A NNALES DE L ’I. H. P., SECTION C
C. B ARDOS
P. D EGOND
Global existence for the Vlasov-Poisson equation in 3 space variables with small initial data
Annales de l’I. H. P., section C, tome 2, n
o2 (1985), p. 101-118
<http://www.numdam.org/item?id=AIHPC_1985__2_2_101_0>
© Gauthier-Villars, 1985, tous droits réservés.
L’accès aux archives de la revue « Annales de l’I. H. P., section C » (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/anihpc) implique l’accord avec les condi- tions générales d’utilisation (http://www.numdam.org/conditions). Toute uti- lisation commerciale ou impression systématique est constitutive d’une infraction pénale. Toute copie ou impression de ce fichier doit conte- nir la présente mention de copyright.
Article numérisé dans le cadre du programme Numérisation de documents anciens mathématiques
http://www.numdam.org/
Global existence for the Vlasov-Poisson equation
in 3 space variables with small initial data
C. BARDOS
(1)
and P. DEGOND(2)
Vol. 2, n° 2, 1985, p. 101-118 Analyse non linéaire
ABSTRACT. In this paper we consider the Vlasov Poisson
equation
inthree space variables in the whole space. We show the existence of
dispersion
property.
With thisdispersion property
we are able to prove the existence of a smooth solution for all times under thefollowing assumption :
the ini-tial data are localised and small
enough.
RESUME. - On considère
1’equation
de Vlasov Poisson en dimension3,
dans
l’espace
entier. Ondegage
unepropriete
dedispersion.
L’utilisation de cettepropriete permet
de prouver l’existence d’une solutionrégulière
pour tout
temps,
pourvu que les donnees initiales soient localisees etassez
petites.
I. INTRODUCTION
We consider the
problem
of the existence of a smooth solution of the Vlasov Poissonequation
in 3 space variables. The existence of a smooth solution in one space variable has beenproved by
Iordanskii[2],
andin two space variables
by
Ukai and Okabe[6 ].
The results of[2 ] and [6]
rely
on Sobolevtype
estimates and cannot be extended tohigher
dimen-sions. Theses methods do not need any restriction on the size of the initial
data,
which haveonly
to be smoothenough
but on the other handthey (~)
Centre de Mathematiques Appliquees. Ecole Normale Superieure, 45 rue d’Ulm,75005 Paris, et Departement de Mathematiques, Centre Scientifique et Polytechnique,
avenue J. B. Clement, 93430 Villetaneuse.
(~)
Centre de Mathematiques Appliquees. Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex.Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré - Analyse non linéaire - Vol. 2, 0294-1449 85/02/101/18 /$ 3, 80/~ Gauthier-Villars
give
no information on theasymptotic
behaviour of the solution.Up
tonow there was no results
concerning
the existence of aglobal
smoothsolution for the Vlasov Poisson
equation
in three space variables. The method of[6] ] gives
the existence of alocal,
intime,
smoothsolution,
and one can prove the existence of aglobal
weak solution(This
is due toArsenev
[1 ]).
This weak solution may behavebadly
forlarge
time andthis may be related to the appearance of some kind of turbulence.
On the other hand many authors
(Klainerman [3 ],
Klainerman and Ponce[4 ] and
Shatah[S ])
haveproved
the existence of aglobal
smoothsolution for the non linear wave
equation
inhigh
dimensions with small initial data. Their method usesbasically
thedispersive
effect of the linearizedwave
equation,
to balance the effect of the non linear term.We will follow a similar route for the Vlasov-Poisson
equation:
thisequation
describes the evolution of thedensity
ofparticules u(x,
v,t ),
andreads
where the
potential t )
isgiven by
theequations
and
p(x, t )
denotes the totaldensity
ofcharge.
-Now the linearized
equation
is thetransport equation :
whose solution is
If we assume that
uo(x, v)
is boundedby
anintegrable
functionh(x) :
we deduce the
decay
estimatethanks to the
change
of variables v-~ ~
= x - vt, x and tbeing
constant.The
decay
of ordert - 3 (more generally,
of ordert-d
inany Rd space)
informula
(6),
will be the basicingredient
of ourproof.
Finally,
our result showsthat,
if the initial data are smallenough,
theelectric field
Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré - Analyse non linéaire
decays
inlike t- 2.
