Compressible Navier-Stokes equations with degenerate viscosity coefficient and vacuum

In this paper, we consider the compressible Navier-Stokes equations for isentropic flow of finite total mass when the initial density is either of compact or infinite support. The viscosity coefficient is assumed to be a power function of the density so that the Cauchy problem is well-posed. New global existence results are established when the density function connects to the vacuum states continuously. For this, some new a priori estimates are obtained to take care of the degeneracy of the viscosity coefficient at vacuum. We will also give a non-global existence theorem of regular solutions when the initial data are of compact support in Eulerian coordinates which implies singularity forms at the interface separating the gas and vacuum.