Decay Estimates for the Massless Vlasov Equation on Schwarzschild Spacetimes

We consider solutions to the massless Vlasov equation on the domain of outer communications of the Schwarschild black hole. By adapting the r p -weighted energy method of Dafermos and Rodnianski, used extensively in order to study wave equations, we prove superpolynomial decay for a non-degenerate energy flux of the Vlasov field f through a well-chosen foliation. An essential step of this methodology consists in proving a non-degenerate integrated local energy decay. For this, we take in particular advantage of the redshift effect near the event horizon. The trapping at the photon sphere requires, however, to lose an ϵ of integrability in the velocity variable. Pointwise decay estimates on the velocity average of f are then obtained by functional inequalities, adapted to the study of Vlasov fields, which allow us to deal with the lack of a conservation law for the radial derivative.