It is well known that the Boltzmann equation is related to the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations in the field of gas dynamics. The relation is either for small Knudsen number, or, for dissipative waves in the time-asymptotic sense. In this paper, we show that rarefaction waves for the Boltzmann equation are time-asymptotic stable and tend to the rarefaction waves for the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations. Our main tool is the combination of techniques for viscous conservation laws and the energy method based on micro-macro decomposition of the Boltzmann equation. The expansion nature of the rarefaction waves and the suitable microscopic version of the <i>H</i>-theorem are essential elements of our analysis.

The dynamics of dilute electrons can be modelled by the fundamental VlasovPoissonBoltzmann system which describes mutual interactions of the electrons through collisions in the self-consistent electric field. In this paper, it is shown that any smooth perturbation of a given global Maxwellian leads to a unique global-in-time classical solution when either the mean free path is small or the background charge density is large. Moreover, the solution converges to the global Maxwellian when time tends to infinity. The analysis combines the techniques used in the study of conservation laws with the decomposition of the Boltzmann equation introduced in [17, 19] by obtaining new entropy estimates for this physical model.

METHODS AND APPLICATIONS OF ANALYSIS. 2000 International Press Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 495-510, September 2000 007

The time evolution of the distribution function for the charged particles in a dilute gas is governed by the VlasovPoissonBoltzmann system when the force is self-induced and its potential function satisfies the Poisson equation. In this paper, we give a satisfactory global existence theory of classical solutions to this system when the initial data is a small perturbation of a global Maxwellian. Moreover, the convergence rate in time to the global Maxwellian is also obtained through the energy method. The proof is based on the theory of compressible NavierStokes equations with forcing and the decomposition of the solutions to the Boltzmann equation with respect to the local Maxwellian introduced in [23] and elaborated in [31].

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