We study in this series of articles the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation $$ partial_t h(t,x)= uDelta h(t,x)+lambda V(| abla h(t,x)|) +sqrt{D}, eta(t,x), qquad xin{mathbb{R}}^d $$ in $dge 1$ dimensions. The forcing term $eta$ in the right-hand side is a regularized white noise. The deposition rate $V$ is assumed to be isotropic and convex. Assuming $V(0)ge 0$, one finds $V(| abla h|)ltimes | abla h|^2$ for small gradients, yielding the equation which is most commonly used in the literature. The present article is dedicated to existence results and PDE estimates for the solution. Our results extend in a non-trivial way those previously obtained for the noiseless equation. We prove in particular a comparison principle for sub- and supersolutions of the KPZ equation in new functional spaces containing unbounded functions, implying existence and uniqueness. These new functional spaces made up of functions with locally bounded averages, generically called ${cal W}$-spaces thereafter, and which may be of interest for the study of parabolic equations in general, allow local or pointwise estimates. The comparison to the linear heat equation through a Cole-Hopf transform is an essential ingredient in the proofs, and our results are accordingly valid only for a function $V$ with at most quadratic growth at infinity.
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