A coupling approach for the convergence to equilibrium for a collisionless gas

Existence problems for PDEs: global existence, local existence, non-existence (35A01) Weak solutions to PDEs (35D30) Boltzmann equations (35Q20) PDEs with randomness, stochastic partial differential equations (35R60) Continuous-time Markov processes on general state spaces (60J25) Kinetic theory of gases in time-dependent statistical mechanics (82C40) Statistical mechanics of gases (82D05)

Abstract: We use a probabilistic approach to study the rate of convergence to equilibrium for a collisionless (Knudsen) gas in dimension equal to or larger than 2. The use of a coupling between two stochastic processes allows us to extend and refine, in total variation distance, the polynomial rate of convergence given in [AG11] and [KLT13]. This is, to our knowledge, the first quantitative result in collisionless kinetic theory in dimension equal to or larger than 2 that does not require any symmetry of the domain, nor a monokinetic regime. Our study is also more general in terms of reflection at the boundary: we allow for rather general diffusive reflections and for a specular reflection component.

Review text

The authors are studying the rate of convergence of a distribution function of a gas to equilibrium using the collisionless Boltzmann equation \[ \frac{\partial}{\partial t}f+v\frac{\partial}{\partial x}f=0 \] in a domain of dimension equal to or larger than 2. Solutions of the problem are based on a coupling between two stochastic processes. In Section 2, the authors present a definition of weak solutions in the sense of a boundary and initial conditions. The existence of weak solution for any initial probability measure given in Section 3 using a probabilistic method. In Section 4, the authors prove the main Theorem 2 in the easier case and in Section, 5 the previous result is extended to a convex bounded domain. The authors believe that their result is ``the first quantitative result in collisionless kinetic theory and allows to extend and refine the polynomial rate of convergence given by other authors in [\textit{K. Aoki} and \textit{F. Golse}, Kinet. Relat. Models 4, No. 1, 87--107 (2011; Zbl 1218.82019); \textit{H.-W. Kuo} et al., Commun. Math. Phys. 318, No. 2, 375--409 (2013; Zbl 1263.82043)].

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