Equilibrium time correlation functions in the low-density limit

We consider a system of hard spheres in thermal equilibrium. Using Lanford's result about the convergence of the solutions of the BBGKY hierarchy to the solutions of the Boltzmann hierarchy, we show that in the low-density limit (Boltzmann-Grad limit): (i) the total time correlation function is governed by the linearized Boltzmann equation (proved to be valid for short times), (ii) the self time correlation function, equivalently the distribution of a tagged particle in an equilibrium fluid, is governed by the Rayleigh-Boltzmann equation (proved to be valid for all times). In the latter case the fluid (not including the tagged particle) is to zeroth order in thermal equilibrium and to first order its distribution is governed by a combination of the Rayleigh-Boltzmann equation and the linearized Boltzmann equation (proved to be valid for short times).Supported in part by NSF Grant PHY 78-22302.     

Expansion of the kinetic hierarchy for a massive particle: The repeated ring and Fokker-Planck equations

The tagged particle BBGKY hierarchy is systematically expanded in inverse powers of the square root of the particle mass. In the Brownian limit, for fixed Knudsen number, the hierarchy reduces to the Brownian limit of the repeated ring equation which itself reduces to the Fokker-Planck equation. The friction coefficient of the Fokker-Planck equation is found to be a functional of the solution of Dorfman, van Beijeren, and McClure's extended Boltzmann equation for a fixed object in a flowing gas. As a consequence, the tagged particle diffusion coefficient calculated in the Brownian limit of the repeated ring equation is valid for all particle sizes.     

Effective Dynamics of a Tracer Particle Interacting with an Ideal Bose Gas

We study a system consisting of a heavy quantum particle, called the tracer particle, coupled to an ideal gas of light Bose particles, the ratio of masses of the tracer particle and a gas particle being proportional to the gas density. All particles have non-relativistic kinematics. The tracer particle is driven by an external potential and couples to the gas particles through a pair potential. We compare the quantum dynamics of this system to an effective dynamics given by a Newtonian equation of motion for the tracer particle coupled to a classical wave equation for the Bose gas. We quantify the closeness of these two dynamics as the mean-field limit is approached (gas density ${\to \infty}$ ). Our estimates allow us to interchange the thermodynamic with the mean-field limit.     

A Model of Heat Conduction

In this paper, we first define a deterministic particle model for heat conduction. It consists of a chain of N identical subsystems, each of which contains a scatterer and with particles moving among these scatterers. Based on this model, we then derive heuristically, in the limit of N → ∞ and decreasing scattering cross-section, a Boltzmann equation for this limiting system. This derivation is obtained by a closure argument based on memory loss between collisions. We then prove that the Boltzmann equation has, for stochastic driving forces at the boundary, close to Maxwellians, a unique non-equilibrium steady state.     

Boltzmann Limit and Quasifreeness for a Homogenous Fermi Gas in a Weakly Disordered Random Medium

We discuss some basic aspects of the dynamics of a homogenous Fermi gas in a weak random potential, under negligence of the particle pair interactions. We derive the kinetic scaling limit for the momentum distribution function with a translation invariant initial state and prove that it is determined by a linear Boltzmann equation. Moreover, we prove that if the initial state is quasifree, then the time evolved state, averaged over the randomness, has a quasifree kinetic limit. We show that the momentum distributions determined by the Gibbs states of a free fermion field are stationary solutions of the linear Boltzmann equation; this includes the limit of zero temperature.     

The Boltzmann-Grad limit for a one-dimensional Boltzmann equation in a stationary state

In this paper we consider a one-dimensional model of interacting particles in a bounded interval with (possibly not homogeneous) diffusive boundary conditions. We prove that, when the number of particlesN goes to infinity and the interaction is suitably rescaled (the Boltzmann-Grad limit), the one-particle distribution function of the unique invariant measure for the particle system, converges to the unique solution of the Boltzmann equation of the model, provided that the mean free path is sufficiently large.     