Nophenomena
of turbulence norsolitary
wavemay appear in this case. We notice that the time is
reversible,
and in ourproofs,
weonly
consider the case t > 0.This paper is
organized
as follows : in sectionII,
we describe the equa- tions and the classical estimates. In sectionIII,
we prove some resultsconcerning
the Hamiltonian.systems
which govern thetrajectories
ofthe
particules.
In sectionIV,
we build up an iterative scheme which leadsto the existence of a smooth solution. Section V is devoted to the
proof
ofthe
uniqueness.
II. DESCRIPTION
OF THE
VLASOV-POISSON EQUATIONS
We will denote
by
ua,(1 __
aN),
Npositive
functions which describethe
density
at thepoint
x, and at the time t, ofparticules
of thetype
a, which have thevelocity
v. We denoteby qa and ma
their masse andcharge.
The variation of ua is described
by
theequations
As usual we have
The electric field E is related to the variation of the
functions ua by
thePoisson
equation :
~ ,If we assume that the functions
ua(x,
v,t )
aresmooth,
we deduce from(8)
that the function
is constant whenever
(x(t ),
is a solution of the Hamiltoniansystem:
Therefore,
thepositivity
and the x of the functionsua( . , . , t )
ispreserved. Furthermore,
since thedivergence
of the vectorVol.
field
v, q°‘ E(x, t )
is zero, we deduce from the Liouville theorem thatB ~a
/
the
L1(R3x
xof u03B1
is alsopreserved :
III. SOME LEMMATA
CONCERNING THE ELECTRIC FIELD E AND THE
HAMILTONIAN
SYSTEM(11)
We
begin
with some notations. For functionsp(x)
andu(x, v),
we shalldenote
by [) p lip and )!
the usual LP norms :For a function
p{x, t )
we will write:LEMMA 1. - Let
p(x)
be a smoothfunction belonging
to the spacen then
for
thefunction ~ given by
theformula:
one has the
following
estimates(In (14)
and(15)
the constant C is « universal » ; in(16) D~
denotes any second order derivative and the constantCo depends
on 03B8 E]0, 1 [).
Proof
Theproof
of these estimates is standard. We describe it here for sake ofcompleteness.
Let r >0,
we haveAnnales de l’lnstitut Henri Poincaré - Analyse non linéaire
Now if we take the infimum of the last term of
(17)
withrespect
to r we obtain(14).
Next for we have :
Once
again taking
the infimum of the last term of(18)
withrespect
to nwe obtain
(15).
~2~
Finally,
wecompute
fori ~ j (the computation
is similar for i=, j E_
We have
In the last term of
(19) Co
denotes a constantdepending
on 03B8and !
is the sup norm of the Holder
quotient
Now
from (19)
we deduce the relationFinally
from theinequality
(~)
In(19) denotes
the Cauchy principal value.Vol.
we deduce the relation :
which,
with(21) gives (16)
and theproof
of the lemma iscomplete.
Now,
we consider the Hamiltoniansystem
with the
Cauchy
data :We assume that the function
E(x, t )
=(Ei (x, t ))i -1, 2, 3
is continuous in(x, t ).
and twice
continuously
differentiable withrespect
to x.Furthermore, denoting by VxE
thegradient
matrix and the second derivative of E withrespect
to x, we assume thatV xE
and~2xE
are bounded inR3x
xTherefore, by
the classicalCauchy-Lipschitz theorem, equations (24), (25)
have a
unique
solutiondefined for
(s, t, x, v)
in x x xFurthermore,
for(s, t ) fixed,
themapping
is twice
continuously
differentiable.We are concerned with the behaviour for s E
[o, t ] and
for tlarge
of thequantities:
. , _ _We will show that this behaviour can be controlled with some informa- tions on the
asymptotic behaviour,
for tgoing
toinfinity,
of the vectorfield
E(x, t ).
PROPOSITION 1. - We assume that
E(x, t) satisfies
the estimateswith ri 1.
Then,
thefollowing
estimates are validfor
any(t,
x,v)
in(~~
x xlFw,
and any s such that 0 _ s _ t.Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré - Analyse non linéaire
where Id denotes the
identity
matrixof (~3,
and C anyarbitrary
constant.Proo, f :
For any fixed(t,
x,v)
inR+t
x x we writeThis matrix satisfies the differential
equation,
obtained from(24)
and(25).
