On the motion of three-dimensional compressible isentropic flows with large external potential forces and vacuum

We study the global existence and uniqueness of classical solutions to the three-dimensional compressible isentropic Navier-Stokes equations with vacuum and external potential forces which could be arbitrarily large provided the initial data is of small energy and the unique steady state is strictly away from vacuum. In particular, the solution may have large oscillations and contain vacuum states. For the case of discontinuous initial data, we also prove the global existence of weak solutions. The large-time behavior of the solution is obtained simultaneously. It is worthwhile mentioning that the compatibility condition on the initial data and the regularity condition of the external potential forces in the present paper are much weaker than those assumed in the existing literature.