In the present paper, we consider the initial value problem for the bipolar Vlasov-Poisson-Boltzmann (bVPB) system and its corresponding modified Vlasov-Poisson-Boltzmann (mVPB). We give the spectrum analysis on the linearized bVPB and mVPB systems around their equilibrium state and show the optimal convergence rate of global solutions. It was showed that the electric field decays exponentially and the distribution function tends to the absolute Maxwellian at the optimal convergence rate (1+ t)^{-3/4} for the bVPB system, yet both the electric field and the distribution function converge to equilibrium state at the optimal rate (1+ t)^{-3/4} for the mVPB system.

The approach based on the construction of some nonlinear functionals was proved to be robust in the study of the well-posedness theories of hyperbolic conservation laws, especially in one space dimensional case. In particular, a generalized entropy functional was constructed in [T.-P. Liu, T. Yang, A new entropy functional for scalar conservation laws, Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 52 (1999) 14271442] for the L 1 stability of weak solutions. However, this generalized functional is so far only defined for scalar equations with convex flux function. In this paper, we introduce a new nonlinear functional which is motivated by the new Glimm functional introduced in [J.-L. Hua, Z.-H. Jiang, T. Yang, A new Glimm functional and convergence rate of Glimm scheme for general systems of hyperbolic conservation laws, preprint] for general scalar conservation laws. This functional improves the one given in [H.-X. Liu, T. Yang, A

We prove the nonlinear asymptotic stability of the gravitational hydrostatic equilibrium for the general equation of state of pressure-density relation in the framework of vacuum free boundary problem of spherically symmetric compressible Navier-Stokes-Poisson equations in three dimensions.The results apply to white dwarfs and polytropes with γ≥2, for which even the linearized asymptotic stability results are not available in literature, to the best of the authors' knowledge. Detailed decay rates of perturbations are given.

In this paper we prove an existence theorem of global smooth solutions for the Cauchy problem of a class of quasilinear hyperbolic systems with nonlinear dissipative terms under the assumption that only the <i>C</i>⁰-norm of the initial data is sufficiently small, while the <i>C</i>¹-norm of the initial data can be large. The analysis is based on <i>a priori</i> estimates, which are obtained by a generalised Lax transformation.

A generalized entropy functional was introduced in [T.-P. Liu, T. Yang, A new entropy functional for scalar conservation laws, Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 52 (1999) 14271442] for the scalar hyperbolic conservation laws with convex flux function. This functional was crucially used in the functional approach to the L 1 stability study on the system of hyperbolic conservation laws when each characteristic field is either genuinely nonlinear or linearly degenerate. However, how to construct the generalized entropy functional for scalar conservation laws with general flux, and then how to apply the functional approach to the L 1 study on general systems are still open. In this paper, we construct a new nonlinear functional which gives some partial answer to this question and we expect the analysis will shed some light on the future investigation in this direction.