Exponential Convergence to Equilibrium for the Homogeneous Boltzmann Equation for Hard Potentials Without Cut-Off

This paper deals with the long time behavior of solutions to the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation. The interactions considered are the so-called (non cut-off with a moderate angular singularity and non mollified) hard potentials. We prove an exponential in time convergence towards the equilibrium, improving results of Villani (Commun Math Phys 234(3): 455–490, 2003) where a polynomial decay to equilibrium is proven. The basis of the proof is the study of the linearized equation for which we prove a new spectral gap estimate in a \(L^1\) space with a polynomial weight by taking advantage of the theory of enlargement of the functional space for the semigroup decay developed by Gualdani et al. (http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ccsd-00495786, 2013). We then get our final result by combining this new spectral gap estimate with bilinear estimates on the collisional operator that we establish.     

Sharp Entropy Dissipation Bounds and Explicit Rate of Trend to Equilibrium for the Spatially Homogeneous Boltzmann Equation

We derive a new lower bound for the entropy dissipation associated with the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation. This bound is expressed in terms of the relative entropy with respect to the equilibrium, and thus yields a differential inequality which proves convergence towards equilibrium in relative entropy, with an explicit rate. Our result gives a considerable refinement of the analogous estimate by Carlen and Carvalho [9, 10], under very little additional assumptions. Our proof takes advantage of the structure of Boltzmann's collision operator with respect to the tensor product, and its links with Fokker–Planck and Landau equations. Several variants are discussed. Received: 24 June 1998 / Accepted: 23 December 1998     

Well-Posedness of Spatially Homogeneous Boltzmann Equation with Full-Range Interaction

In the present work, we give the coercivity estimates for the Boltzmann collision operator Q(·, ·) without angular cut-off to clarify in which case the functional \({\langle -Q(g, f), f\rangle}\) will become the truly sub-elliptic. Based on this observation and commutator estimates in Alexandre et al. (Arch Rat Mech Anal 198:39–123, 2010), the upper bound estimates for the collision operator in Chen and He (Arch Rat Mech Anal 201(2):501–548, 2011) and the stability results in Desvillettes and Mouhot (Arch Rat Mech Anal 193(2):227–253, 2009), in the function space \({L^1_q\cap H^N}\) , we establish global well-posedness or local well-posedness for the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation with full-range interaction(covering most of physical collision kernels).     

On the Rate of Explosion for Infinite Energy Solutions of the Spatially Homogeneous Boltzmann Equation

Let μ ₀ be a probability measure on ℝ³ representing an initial velocity distribution for the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation for pseudo Maxwellian molecules. As long as the initial energy is finite, the solution μ _t will tend to a Maxwellian limit. We show here that if , then instead, all of the mass “explodes to infinity” at a rate governed by the tail behavior of μ ₀. Specifically, for L0, define

Propagation of Smoothness and the Rate of Exponential Convergence to Equilibrium for a Spatially Homogeneous Maxwellian Gas

We prove an inequality for the gain term in the Boltzmann equation for Maxwellian molecules that implies a uniform bound on Sobolev norms of the solution, provided the initial data has a finite norm in the corresponding Sobolev space. We then prove a sharp bound on the rate of exponential convergence to equilibrium in a weak norm. These results are then combined, using interpolation inequalities, to obtain the optimal rate of exponential convergence in the strong L¹ norm, as well as various Sobolev norms. These results are the first showing that the spectral gap in the linearized collision operator actually does govern the rate of approach to equilibrium for the full non-linear Boltzmann equation, even for initial data that is far from equilibrium.     

On Backward Solutions of the Spatially Homogeneous Boltzmann Equation for Maxwelian Molecules

The paper considers backward solutions of the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation for Maxwellian molecules with angular cutoff. We prove that if the initial datum of a backward solution has finite moments up to order >2, then the backward solution must be an equilibrium, i.e. a Maxwellian distribution. This gives a partial positive answer to the Villani’s conjecture on a global irreversibility of Maxwellian molecules.     

On the Uniqueness for the Spatially Homogeneous Boltzmann Equation with a Strong Angular Singularity

We prove an inequality on the Wasserstein distance with quadratic cost between two solutions of the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation without angular cutoff, from which we deduce some uniqueness results. In particular, we obtain a local (in time) well-posedness result in the case of (possibly very) soft potentials. A global well-posedness result is shown for all regularized hard and soft potentials without angular cutoff. Our uniqueness result seems to be the first one applying to a strong angular singularity, except in the special case of Maxwell molecules. Our proof relies on the ideas of Tanaka (Z. Wahrscheinlichkeitstheor. Verwandte. Geb. 46(1):67–105, [1978]) we give a probabilistic interpretation of the Boltzmann equation in terms of a stochastic process. Then we show how to couple two such processes started with two different initial conditions, in such a way that they almost surely remain close to each other.     

