Lyapunov estimates for non-factorised kinetic Fokker-Planck equations under weak spatial confinements

Abstract: In this paper, we construct weak Lyapunov functionals for kinetic Fokker-Planck equations with weak external confinements. This problem has remained widely open in the existing literature. Apart from showing interesting structures from the models, deriving these Foster-Lyapunov weights allows us to use Harris type arguments to show existence of steady states for these equations, and convergence to equilibrium with an explicit stretched exponential rate.