English

Local well-posedness for the Boltzmann equation with hard potentials

Analysis of PDEs 2026-02-24 v1

Abstract

We consider the spatially inhomogeneous non-cutoff Boltzmann equation with hard potentials in the non-perturbative setting. For initial data with polynomial decay in the velocity variable, we establish the local-in-time existence and uniqueness of weak solutions, conditional to pointwise bounds on the hydrodynamic quantities (mass, energy, and entropy). Compared to the soft potential case, the key challenge for full-range hard potentials lies in the more severe loss of velocity moments. The proof combines a hypoelliptic estimate with interpolation inequalities to handle the moment-loss terms.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.19148,
  title  = {Local well-posedness for the Boltzmann equation with hard potentials},
  author = {Hao-Guang Li and Wei-Xi Li and Chao-Jiang Xu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.19148},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

50 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-01T10:46:13.247Z