On the Well-Posedness of the Spatially Homogeneous Boltzmann Equation with a Moderate Angular Singularity

We prove an inequality on the Kantorovich-Rubinstein distance–which can be seen as a particular case of a Wasserstein metric–between two solutions of the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation without angular cutoff, but with a moderate angular singularity. Our method is in the spirit of [7]. We deduce some well-posedness and stability results in the physically relevant cases of hard and moderately soft potentials. In the case of hard potentials, we relax the regularity assumption of [6], but we need stronger assumptions on the tail of the distribution (namely some exponential decay). We thus obtain the first uniqueness result for measure initial data. In the case of moderately soft potentials, we prove existence and uniqueness assuming only that the initial datum has finite energy and entropy (for very moderately soft potentials), plus sometimes an additionnal moment condition. We thus improve significantly on all previous results, where weighted Sobolev spaces were involved.     

Asymptotic Analysis of the Spatially Homogeneous Boltzmann Equation: Grazing Collisions Limit

In the present work, we consider the asymptotic problem of the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation when almost all collisions are grazing, that is, the deviation angle $\theta $ of the collision is limited near zero (i.e., $\theta \le \epsilon $ ). We show that by taking the proper scaling to the cross-section which was used in [37], that is, assuming $$\begin{aligned} B^\epsilon ( v-v_{*},\sigma )=2(1-s)|v-v_*|^{\gamma }\epsilon ^{-3}\sin ^{-1}\theta \left( \frac{\theta }{\epsilon }\right) ^{-1-2s}\mathrm {1}_{\theta \le \epsilon }, \end{aligned}$$ where $\theta = \langle \theta ={\frac{\upsilon -\upsilon _*}{|\upsilon -\upsilon _*|}}.\sigma \rangle , $ the solution $f^\epsilon $ of the Boltzmann equation with initial data $f_0$ can be globally or locally expanded in some weighted Sobolev space as $$\begin{aligned} f^\epsilon = f+ O(\epsilon ), \end{aligned}$$ where the function $f$ is the solution of Landau equation, which is associated with the grazing collisions limit of Boltzmann equation, with the same initial data $f_0$ . This gives the rigorous justification of the Landau approximation in the spatially homogeneous case. In particular, if taking $\gamma =-3$ and $s=1-\epsilon $ in the cross-section $B^\epsilon $ , we show that the above asymptotic formula still holds and in this case $f$ is the solution of Landau equation with the Coulomb potential. Going further, we revisit the well-posedness problem of the Boltzmann equation in the limiting process. We show there exists a common lifespan such that the uniform estimates of high regularities hold for each solution $f^\epsilon $ . Thanks to the weak convergence results on the grazing collisions limit in [37], in other words, we establish a unified framework to establish the well-posedness results for both Boltzmann and Landau equations.     

Approach to Equilibrium for the Phonon Boltzmann Equation

We study the asymptotics of solutions of the Boltzmann equation describing the kinetic limit of a lattice of classical interacting anharmonic oscillators. We prove that, if the initial condition is a small perturbation of an equilibrium state, and vanishes at infinity, the dynamics tends diffusively to equilibrium. The solution is the sum of a local equilibrium state, associated to conserved quantities that diffuse to zero, and fast variables that are slaved to the slow ones. This slaving implies the Fourier law, which relates the induced currents to the gradients of the conserved quantities. Partially supported by the Belgian IAP program P6/02. Partially supported by the Academy of Finland.     

Stability,Convergence to Self-Similarity and Elastic Limit for the Boltzmann Equation for Inelastic Hard Spheres

We consider the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation for inelastic hard spheres, in the framework of so-called constant normal restitution coefficients . In the physical regime of a small inelasticity (that is for some constructive ) we prove uniqueness of the self-similar profile for given values of the restitution coefficient , the mass and the momentum; therefore we deduce the uniqueness of the self-similar solution (up to a time translation). Moreover, if the initial datum lies in , and under some smallness condition on depending on the mass, energy and norm of this initial datum, we prove time asymptotic convergence (with polynomial rate) of the solution towards the self-similar solution (the so-called homogeneous cooling state). These uniqueness, stability and convergence results are expressed in the self-similar variables and then translate into corresponding results for the original Boltzmann equation. The proofs are based on the identification of a suitable elastic limit rescaling, and the construction of a smooth path of self-similar profiles connecting to a particular Maxwellian equilibrium in the elastic limit, together with tools from perturbative theory of linear operators. Some universal quantities, such as the “quasi-elastic self-similar temperature” and the rate of convergence towards self-similarity at first order in terms of (1−α), are obtained from our study. These results provide a positive answer and a mathematical proof of the Ernst-Brito conjecture [16] in the case of inelastic hard spheres with small inelasticity.     

