On the Lagrangian structure of transport equations: the Vlasov-Poisson system

Abstract

The Vlasov-Poisson system is a classical model in physics used to describe the evolution of particles under their self-consistent electric or gravitational field. The existence of classical solutions is limited to dimensions $d\leq 3$ under strong assumptions on the initial data, while weak solutions are known to exist under milder conditions. However, in the setting of weak solutions it is unclear whether the Eulerian description provided by the equation physically corresponds to a Lagrangian evolution of the particles. In this paper we develop several general tools concerning the Lagrangian structure of transport equations with non-smooth vector fields and we apply these results: (1) to show that weak solutions of Vlasov-Poisson are Lagrangian; (2) to obtain global existence of weak solutions under minimal assumptions on the initial data.