It is known that the singularity in the non-cutoff cross-section of the Boltzmann equation leads to the gain of regularity and a possible gain of weight in the velocity variable. By defining and analyzing a non-isotropic norm which precisely captures the dissipation in the linearized collision operator, we first give a new and precise coercivity estimate for the non-cutoff Boltzmann equation for general physical cross-sections. Then the Cauchy problem for the Boltzmann equation is considered in the framework of small perturbation of an equilibrium state. In this part, for the soft potential case in the sense that there is no positive power gain of weight in the coercivity estimate on the linearized operator, we derive some new functional estimates on the nonlinear collision operator. Together with the coercivity estimates, we prove the global existence of classical solutions for the Boltzmann equation in weighted Sobolev spaces.

This paper is concerned with the time-asymptotic behavior toward strong rarefaction waves of solutions to one-dimensional compressible Navier--Stokes equations. Assume that the corresponding Riemann problem to the compressible Euler equations can be solved by rarefaction waves (<i>V^R</i>, <i>U^R</i>, <i>S^R</i>)(<i>t</i>,<i>x</i>). If the initial data (<i>v</i>₀ , <i>u</i>₀ ,<i>s</i>₀ )(<i>x</i>) to the nonisentropic compressible Navier--Stokes equations is a small perturbation of an approximate rarefaction wave constructed as in [S. Kawashima, A. Matsumura, and K. Nishihara, <i>Proc. Japan Acad. Ser. A</i>, 62 (1986), pp. 249--252], then we show that, for the general gas, the Cauchy problem admits a unique global smooth solution (<i>v</i>, <i>u</i>, <i>s</i>)(<i>t</i>,<i>x</i>) which tends to (<i>V^R</i>, <i>U^R</i>, <i>S^R</i>)(<i>t</i>,<i>x</i>) as <i>t</i> tends to infinity. A global stability result can also be established for the nonisentropic ideal polytropic gas, provided that the adiabatic exponent is close to 1. Furthermore, we show that for the

The Boltzmann equation without Grads angular cutoff assumption is believed to have a regularizing effect on the solutions because of the non-integrable angular singularity of the cross-section. However, even though this has been justified satisfactorily for the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation, it is still basically unsolved for the spatially inhomogeneous Boltzmann equation. In this paper, by sharpening the coercivity and upper bound estimates for the collision operator, establishing the hypo-ellipticity of the Boltzmann operator based on a generalized version of the uncertainty principle, and analyzing the commutators between the collision operator and some weighted pseudo-differential operators, we prove the regularizing effect in all (time, space and velocity) variables on the solutions when some mild regularity is imposed on these solutions. For completeness, we also show that when the initial