Boltzmann equation

The Boltzmann equation evolves a phase-space distribution by balancing free streaming, external forces, and collisions.

A weak solution framework in which a suitable nonlinear transform $\beta (f)$ satisfies a transport equation with transformed collision source ${\beta }^{\prime }(f)Q(f,f)$, interpreted with the required integrability and possible framework-dependent defect terms. Renormalization addresses distributions whose raw collision term is not integrable enough to support the ordinary weak formulation. This is different from a classical smooth solution and does not by itself imply smooth global well-posedness.

In a scaling ${\partial }_{t}f+v\cdot {\nabla }_{x}f={\epsilon }^{-1}Q(f,f)$ with small Knudsen number, the leading collision balance formally forces a local Maxwellian. The conserved moments then give the Euler equations with a monatomic ideal-gas closure. The next nonequilibrium correction produces viscous and heat-conduction terms. These substitutions are formal: rigorous limits need uniform estimates, initial and boundary conditions, and sufficient convergence.

When the velocity distribution is independent of position and there are no forces, the free transport equation contributes zero and only collisions evolve $f$. For a bounded cutoff kernel, $\Vert Q(f,g){\Vert }_1\le C\Vert f{\Vert }_1\Vert g{\Vert }_1$ gives local existence and uniqueness by the Banach fixed-point theorem. Positivity and mass conservation bound the norm and permit global continuation in this particular model. Stronger kernels require moment or weighted estimates.

For equal-mass elastic collisions, one reflection parametrization is $v^{\prime }=v-((v-v_{\ast })\cdot n)n$ and $v_{\ast }^{\prime }=v_{\ast }+((v-v_{\ast })\cdot n)n$. The fixed-$n$ transformation preserves pairwise momentum, kinetic energy and velocity-pair measure. A nonnegative kernel invariant under particle interchange and collision reversal yields a gain-loss operator. Its weak Boltzmann collision identity proves conservation and its entropy identity proves the Boltzmann H theorem. Unlike the Maxwell molecule collision operator, this general kernel may depend on relative speed.

Write $f=M(1+h)$ around a fixed Maxwellian and expand the nonlinear Boltzmann collision operator to first order. The weak Boltzmann collision identity gives the nonnegative dissipation form in $L^2(Mdv)$, and polarization proves symmetry on an appropriate common domain. Its zero modes are the collision invariants when the scattering kernel is nondegenerate. A spectral gap, and self-adjointness of an unbounded realization, require additional domain and kernel hypotheses.

The angular collision rate is integrable at each nonzero relative velocity, with any needed speed-growth bounds stated separately. This makes the separate gain and loss integrals available under suitable velocity integrability. Non-cutoff kernels can have infinite angular collision rate and require cancellation rather than the same naive gain-loss split.

Here $\Delta \psi =\psi (v^{\prime })+\psi (v_{\ast }^{\prime })-\psi (v)-\psi (v_{\ast })$ is the pairwise collision change, not a Laplace operator. Average over the two particle labels and use collision reversal to obtain the formula. Every collision invariant has $\Delta \psi =0$, giving mass, momentum and kinetic energy conservation. A second symmetrization replaces $f{f}_{\ast }\Delta \psi /2$ by $(f^{\prime }{f}_{\ast }^{\prime }-f{f}_{\ast })(-\Delta \psi )/4$.

A Gaussian velocity profile at each position, with coefficients encoding local density, mean velocity and temperature. Its logarithm is a linear combination of collision invariants, so its collision term vanishes pointwise in position. Transport need not vanish: the coefficients must also satisfy their transport equations for a local Maxwellian to solve the full Boltzmann equation.

This spatially nonconstant local Maxwellian is constant along free characteristic curves. Its collision term vanishes by the collision invariants, so it solves the full Boltzmann equation. It is positive, rapidly decaying and integrable in phase space. Completing its velocity square gives local mean $\alpha tx/(\beta +\alpha t^2)$ and local variance proportional to $(\beta +\alpha t^2{)}^{-1}$, while its spatial profile broadens with time.

