A model of particles interacting with thermal traps (Q2679552)

The authors consider a simple model where particles interact with thermal traps: the particles move freely, except when they hit the traps where there are exchanges of mass, momentum and energy. They investigate the conservation laws, the H-theorem and the equilibrium of the model. It is shown that the solutions relax towards a uniform Maxwellian state, entirely determined by the initial data. Moreover, the linearized problem is considered. It is obtained by considering fluctuations about the equilibrium state since linearity allows to obtain more detailed information on the asymptotic trend to equilibrium. Numerical simulations are performed and a comparison with the BGK model is given. Furthermore, the author introduces and investigates an extension of the model presented in the first part of the paper by taking into account the time spent by the particles within the trap.