Maximal flows of non-smooth vector fifields and the Vlasov-Poisson system

In 1989, Di Perna and Lions showed that Sobolev regularity for vector fields in R^d, with bounded divergence and a growth assumption, is sufficient to establish existence, uniqueness and stability of a generalized notion of flow, consisting of a suitable selection among the trajectories of the associated ODE. Their theory relies on a growth assumption on the vector field which prevents the trajectories from blowing up in finite time; in particular, it does not apply to fast-growing, smooth vector fields. In this seminar we present a notion of maximal flow for non-smooth vector fields which allows for finite-time blow up of the trajectories. We show existence and uniqueness under only local assumptions on the vector field and we apply the result to a kinetic equation, the Vlasov-Poisson system, where we describe the solutions as transported by a suitable flow in the phase space. This allows, in turn, to prove existence of weak solutions for general initial data.