Asymptotic stability of solutions of the Cauchy problem for models of nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Stable hyperbolic pencils (Q812318)

The paper continues a number of earlier publications on systems of conservation laws with relaxation in nonequilibrium thermodynamics. In the one dimensional case, for the system of Euler equations of gas dynamics, there exists a regularization method which employs the concept of relaxation in the 13-moment Grad system. Limit conditions under which first three equations (conservation laws with relaxation) of the system pass to the standard Eulerian conservation laws of gas dynamics, appear to mimic the analogous limit problem on the hierarchy of (shock) waves posed by [\textit{G. B Whitham} in his treatise on ``Linear and nonlinear waves''. New York: Wiley (1974; Zbl 0373.76001)]. The corresponding methodology is adopted to the linearized moment system of nonequlibrium thermodynamics. In the present paper, a class of stable polynomial pencils (Grad pencils) was singled out for the first Grad moment system in the hierarchy for the Boltzmann and Fokker-Planck kinetic equations. The pencil properties are derived from the dissipativity of the collision operator matrix, on the basis of Hermite functions.