Then,
thanks to theTaylor formula,
we haveThus,
with(26)
Thanks to
integrations by parts,
it is easy to see thatNow we can
apply
Gronwall’s lemma toinequality (33)
and we obtainNow,
anintegration by parts
leads toThen,
as ~1, (34)
and(35) give
which proves
(38).
The other estimates can be shown in a similar manner.COROLLARY 1. - Under the
hypotheses of proposition l,
there exists a constant ~0 > 0 suchthat,
when the vectorfield E(x, t) satisfies
the estimatethe
following facts
are true :Vol. 2-1985.
lX
I)
The determinantof
the matrix -(s,
t, x,v) satisfies
iheestimate,
lvvalid
for
any(x,
v,t)
inR§J
xRfl
x and any s such that 0 s t:ii)
For anyfixed (s,
t,x)
in(~t
x~t
x such that 0 _ s__
t, themapping :
is one to one.
Proof i )
We use the notations ofProposition
1 and we write :Now,
thanks to(28),
the norm ofR(s)/(s - t )
goes to zerowhen ~
goes to zero,uniformly
withrespect
to(s, t, x, v),
andby
thecontinuity
of themapping M -~ ~
detM ~,
we have(41) for ri
small. This proves(i ).
ii )
Now we shallkeep (x, t ) fixed,
and we denoteby 8S
themapping (42)
for a
given
s. We first notice that for s E[t~, t ],
withthe
mapping 0~
is one to one.Indeed,
suppose that there exists an s* in[t*, t ]
and two distinct values vi, v2 such thatThen we will show that the functions
Xi(s)
=X(s, t,
x,(i =1, 2),
whichare two solutions of the
problem.
coincide on the interval
[s~, t ].
This will prove that vl - v2 : We denoteby z (s)
the functionWith an
integration by parts,
we obtainAnnales de l’lnstitut Henri Poincaré - Analyse non linéaire
As we have
we deduce that
This shows that the function z is
identically
zero on the interval[s~, t ].
Now,
we define a number Tby
From what
precedes,
we have T t. We will show that such a number does notexist,
whichimplies
that the set of s for which themapping 0~
is not one to. one, is
empty.
We denote
by X(v, s),
the vectorX(s, t,
x,v),
for any fixed(t, x).
Letbe such that.
Then,
thanks to(41),
we canapply
theimplicit
function theorem to thefunction
and prove that there exists a function
W(s)
defined(
~, suchthat one has
~x
Furthermore,
the estimates(28)
on -being mdependant
on(~s)
in~
[0, ~].
the number s itself isindependant
on ~2Then
according
to the definition ofT,
there exists ~ in]T - s/2,
T[,
and two different values
~, ~~
such thatThanks
to whatprecedes,
there exists a function W defined 8,verifying (53). Now,
for s in the interval]T - 8/2,
T +8/2 [,
thepoints vi
and
W(s)
never coincide otherwise this would violatepoint (i ).
We havetherefore
proved
that T is not an upperbound,
which ends theproof
ofcorollary
1.REMARK 1. - This result seems very
classical, though
the authors have not been able to find it in the literature. The Hamiltoniansystem (24), (25),
is
interpreted
asdescribing
thetrajectories
of theparticules starting
fromthe same
point
x, withvelocity
vranging
inL1~3.
Ingeometrical optics (or
in
hyperbolic partial
differentialequations),
these curves never intersectVol. 2, n° 2-1985.
in the space
f~x x (~ L . However,
theirprojection
on thesubspace
which describe the rays, or
trajectories
of theparticules
may intersect.This
corresponds
to the appearance of caustics inoptics.
Theturbulence,
in the Vlasov
equation
mayactually
be related to the appearance ofcaustics;
however,
in ourapproach (small
initialdata,
space dimensionequal
to3),
we rule out these
phenomenas.