Conservation of Energy,Entropy Identity,and Local Stability for the Spatially Homogeneous Boltzmann Equation

For nonsoft potential collision kernels with angular cutoff, we prove that under the initial condition f ₀(v)(1+|v|²+|logf ₀(v)|)L ¹(R ³), the classical formal entropy identity holds for all nonnegative solutions of the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation in the class L ([0, ); L ¹ ₂(R ³))C ¹([0, ); L ¹(R ³)) [where L ¹ _s (R ³)={ff(v)(1+|v|²) ^s/2L ¹(R ³)}], and in this class, the nonincrease of energy always implies the conservation of energy and therefore the solutions obtained all conserve energy. Moreover, for hard potentials and the hard-sphere model, a local stability result for conservative solutions (i.e., satisfying the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy) is obtained. As an application of the local stability, a sufficient and necessary condition on the initial data f ₀ such that the conservative solutions f belong to L ¹ _loc([0, ); L ¹ ₂₊ (R ³)) is also given.     

Supports of Measure Solutions for Spatially Homogeneous Boltzmann Equations

We prove that the support of the unique measure solution for the spatially homoge-neous Boltzmann equation in R3 is the whole space, if the initial distribution is not a Dirac measure and has 4-order moment. More precisely, we obtain the lower bound of exponential type for the probability of any small ball in ℝ³ relative to the measure solution.     

An Example of Nonuniqueness for Solutions to the Homogeneous Boltzmann Equation

The paper deals with the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation for hard potentials. An example is given which shows that, even though it is known that there is only one solution that conserves energy, there may be other solutions for which the energy is increasing; uniqueness holds if and only if energy is assumed to be conserved.     

Dissipative Linear Boltzmann Equation for Hard Spheres

We prove the existence and uniqueness of an equilibrium state with unit mass to the dissipative linear Boltzmann equation with hard-spheres collision kernel describing inelastic interactions of a gas particles with a fixed background. The equilibrium state is a universal Maxwellian distribution function with the same velocity as field particles and with a non-zero temperature lower than the background one. Moreover thanks to the H-Theorem we prove strong convergence of the solution to the Boltzmann equation towards the equilibrium.     

Large-Time Behavior of Solutions for the Boltzmann Equation with Hard potentials

We study the quantitative behavior of the solutions of the one-dimensional Boltzmann equation for hard potential models with Grad’s angular cutoff. Our results generalize those of [5] for hard sphere models. The main difference between hard sphere and hard potential models is in the exponent of the collision frequency . This gives rise to new wave phenomena, particularly the sub-exponential behavior of waves. Unlike the hard sphere models, the spectrum of the Fourier operator is non-analytic in η for hard potential models. Thus the complex analytic methods for inverting the Fourier transform are not applicable and we need to use the real analytic method in the estimates of the fluidlike waves. We devise a new weighted energy function to account for the sub-exponential behavior of waves.     

Pointwise Convergence to Knudsen Layers of the Boltzmann Equation

In this paper Green’s functions for the Boltzmann equation around a global Maxwellian are used to construct the non-characteristic nonlinear Knudsen layers as well as their time-asymptotic stability. Furthermore, the detailed pointwise structures, nonlinear wave couplings, and wave interactions with boundary are studied.     

Global Existence Proof for Relativistic Boltzmann Equation with Hard Interactions

By combining the DiPerna and Lions techniques for the nonrelativistic Boltzmann equation and the Dudyński and Ekiel-Jeżewska device of the causality of the relativistic Boltzmann equation, it is shown that there exists a global mild solution to the Cauchy problem for the relativistic Boltzmann equation with the assumptions of the relativistic scattering cross section including some relativistic hard interactions and the initial data satisfying finite mass, energy and entropy. This is in fact an extension of the result of Dudyński and Ekiel-Jeżewska to the case of the relativistic Boltzmann equation with hard interactions. This work was supported by NSFC 10271121 and the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, the Ministry of Education of China, and sponsored by joint grants of NSFC 10511120278/10611120371 and RFBR 04-02-39026.