Existence of large-data finite-energy global weak solutions to a compressible Oldroyd-B model

Abstract: A compressible Oldroyd--B type model with stress diffusion is derived from a compressible Navier--Stokes--Fokker--Planck system arising in the kinetic theory of dilute polymeric fluids, where polymer chains immersed in a barotropic, compressible, isothermal, viscous Newtonian solvent, are idealized as pairs of massless beads connected with Hookean springs. We develop a-priori bounds for the model, including a logarithmic bound, which guarantee the nonnegativity of the elastic extra stress tensor, and we prove the existence of large data global-in-time finite-energy weak solutions in two space dimensions.