A Stationary Phase Approach to the Weak Coupling Schrödinger Equation

We study the dynamics of a quantum particle governed by a linear Schrödinger equation with a scaled Gaussian potential. In the weak coupling limit the average dynamics of such a particle can be described by a linear Boltzmann equation. In this work we prove a bound for the rate at which the average dynamics of the quantum particle approach linear Boltzmann equation dynamics. For the so called simple diagrams, we use a stationary phase approach to establish an asymptotic expansion that provides the bound. Our stationary phase approach also provides a simple, formal method for computing the Boltzmann limit. Our work uses and extends results developed by L. Erdös and H.T. Yau.     

Relaxation dynamics of a quantum Brownian particle in an ideal gas

We show how the quantum analog of the Fokker-Planck equation for describing Brownian motion can be obtained as the diffusive limit of the quantum linear Boltzmann equation. The latter describes the quantum dynamics of a tracer particle in a dilute, ideal gas by means of a translation-covariant master equation. We discuss the type of approximations required to obtain the generalized form of the Caldeira-Leggett master equation, along with their physical justification. Microscopic expressions for the diffusion and relaxation coefficients are obtained by analyzing the limiting form of the equation in both the Schr?dinger and the Heisenberg picture.     

The Incompressible Navier–Stokes for the Nonlinear Discrete Velocity Models

Abstract

We establish the incompressible Navier–Stokes limit for the discrete velocity model of the Boltzmann equation in any dimension of the physical space, for densities which remain in a suitable small neighborhood of the global Maxwellian. Appropriately scaled families solutions of discrete Boltzmann equation are shown to have fluctuations that locally in time converge strongly to a limit governed by a solution of Incompressible Navier–Stokes provided that the initial fluctuation is smooth, and converges to appropriate initial data. As applications of our results, we study the Carleman model and the one-dimensional Broadwell model.     

Long-time tail in velocity correlations in a one-dimensional Rayleigh gas

The markovian Boltzmann equation for a newtonian gas consisting of two kinds of particles (test and host species) is evaluated analytically by means of systematic scaling methods for the one-dimensional system in the Rayleigh limit of heavy test particles. In the spatially uniform situation the velocity autocorrelation function of the test particles obeys a remarkably simple differential-integral equation. Elementary Laplace analysis reveals an exact t^-3 long-time tail.     

Ballistic annihilation with continuous isotropic initial velocity distribution

Ballistic annihilation with continuous initial velocity distributions is investigated in the framework of the Boltzmann equation. The particle density and the rms velocity decay as c approximately t(-alpha) and velocity approximately t(-beta), with the exponents depending on the initial velocity distribution and the spatial dimension d. For instance, in one dimension for the uniform initial velocity distribution beta = 0.230 472ellipsis. In the opposite extreme d-->infinity, the dynamics is universal and beta-->(1-2(-1/2))d(-1). We also solve the Boltzmann equation for Maxwell particles and very hard particles in arbitrary spatial dimension. These solvable cases provide bounds for the decay exponents of the hard sphere gas.     

Stable Equilibrium Based on Lévy Statistics:A Linear Boltzmann Equation Approach

To obtain further insight on possible power law generalizations of Boltzmann equilibrium concepts, we consider stochastic collision models. The models are a generalization of the Rayleigh collision model, for a heavy one dimensional particle M interacting with ideal gas particles with a mass m<<M. Similar to previous approaches we assume elastic, uncorrelated, and impulsive collisions. We let the bath particle velocity distribution function to be of general form, namely we do not postulate a specific form of power-law equilibrium. We show, under certain conditions, that the velocity distribution function of the heavy particle is Lévy stable, the Maxwellian distribution being a special case. We demonstrate our results with numerical examples. The relation of the power law equilibrium obtained here to thermodynamics is discussed. In particular we compare between two models: a thermodynamic and an energy scaling approaches. These models yield insight into questions like the meaning of temperature for power law equilibrium, and into the issue of the universality of the equilibrium (i.e., is the width of the generalized Maxwellian distribution functions obtained here, independent of coupling constant to the bath).     

