Decay Rates in Probability Metrics Towards Homogeneous Cooling States for the Inelastic Maxwell Model

We quantify the long-time behavior of solutions to the nonlinear Boltzmann equation for spatially uniform freely cooling inelastic Maxwell molecules by means of the contraction property of a suitable metric in the set of probability measures. Existence, uniqueness, and precise estimates of overpopulated high energy tails of the self-similar profile proved in ref. 9 are revisited and derived from this new Liapunov functional. For general initial conditions the solutions of the Boltzmann equation are then proved to converge with computable rate as t → ∞ to the self-similar solution in this distance, which metrizes the weak convergence of measures. Moreover, we can relate this Fourier distance to the Euclidean Wasserstein distance or Tanaka functional proving also its exponential convergence towards the homogeneous cooling states. The findings are relevant in the understanding of the conjecture formulated by Ernst and Brito in refs. 15, 16, and complement and improve recent studies on the same problem of Bobylev and Cercignani⁽⁹⁾ and Bobylev, Cercignani and one of the authors.⁽¹¹⁾     

Asymptotic-preserving &; well-balanced schemes for radiative transfer and the Rosseland approximation

Summary. We are concerned with efficient numerical simulation of the radiative transfer equations. To this end, we follow the Well-Balanced approachs canvas and reformulate the relaxation term as a nonconservative product regularized by steady-state curves while keeping the velocity variable continuous. These steady-state equations are of Fredholm type. The resulting upwind schemes are proved to be stable under a reasonable parabolic CFL condition of the type tO(x²) among other desirable properties. Some numerical results demonstrate the realizability and the efficiency of this process.Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): 82C70, 65M06, 35B25Work partially supported by EEC network #HPRN-CT-2002-00282.Revised version received July 21, 2003     

New results on the semidiscrete Boltzmann equation for a binary gas mixture

Summary A plane semidiscrete model of the Boltzmann equation for a binary gas mixture with molecular collisions ruled by the hard-spheres interaction potential is described. After establishing a model, a theorem demostrating the global existence of mild solutions of the initial-value problem is given and the propagation of unidimensional shock waves examined.

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Sommario Si propone un modello semidiscreto piano dell'equazione di Boltzmann per una miscela binaria con collisioni molecolari soggette al potenziale di interazione delle sfere rigide. Costruito il modello, si dà un teorema di esistenza globale di soluzioni generalizzate per il problema di Cauchy, e si analizza la propagazione di onde d'urto unidimensionali.

     

Rényi Entropies and Nonlinear Diffusion Equations

Since their introduction in the early sixties (Rényi in Proc. Fourth Berkeley Symp. Math. Statist. Prob., vol. 1, pp. 547–561, 1961), the Rényi entropies have been used in many contexts, ranging from information theory to astrophysics, turbulence phenomena and others. In this note, we enlighten the main connections between Rényi entropies and nonlinear diffusion equations. In particular, it is shown that these relationships allow to prove various functional inequalities in sharp form.     

An asymptotic-preserving well-balanced scheme for the hyperbolic heat equationsUn schema « équilibre » et « asymptotic-preserving » pour les equations de la chaleur hyperboliques

We propose here a well-balanced numerical scheme for the one-dimensional Goldstein–Taylor system which is endowed with all the stability properties inherent to the continuous problem and works in both rarefied and diffusive regimes. To cite this article: L. Gosse, G. Toscani, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 334 (2002) 337–342.     

Proof of an Asymptotic Property of Self-Similar Solutions of the Boltzmann Equation for Granular Materials

We consider a question related to the kinetic theory of granular materials. The model of hard spheres with inelastic collisions is replaced by a Maxwell model, characterized by a collision frequency independent of the relative speed of colliding particles. Our main result is that, in the space-homogeneous case, a self-similar asymptotics holds, as conjectured by Ernst–Brito. The proof holds for any initial distribution function with a finite moment of some order greater than two.     

New a priori estimates for the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation

Given the solutionf(t) to the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation, we study the time evolution of the Linnik's functionalJ(f(t)).When the Boltzmann equation for Maxwellian pseudomolecules with planar velocities is considered, it is proven thatJ(f(t)) is decreasing in time.     

A Categorical View to Structural Complexity

In the present work we are interested in to provide a universal language for supporting formalisms to specify the approximation hierarchy system for an abstract NP‐hard optimization problem. This work grew from the idea of providing a categorical view of structural complexity to optimization problems. The direction is aimed towards actually exploring the connections among the structural complexity aspects and categorical concepts, which may be viewed in a high‐level, in a structuralistic sense. After introducing the optimization problems categories OPTS and OPT, as well as related questions, a formal system modelling the approximation hierarchy of a given optimization problem is provided, based on categorical shape theory. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)