We establish a priori upper bounds for solutions to the spatially inhomogeneous Landau equation in the case of moderately soft potentials, with arbitrary initial data, under the assumption that mass, energy and entropy densities stay under control. Our pointwise estimates decay polynomially in the velocity variable. We also show that if the initial data satisfies a Gaussian upper bound, this bound is propagated for all positive times.
The global @math estimate we prove in Theorem is similar to an estimate in @cite_16 for the Boltzmann equation. The techniques in the proof are completely different. The propagation of Gaussian bounds that we give in Theorem is reminiscent of the result in @cite_10 . That result is for the space-homogeneous Boltzmann equation with cut-off, which is in some sense the opposite of the Landau equation in terms of the angular singularity in the cross section.
@cite_16 @cite_10
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Abstract This paper studies the approximation of the Boltzmann equation by the Landau equation in a regime when grazing collisions prevail. While all previous results in the subject were limited to the spatially homogeneous case, here we manage to cover the general, space-dependent situation, assuming only basic physical estimates of finite mass, energy, entropy and entropy production. The proofs are based on the recent results and methods introduced previously in [R. Alexandre, C. Villani, Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 55 (1) (2002) 30–70] by both authors, and the entropy production smoothing effects established in [R. , Arch. Rational Mech. Anal. 152 (4) (2000) 327–355]. We are able to treat realistic singularities of Coulomb type, and approximations of the Debye cut. However, our method only works for finite-time intervals, while the Landau equation is supposed to describe long-time corrections to the Vlasov–Poisson equation. If the mean-field interaction is neglected, then our results apply to physically relevant situations after a time rescaling. In the present work, we consider the well-posedness and asymptotics of grazing collisions limit of the spatially inhomogeneous Boltzmann equation with Coulomb interaction. Under the screening hypothesis on the cross-section @math of the Boltzmann collision operator, that is, @math , where @math , we prove that there exists a common lifespan @math such that for any @math , the Boltzmann equation admits a unique nonnegative solution @math in the function space @math when the initial data belongs to the weighted Sobolev space @math with @math and @math . Moreover, it is proved that the solution @math is uniformly bounded with respect to the parameter @math in the above function spaces. As a consequence, by using the ... We obtain the weak Harnack inequality and Holder estimates for a large class of kinetic integro-differential equations. We prove that the Boltzmann equation without cutoff can be written in this form and satisfies our assumptions provided that the mass density is bounded away from vacuum and mass, energy and entropy densities are bounded above. As a consequence, we derive a local Holder estimate and a quantitative lower bound for solutions of the (inhomogeneous) Boltzmann equation without cutoff . For the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation with cutoff hard potentials, it is shown that solutions remain bounded from above uniformly in time by a Maxwellian distribution, provided the initial data have a Maxwellian upper bound. The main technique is based on a comparison principle that uses a certain dissipative property of the linear Boltzmann equation. Implications of the technique to propagation of upper Maxwellian bounds in the spatially-inhomogeneous case are discussed.