The integral uses $0\log 0=0$ when it is defined. For the Boltzmann equation, the Boltzmann H theorem makes it nonincreasing under suitable regularity and integrability. This functional is distinct from the microstate-counting Boltzmann entropy; the physical kinetic entropy has the opposite sign.

Put $A=f^{\prime }{f}_{\ast }^{\prime }$ and $B_0=f{f}_{\ast }$. The weak Boltzmann collision identity applied to $\log f$ gives $H^{\prime }(t)=-\int D(f)dx$ when transport boundary fluxes vanish. Monotonicity of the logarithm makes every integrand nonnegative. For positive sufficiently regular distributions and nondegenerate angular scattering, zero dissipation forces $\log f$ to be a collision invariant, hence $f$ to be a local Maxwellian. This equality statement alone does not establish convergence rates.

For the normalized isotropic Maxwell molecule collision operator, put $a=f^{\prime }{f}_{\ast }^{\prime }$ and $b=f{f}_{\ast }$. The integral is over position, both velocities and collision direction. The symmetrized weak identity yields the displayed derivative of the Boltzmann H functional. It is nonpositive because $(a-b)\log (a/b)\ge 0$ for positive $a,b$. Spatial transport contributes only a boundary flux, which must vanish for the total-space inequality.

For the normalized isotropic cutoff model, collisions redistribute the direction of relative velocity uniformly while keeping its length. With center $C=(v+v_{\ast })/2$ and relative speed $r=|v-v_{\ast }|$, outgoing velocities are $C\pm r\sigma /2$. Momentum and kinetic energy are preserved, and the collision rate has no relative-speed factor. The displayed operator uses unit total angular rate. General Maxwell molecule kernels can have nonconstant angular dependence.

A collision invariant has an unchanged pairwise sum in every allowed elastic collision. The functions $1$, each velocity coordinate, and $|v{|}^2$ encode mass, momentum and energy. Symmetrized weak collision identities then give zero moments of the collision operator against these functions. Under standard regularity assumptions, the invariants form their five-dimensional linear span in three velocity dimensions.

For the Maxwell molecule collision operator and the Fourier transform with exponent $-i\xi \cdot v$, put ${\xi }^{\pm }=(\xi \pm |\xi |\sigma )/2$. The angular exchange for elastic collisions, rotation invariance of spherical surface area and factorization of the two velocity integrals give the displayed formula. This identity converts the collision integral into a spherical average of products at two related frequencies.

For finite nonnegative measures with equal mass and first moment and finite second moments, the constant and linear terms of their Fourier transforms cancel. Taylor's remainder bounds their difference by a constant times $|\xi {|}^2$, making this distance finite. Fourier uniqueness gives definiteness. The origin is excluded from the supremum; the quotient need not have a direction-independent limit there.

Unit-mass solutions of the isotropic Maxwell molecule collision operator with matching first moments obey this comparison. The Bobylev identity, the Fourier bound by one, and $|{\xi }^{+}{|}^2+|{\xi }^{-}{|}^2=|\xi {|}^2$ give a scalar damped differential inequality. Its integral form and the Gronwall inequality yield nonexpansion in the Fourier distance of order two. This does not alone establish strict contraction or equilibrium convergence.

Write incoming relative velocity as $r\omega$ and outgoing relative velocity as $r\sigma$. For isotropic scattering, the product measure $dC{r}^{2}drd\omega d\sigma$ is invariant under exchanging the two angular variables. This gives the pre/post-collision weak identities. Keeping $\sigma$ fixed and sending only the velocities to the outgoing pair is not invertible: that map discards the incoming angular direction.

A linear kinetic transport equation with velocity-integral gain $K_t$ and nonnegative loss coefficient $a$. Its characteristic integral formulation combines the damped free-transport evolution with the Boltzmann Volterra operator. A uniform square-integrable velocity kernel yields bounded gain on $L_{x,v}^2$ and a globally convergent Volterra series for the linear Boltzmann equation on every finite time interval.

Nonnegative gain kernels and positive damping preserve pointwise order. The Volterra series for the linear Boltzmann equation has nonnegative terms when its initial datum is nonnegative. Applying this to the difference of two solutions proves comparison, with uniqueness identifying that difference with the positive series. This order property is distinct from positivity of a quadratic form on a Hilbert space.

