Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/iii/paper-6/5/e/solution

A local Maxwellian can be written as , with and coefficients depending on . Its logarithm is a linear combination of collision invariants, so and at each spatial point.
Comparing powers of in gives
Here is the symmetric part of a matrix formed by the coefficients of the quadratic polynomial. For constants , choose , and . All four coefficient equations hold. The resulting expanding Gaussian solution of the Boltzmann equation is
Direct verification is particularly simple: and are constant along free characteristic curves, so the transport derivative is zero. At fixed its logarithm is the displayed Maxwellian quadratic, so the collision term is also zero. Its spatial dependence is nonconstant, it is positive and rapidly decaying, and its Gaussian velocity integral is finite because . It is not a compactly supported example, nor does this final part require one.

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