IV. CONSTRUCTION OF THE SMOOTH SOLUTION THEOREM 1. - We assume that
the functions v) for
a =l,
...,N,
are twice
continuously differentiable,
and thatthey satisfy,
thefollowing estimates, for
anypair (x, v)
in x and any a :Then,
there exists ~0 >0,
such thatfor
EEo
the Vlasov-Poissonequations
have a
global
in time solution such thatua(x,
v,t)
iscontinuously differentiable
in x
(~u
x and such thatE(x, t )
andp(x, t )
are continuous inf~x
xFurthermore,
this solutionsatisfies
thefollowing uniform
estimates.Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré - Analyse non linéaire
Proof
Weproceed by
iteration and introduce a sequence of functionsin the
following
manner :We first define
v, t ) by
the formulaand the
charge
pand
the Electric fieldEi by
theequations
Now,
suppose thatua(x, v, t )
is defined. Then pn andE~
are definedby
the
equations
un+103B1
is nowsupposed
tosatisfy
the lineartransport equation
In order to prove the convergence of the sequences
~a,
pn andE~
towardssmooth
functions,
we will need the basicfollowing estimates,
valid for 8small :
where A is a fixed constant which does not
depend
on n and E. The estimateson pn and
~x03C1n
willpermit
us to prove thatEn
convergesstrongly
in asuitable space, whereas the estimate on will
give
us theregularity
of the solution. We shall prove
that,
if these relations are true at order n,they
are also true at order n +1, provided
the initial data are smallenough.
To this purpose, we will first consider the case t close to zero
(0 _ ~ 1)
and use the uniform
integrability
in v(decay
of order( 1 + ~ v ~ ) - °‘, oc > 3);
then we consider the case t
large,
and use the uniformintegrability
in x2-1985.
(decay
of order(1 + )
a >3).
Ofcourse,
the estimates of section III will be the basicingredients
of theproof
in the case tlarge.
First,
it iseasily
shownby iteration,
thatEn
and pn are continuous in(x, t)
and twice
continuously
differentiable withrespect
to x. So the solutionof
(73)
is .where
v),
t, x,v)
is the solution of the Hamiltoniansystem
In the
sequel, Xa, V~
will meanv),
x,v)
and C will denote any numerical constant, which mayeventually depend
on qa and ma, but not on E, n, and A.From (75)
we deduce thefollowing
uniform estimates :Now,
we suppose that relation(74)
is true atorder n,
and weapply
lemma 1
(with
0 =3/5).
Thanks to(77),
we obtainSo
proposition
1applies
andgives
with81/6 1/CA
with
(75)
we may now deduce thefollowing
estimates on pn + 1:So,
thanks to Liouville’s theorem and to(56),
we haveand
eventually replacing
Aby Sup (A, C),
we deduce that the secondinequality
in(74)
is true at order(n
+1).
Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré - Analyse non linéaire
Now we consider the case
o _ t _ 1,
and we haveTherefore we have
and,
thanks to(81)
and(56),
we obtainSo,
for 8small,
we have :Similarly,
the same estimate is valid for~x03C1n+1
andWe can now consider the case
t >_
1. Estimate(79)
andcorollary
1 proves that for esmall,
themapping
is one to one, and that we have
Therefore,
we can use thechange
of variables v -~Xa,
in thecomputation
of the
integrals
which appear in theright
hand side of(81), (82)
and(83).
This
gives,
with(55) :
Similar results hold for 1 and
Together
with the estimates in the caset _ 1,
these relations prove that the firstinequality (74)
is trueat order
(n
+1),
whichcompletes
the iteration.We notice the
following
three otherestimates,
which will be of someinterest
(92)
and(93)
willbe
used to prove the convergence of the iterativescheme;
T (94)
will be used to proveregularity
of the solution.We have
indeed,
thanks to(80):
and the same
arguments
as above lead to(92)
and(93). Now,
with(73), (75), (80),
we obtainsince
equality (86)
is valid for anytime t,
we have for small 8:Thanks to
Lebesgue’s theorem,
we deduce that pn is differentiable withrespect
to t, and that we haveFurthermore,
from(86)
and(96),
we obtain :So that Liouville’s theorem leads to
Now,
with Lemma1,
we deduce thatEn
is differentiable withrespect
to t,~ and that
(94)
holds.Now,
we provethe
convergence of the sequencesua,
pn,En,
to smoothAnnales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré - Analyse non linéaire
solutions. First we fix a time T
positive
and prove thatEn
converges in the strongtopology
ofL~([0,T] ]
x~x):
we haveSo that
ua + 1 _ ui
is writtenTherefore,
thanks toLiouville’s theorem,
and to formulae(71), (72),
weobtain:
Now,
withestimates (92)
and(93)
on and with lemma1,
we deduce that we haveand
adding (103)
for aranging
from 1 toN,
we obtainwhich
by
iterationgives
Thus pn
converges in thestrong topology
ofL°°( [o, T ],
towardsa
function p.Futhermore,
with estimates(74)
and lemma1,
we deduce thatEn
converges in thestrong topology
ofL~([0,T] ]
x towardsE,
and that thepair (E, p)
satisfies(61).
