A lower bound for the number of elastic collisions

In this paper an improved lower bound for the number \(K(n,d)\) of elastic collisions of \(n\) balls of equal radii and masses in \(d\)-dimensional space is proven. The quantity \(K(n,d)\) is a supremum over all initial conditions, and the collisions counted are of isolated pairs in which the velocities of both balls change by a nonzero amount. To describe the main result a function \(f(n)\) is needed. For a positive integer \(n\geq 3\) and setting \(n_1 = \lfloor n/3\rfloor\) and \(n_2 = n - 2n_1\), the function \[ f(n) = n_1(n_1+1)n_2 + n_2(n_2 -1)/2 +n_1(n_1 -1) \] satisfies \(27 f(n)/ n^3 \to 1\) as \(n\to\infty\), \(f(n) > n^3/27\) for all \(n\geq 3\), \(f(n) > n(n-1)/2\) for \(n\geq 7\), \(f(n) = n(n-1)/2\) for \(n=6\), and \(f(n) < n(n-1)/2\) for \(n\leq 3\leq 5\). The main result is that for all \(n\geq 3\) and all \(d\geq 2\) there holds \(K(n,d) \geq f(n)\). Since \(f(n) > n^3/27\), this improves the previously known lower bound of \(n^2\) when \(n\geq 3\) and \(d\geq 2\). In comparing the known result \(K(3,2) = 4\) and the elementary lower bound \(K(n,d) \geq n(n-1)/2\) for all \(n\geq 2\) and all \(d\geq 1\), the issue of the sharpness of the elementary lower bound \(K(n,d) \geq n(n-1)/2\) when the number of balls is \(n=4,5,6\), is settled by the next result in the paper: \(K(n,d)\geq K(n,2)\geq 1+n(n-1)/2\) for all \(4\leq n\leq 6\) and all \(d\geq 2\). The last result of the paper is that the elementary lower bound is not sharp in higher dimension: \(K(d,n) > n(n-1)/2\) for all \(n\geq 3\) and for all \(d\geq 2\).

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