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

The spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation without angular cutoff is discussed on the regularity of solutions for the modified hard potential and Debye-Yukawa potential. When the angular singularity of the cross section is moderate, any weak solution having the finite mass, energy and entropy lies in the Sobolev space of infinite order for any positive time, while for the general potentials, it lies in the Schwartz space if it has moments of arbitrary order. The main ingredients of the proof are the suitable choice of the mollifiers composed of pseudo-differential operators and the sharp estimates of the commutators of the Boltzmann collision operator and pseudo-differential operators. The method developed here also provides some new estimates on the collision operator.

This is a continuation of our series of works for the inhomogeneous Boltzmann equation. We study qualitative properties of classical solutions; the full regularization in all variables, uniqueness, non-negativity and convergence rate to the equilibrium, to be precise. Together with the results of Parts I and II about the well-posedness of the Cauchy problem around the Maxwellian, we conclude this series with a satisfactory mathematical theory for the Boltzmann equation without angular cutoff.

We prove the global existence and uniqueness of classical solutions around an equilibrium to the Boltzmann equation without angular cutoff in some Sobolev spaces. In addition, the solutions thus obtained are shown to be non-negative and <i>C</i>  in all variables for any positive time. In this paper, we study the Maxwellian molecule type collision operator with mild singularity. One of the key observations is the introduction of a new important norm related to the singular behavior of the cross section in the collision operator. This norm captures the essential properties of the singularity and yields precisely the dissipation of the linearized collision operator through the celebrated H-theorem.

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.