On a characteristic initial value problem in plasma physics

The relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system of plasma physics is considered with initial data on a past light cone. This characteristic initial value problem arises in a natural way as a mathematical framework to study the existence of solutions isolated from incoming radiation. Conservation laws and a priori estimates of smooth solutions are first derived in a formal way. In the spherically symmetric case, the existence of a unique classical solution in the future of the initial cone follows by arguments similar to the case of initial data at time t=0. The total mass-energy of spherically symmetric solutions equals the (properly defined) mass-energy on backward and forward light cones.