Approach to equilibrium for the phonon Boltzmann equation (Q1006860)

The authors study the asymptotics of solutions of the Boltzmann equation describing the kinetic limit of a lattice of classical interacting anharmonic oscillators: \[ \dot{W}(x, k, t)+\frac{1}{2\pi}\vec{\nabla}\omega(k)\cdot\vec{\nabla}_xW(x, k, t) = RC(W)(x, k, t), \] where the collision term is given by \[ C(W)(x,k,t)= \frac{9\pi}{4}\int_{T^{3d}}dk_1dk_2dk_3(\omega\omega_1\omega_2\omega_3)^{-1}\delta(\omega+\omega_1-\omega_2-\omega_3) \] \[ \delta(k+k_1-k_2-k_3)[W_1W_2W_3-W(W_1W_2+W_1W_3-W_2W_3]. \] The scattered particles are phonons, i.e. vibrational modes, and the scattering process involves four phonons. The phonons carry momenta, \(k, k_1, k_2, k_3\) and energies \(\omega(k), \omega(k_1), \omega(k_2),\omega(k_3)\) and the scattering process conserves the total energy and momentum. It is proved that, if the initial condition is a small perturbation of an equilibrium state, and vanishes at infinity, the dynamics tends diffusively to equilibrium. Equation becomes a coupled system for ``fast'' and ``slow'' variables. The slow variables correspond to the temperature and the chemical potential of another conserved quantity. The slow variables flow under a nonlinear diffusion equation whereas the fast ones, that include the heat currents, are ``slaved'' to the slow ones by the Fourier law.