Electronic Journal of Differential Equations, Vol. 2019 (2019), No. 61, pp. 1-18. Title: Decay rate of strong solutions to compressible Navier-Stokes-Poisson equations with external force Authors: Yeping Li (East China Univ. of Science and Tech., Shanghai, China) Nengqiu Zhang (East China Univ. of Science and Tech., Shanghai, China) Abstract: In this article, we consider the three dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes-Poisson equations with the effect of external potential force. First, the stationary solution is established by solving a nonlinear elliptic system. Next, we show global well-posedness of the strong solutions for the initial value problem to the three dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes-Poisson equations when the initial data are close to the stationary solution in $H^2(\mathbb{R}^3)$. Moreover, if the $L^1(\mathbb{R}^3)$-norm of initial perturbation is finite, we prove the optimal $L^p(\mathbb{R}^3)$ $(2\leq p\leq6)$ decay rates for such strong solution and $L^2(\mathbb{R}^3)$ decay rate of its first-order spatial derivatives via a low frequency and high frequency decomposition. Submitted October 7, 2018. Published May 07, 2019. Math Subject Classifications: 35M20, 35Q35, 76W05. Key Words: Navier-Stokes-Poisson equation; stationary solution; strong solution; energy estimate; optimal decay rate.