  In this paper, the Cauchy problem for the three-dimensional (3-D) isentropic
compressible Navier-Stokes equations is considered. When viscosity coefficients
are given as a constant multiple of the density's power ($\rho^\delta$ with
$0<\delta<1$), based on some analysis of the nonlinear structure of this
system, we identify the class of initial data admitting a local regular
solution with far field vacuum and finite energy in some inhomogeneous Sobolev
spaces by introducing some new variables and initial compatibility conditions,
which solves an open problem of degenerate viscous flow partially mentioned by
Bresh-Desjardins-Metivier [3], Jiu-Wang-Xin [11] and so on. Moreover, in
contrast to the classical theory in the case of the constant viscosity, we show
that one can not obtain any global regular solution whose $L^\infty$ norm of
$u$ decays to zero as time $t$ goes to infinity.
