). Here \(Q(f,f)\) denotes the Boltzmann collision operator, which is determined by the cross-section function \(B\). The cross-section function \(B\) is a function of the collision velocity and the collision angle of two particles, and it may have a non-integrable singularity when the collision angle is equal to zero. It is known that the Boltzmann collision operator \(Q(f,f)\) behaves like a pseudo-differential operator in such a non-integrable case. It is usual to avoid this difficulty by introducing an angular cutoff assumption, but the authors consider not only cutoff cases but also non-cutoff cases to some extent. In this framework, the authors prove that the Cauchy problem for the Boltzmann equation has a unique non-negative solution in the uniformly local Sobolev spaces and in the standard Sobolev spaces (with Maxwellian type exponential decay in the velocity variables). For the non-cutoff cases, they approximate the original non-cutoff equation by a family of cut-off equations. They show that one can solve the approximation equations, and that due to a compactness theory the approximation solutions converge to a true solution in their Sobolev space.