Now,
with estimates(77), ui
converges in the weak startopology
ofL~([0,T] ]
x x towards a function Urx, which satisfiesequation (58)
in the sense of distributions. Furthermore
equation (60)
istrivially
verified.It remains to prove the
regularity
and the initial condition(59).
First,
estimates(79)
and(94)
show that E is continuous in[o, T ]
xsimilarly,
estimates(74)
and(98)
prove that p is continuous. On the otherhand,
the vector~~x?u)~a+ 1
is a solution of theequation
where
A:
is the 6 x 6 matrix :In
particular,
thanks to(79), A~
isuniformly
bounded in[0, T] ]
x(~x,
with
respect
to n. We deduce thatThis proves that
O~x,~,~ua+ 1,
is a bounded sequence inL~([0,T] ]
x~x
xA similar
proof
would show that the sequence~~x,v~ua+ ~
is also a boundedsequence in
L~([0,T] ]
xf~X
x So andbelong
toL~([0,T] ]
xf~x
x(I~u). Then, using
the Vlasovequation (58),
we noticethat and
belong
toL~loc([0, T]
xR3x
xSince
2014
is bounded in virtue of estimate(94), 20142014
alsobelongs
to]
xR3x
xw). So, u03B1 belongs
toW2,~loc([0, T ]
xR3x
x(Fw),
whichproves
that ua
iscontinuously
differentiable withrespect
to(t,
x,v).
Further-more,
u~
is bounded in[0, T j ]
x~x
x~u ),
and if we denotethe
compactness
of theimbedding.
shows that the initial condition
(59)
is satisfied.Finally,
theuniqueness
theorem(section V)
proves that the functionsE,
and p are defined for t in[0,
+ oo] and
that the estimates(62)
to(67)
aresatisfied. This ends the
proof
of theorem 1.Annales de l’lnstitut Henri Poincaré - Analyse non linéaire
V.
UNIQUENESS
THEOREM 2. -
Let ~ u~(x,
v,t) ~i-1,2
be two solutionsof
the Vlasov-Poisson
equation for
t in[0, T ],
and assume thatthey satisfy
thefollowing
estimates
Then, if they
coincidefor
t =0, they
coincideeverywhere for
t in[0, T ].
Proof..
We will follow the method which has been used to prove the convergence of p,~ in theorem 1: we will show that thecharges
coincide for t E
[o, T ].
Thisimplies
that the electric fieldsEi(x, t )
coincideso that
ua
andu;
are two smooth solutions of the same lineartransport
equation,
which will prove theuniqueness.
We have
With an
integration
withrespect
to xand v,
andusing
lemma 1 and esti- mates(111), (112),
we obtain:Adding (115)
for ocranging
from 1 to Ngives
the Gronwall relationwhich proves that pi == p2, and ends the
proof
of theorem 2.[1] A. A. ARSENEV, Global existence of a weak solution of Vlasov’s system of equations.
U. S. S. R. comput. Math. and Math. Phys., t. 15, 1975, p. 131-143.
[2] S. V. IORDANSKII, The Cauchy problem for the kinelic equation of plasma. Amer.
Math. Soc. Trans. Ser. 2-35, 1964, p. 351-363.
[3] S. KLAINERMAN, Long time behaviour of the solution to non linear equations. Arch.
Rat. Mech. Anal., t. 78, 1982, p. 73-98.
[4] S. KLAINERMAN and G. PONCE, Global, small amplitude solutions to nonlinear evolu-
tion equations. Comm. Pure and Appl. Math. t. 36, 1, 1983, p. 133-141.
[5] J. SHATAH, Global existence of small solutions to non linear evolution equations. (To appear).
[6] S. UKAI and T. OKABE, On the classical solution in the large in time of the two dimensio- nal Vlasov equation. Osaka J. of Math., n° 15, 1978, p. 245-261.
(Manuscrit reçu le 20 mars 1984)
Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré - Analyse non linéaire