Low dimensional Born-Infeld equations coupled with a collisionless matter model

Abstract: We consider the Born-Infeld nonlinear electromagnetic field equations and study its Cauchy problem in the case that the Vlasov equation is considered as a matter model. In the present paper, the Vlasov equation is considered on the so-called one and one-half dimensional phase space, and in consequence the Born-Infeld equations are reduced to a quasilinear hyperbolic system with two unknowns. A transformation is introduced in order to make the field equations easy to handle, and suitable assumptions are made on initial data so that the nonlinearity of the field is controlled.