Although the decay in time estimates of the semi-group generated by the linearized Boltzmann operator without forcing have been well established, there is no corresponding result for the case with general external force. This paper is mainly concerned with the optimal decay estimates on the solution operator in some weighted Sobolev spaces for the linearized Boltzmann equation with a time dependent external force. No time decay assumption is made on the force. The proof is based on both the energy method through the macro-micro decomposition and the <i>L</i> ^<i>p</i>-<i>L</i> ^<i>q</i> estimates from the spectral analysis. The decay estimates thus obtained are applied to the study on the global existence of the Cauchy problem to the nonlinear Boltzmann equation with time dependent external force and source. Precisely, for space dimension <i>n</i>3, the

In this paper we study the effects of small viscosity term and the far-field boundary conditions for systems of convection-diffusion equations in the zero viscosity limit. The far-field boundary conditions are classified and the corresponding solution structures are analyzed. It is confirmed that the Neumann type of far-field boundary condition is preferred. On the other hand, we also identify a class of improperly coupled boundary conditions which lead to catastrophic reflection waves dominating the inlet in the zero viscosity limit. The analysis is performed on the linearized convection-diffusion model which well describes the behavior at the far field for many physical and engineering systems such as fluid dynamical equations and electro-magnetic equations. The results obtained here should provide some theoretical guidance for designing effective far field boundary conditions.

The propagation and interaction in more than one space dimension of localized pulse solutions (so-called light bullets) to the sine-Gordon [SG] equation is studied both asymptotically and numerically. Similar solutions and their resemblance to solitons in integrable systems were observed numerically before in vector Maxwell systems. The simplicity of SG allows us to perform an asymptotic analysis of counterpropagating pulses, as well as a fully resolved computation over rectangular domains. Numerical experiments are carried out on single pulse propagation and on two pulse collision under different orientations. The particle nature, as known for solitons, persists in these two space dimensional solutions as long as the amplitudes of initial data range in a finite interval, similar to the conditions on the vector Maxwell systems.

We consider the spatially inhomogeneous Boltzmann equation without angular cutoff. We prove the existence and uniqueness of local classical solutions to the Cauchy problem, in the function space with Maxwellian type exponential decay with respect to the velocity variable. <b><i>To cite this article: R. Alexandre et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 347 (2009).</i></b>

A semi-explicit formula of solution to the boundary layer system for thermal layer derived from the compressible Navier-Stokes equations with the non-slip boundary condition when the viscosity coefficients vanish is given, in particular in three space dimension. In contrast to the inviscid Prandtl system studied by [7] in two space dimension, the main difficulty comes from the coupling of the velocity field and the temperature field through a degenerate parabolic equation. The convergence of these boundary layer equations to the inviscid Prandtl system is justified when the initial temperature goes to a constant. Moreover, the time asymptotic stability of the linearized system around a shear flow is given, and in particular, it shows that in three space dimension, the asymptotic stability depends on whether the direction of tangential velocity field of the shear flow is invariant in the normal direction respective to the boundary.