The wind-round-tree model and the two-dimensional Lorentz gas

In this Letter we establish the equivalence of the two-dimensional nonoverlapping Lorentz gas and the Ehrenfests' wind-tree model considering round (instead of square) trees. To obtain the Boltzmann equation for this latter model we use the infinite polygonal limit which turns out to be smooth and continuous. Finally we present the general solution of the Boltzmann equation which provides a simple discussion on the ergodicity of the model.     

On the theory of slowing down gracefully

We discuss the transport of a tracer particle through the Bose?CEinstein condensate of a Bose gas. The particle interacts with the atoms in the Bose gas through two-body interactions. In the limiting regime where the particle is very heavy and the Bose gas is very dense, but very weakly interacting (??mean-field limit??), the dynamics of this system corresponds to classical Hamiltonian dynamics. We show that, in this limit, the particle is decelerated by emission of gapless modes into the condensate (Cerenkov radiation). For an ideal gas, the particle eventually comes to rest. In an interacting Bose gas, the particle is decelerated until its speed equals the propagation speed of the Goldstone modes of the condensate. This is a model of ??Hamiltonian friction??. It is also of interest in connection with the phenomenon of ??decoherence?? in quantum mechanics. This note is based on work we have carried out in collaboration with D Egli, I M Sigal and A Soffer.     

(火积)的微观表述

在近独立粒子组成的系统中,Boltzmann发现了系统熵与其微观状态数的对数之间的正比关系,为熵这一物理概念提供了微观解释,Planck将其总结为著名的Boltzmann熵公式S = k lnΩ.与此对应,给出了单原子理想气体系统中(火积)的微观表达式,证明了(火积)为广延量. 分析讨论了孤立系统从不平衡态发展到热平衡态过程中系统微观状态数、熵、(火积)的变化情况,结果表明在该过程中系统的微观状态数、熵向着增加方向发展,而(火积)则向着减小方向发展,从而在微观角度 关键词： 微观状态数 熵 (火积) 不可逆性     

On the Boltzmann Equation for Diffusively Excited Granular Media

We study the Boltzmann equation for a space-homogeneous gas of inelastic hard spheres, with a diffusive term representing a random background forcing. Under the assumption that the initial datum is a nonnegative L²(^N) function, with bounded mass and kinetic energy (second moment), we prove the existence of a solution to this model, which instantaneously becomes smooth and rapidly decaying. Under a weak additional assumption of bounded third moment, the solution is shown to be unique. We also establish the existence (but not uniqueness) of a stationary solution. In addition we show that the high-velocity tails of both the stationary and time-dependent particle distribution functions are overpopulated with respect to the Maxwellian distribution, as conjectured by previous authors, and we prove pointwise lower estimates for the solutions.     

Approach to field-induced stationary state in a gas of hard rods

The Boltzmann equation describing one-dimensional motion of a charged hard rod in a neutral hard rod gas at temperatureT = 0 is solved. Under the action of a constant and uniform field the charged particle attains a stationary state. In the long time limit the velocity autocorrelation function decays via damped oscillations. In the reference system moving with the mean particle velocity the decay of fluctuations in the position space is governed (in the hydrodynamic limit) by the diffusion equation. Both the stationary current and the diffusion coefficient are proportional to the square root of the field. It is conjectured that this result also holds forT > 0 in a strong field limit.On leave from the Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Warsaw, Hoza 69, 00-081 Warsaw, Poland.     

On real statistics of relaxation in gases

By example of a particle interacting with ideal gas, it is shown that the statistics of collisions in statistical mechanics at any value of the gas rarefaction parameter qualitatively differ from that conjugated with Boltzmann’s hypothetical molecular chaos and kinetic equation. In reality, the probability of collisions of the particle in itself is random. Because of that, the relaxation of particle velocity acquires a power-law asymptotic behavior. An estimate of its exponent is suggested on the basis of simple kinematic reasons.