Power-law distributions for the free path length in Lorentz gases (Q2511540)

The Lorentz gas describes the dynamics of non-interacting point particles in an array of fixed spherical scatterers of a finite radius, centered at the elements of the point set. The Boltzmann-Grad limit refers to the limit of small scatterer density and has been studied extensively for disordered scatterer configurations and for the case of a Euclidean lattice (at whose vertices the scatterers are located). The present paper addresses a finite union of distinct Euclidean lattices as the scatteres configuration. A limit theorem for the transport equation is established. In particular it is shown that for the number \(N\) of involved lattices the free path lengths have a distribution with an inverse power tail \(\xi ^{-N-2}\), while that for a Euclidean lattice proper is known to scale like \(\xi ^{-3}\). Apart from a technical input of two previous publications of the authors [Ann. Math. (2) 172, No. 3, 1949--2033 (2010; Zbl 1211.82011)] and [Ann. Math. (2) 174, No. 1, 225--298 (2011; Zbl 1237.37014)], the Ratner measure classification theorem is employed [\textit{M. Ratner}, Duke Math. J. 63, No. 1, 235--280 (1991; Zbl 0733.22007)].