On a Kinetic Equation for Coalescing Particles
Abstract
Existence of global weak solutions to a spatially inhomogeneous kinetic model for coalescing particles is proved, each particle being identified by its mass, momentum and position. The large time convergence to zero is also shown. The cornestone of our analysis is that, for any nonnegative and convex function, the associated Orlicz norm is a Liapunov functional. Existence and asymptotic behaviour then rely on weak and strong compactness methods in L^1 in the spirit of the DiPerna-Lions theory for the Boltzmann equation.