Smooth Solution of the Compressible Navier–Stokes Equations in an Unbounded Domain with Inflow Boundary Condition

Abstract The barotropic compressible Navier–Stokes equations in an unbounded domain are studied. We prove the unique existence of the solution ( u ,  p ) of the system (1.1) in the Sobolev space H k  + 3  ×  H k  + 2 provided that the derivatives of the data of the problem are sufficiently small, where k  ≥ 0 is any integer. The proof follows from an analysis of the linearized problem, the solvability of the continuity equation, and the Schauder fixed point theory. Similar smoothness results are obtained for a linearized form of (1.1).