Global classical solutions to the 3D Navier–Stokes–Korteweg equations with small initial energy

In this paper, we investigate the global well-posedness of classical solutions to three-dimensional Cauchy problem of the compressible Navier–Stokes type system with a Korteweg stress tensor under the condition that the initial energy is small. This result improves previous results obtained by Hattori–Li in [H. Hattori and D. Li, Solutions for two dimensional system for materials of Korteweg type, SIAM J. Math. Anal. 25 (1994) 85–98; H. Hattori and D. Li. Global solutions of a high-dimensional system for Korteweg materials. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 198 (1996) 84–97.], where the existence of the classical solution is established for initial data close to an equilibrium in some Sobolev space [Formula: see text].