Nonlinear stability and optimal decay rate of the planar entropy wave for Landau equation

Abstract

This paper investigates the nonlinear asymptotic stability and optimal decay rates of entropy waves for the Landau equation with physically realistic Coulomb interactions under general perturbations. We consider the infinite channel domain $\mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{T}^2$ in three dimensions, which possesses both one-dimensional and high-dimensional characteristics, thereby posing two primary analytical challenges: (i) for the one-dimensional Landau equation with Coulomb potentials, the absence of a spectral gap in the linearized operator has obstructed the derivation of wave pattern stability results with explicit time decay rates; (ii) in the study of contact discontinuities, the multidimensional case fundamentally differs from the one-dimensional setting due to lack of a key structural condition. We develop effective analytical approaches to treat those difficulties. To overcome the weak dissipation caused by the spectral gap deficiency, we implement a time-velocity interpolation technique to enhance dissipation and simultaneously construct coupled diffusion waves to compensate for the loss of time decay. To address the missing structural condition in higher dimensions, a novel transformation is introduced to recover the two-sided structural condition within the perturbation system. By developing a derivative-level transformation and a refined energy framework, we restore the necessary structural condition for derivatives, establish the optimal decay of the solution, and prove the stretched exponential decay of its non-zero modes. In contrast to previous methods that rely on artificial viscosity or the Navier--Stokes approximation, our approach directly leverages the intrinsic physical dissipation of the equation and its coupling with the microscopic kinetic component, ensuring broader applicability.