Let $M\ge 0$ have velocity integral one, and $\rho (g)(x)=\int g(x,v)dv$. On phase-space $L^1$, the normalized relaxation collision operator is $B=P-I$, where $Pg=\rho (g)M$. It obeys $\Vert B\Vert \le 2$ because $\Vert Pg{\Vert }_1\le \Vert g{\Vert }_1$. It preserves mass at each spatial position. The corresponding linear Boltzmann equation combines this bounded collision operator with the free-transport semigroup.

For $M>0$ with integral one, the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality makes the mass functional bounded on the weighted Hilbert space. The vector $M$ has norm one, so the velocity-reset projection is the orthogonal projection onto its span. Consequently $L=\Pi -I$ is bounded and self-adjoint. This Hilbert geometry differs from the norm-one positive reset projection on phase-space $L^1$.

For the normalized velocity-reset collision operator on the weighted Hilbert space, $L=\Pi -I$ vanishes on the equilibrium direction and equals $-I$ on its orthogonal complement. The spectral gap is exactly one. Conservation of the projected component and the displayed energy identity give exact exponential decay of the remaining component; the full solution need not decay to zero.

For $E=L_{x,v}^1$, let $(\tau f)(t)={\int }_0^t{U}_{t-s}(P-I)f(s)ds$. The factorial bound for a Volterra iterate is $\Vert {\tau }^{n}f(t){\Vert }_1\le (2t{)}^n{\sup }_{s\le t}\Vert f(s){\Vert }_1/n!$. Thus the Neumann series converges in $C([0,T];E)$ for every finite $T$ and solves $f=U_{\cdot }{f}_0+\tau f$. The same estimate applied to a difference proves uniqueness among locally time-bounded integral solutions. The whole collision term remains inside this undamped integral, rather than absorbing loss into the free propagator.

For a nonnegative normalized velocity density $M$, $Pg(x,v)=M(v)\int g(x,w)dw$ is a positive norm-one projection on phase-space $L^1$. Normalization gives $P^2=P$. Its range consists of fields $a(x)M(v)$. This Banach-space projection need not be an orthogonal projection in unweighted $L^2$; no such assertion is needed for the $L^1$ collision estimates.

The factorial bound for a Volterra iterate gives convergence in the space of bounded strongly measurable $L^2$-valued functions on $[0,T]$. The sum solves $(I-\tau )f=F$, where $F=U_a(t,0)f_0$, and satisfies ${\sup }_{t\le T}\Vert f(t){\Vert }_2\le e^{CT}\Vert f_0{\Vert }_2$. Applying the same iterate bound to a difference $g=\tau g$ proves uniqueness on every finite interval.

Combine the damped free-transport evolution and the linear Boltzmann collision operator in a time-ordered Bochner integral. Its norm obeys $\Vert \tau f(t){\Vert }_2\le C{\int }_0^t\Vert f(s){\Vert }_{2}ds$. This reduces the characteristic integral equation to $(I-\tau )f=U_a(t,0)f_0$.

For nonnegative measurable $a$, define $(U_a(t,s)g)(x,v)=e^{-{\int }_s^{t}a(r,x-v(t-r),v)dr}g(x-v(t-s),v)$. The shear preserves Lebesgue measure and the multiplier lies in $[0,1]$, so this is a contraction on Lp spaces. Extended nonnegative integrals use $e^{-\infty }=0$. Characteristic local integrability gives the usual continuous trace at the starting time.

The gain term integrates over the incoming velocity. If $C^2=\int {\sup }_{t,x}|k(t,x,v,v_{\ast }){|}^{2}dvd{v}_{\ast }<\infty$, the Hilbert-Schmidt kernel bound at each $x$ gives $\Vert K_{t}g{\Vert }_{L_{x,v}^2}\le C\Vert g{\Vert }_{L_{x,v}^2}$, uniformly in time. The existence proof uses boundedness; kernel positivity is not needed for that estimate.

A bounded continuous factor $k_1$ and an integrable factor $k_2$ give a bounded velocity-integral gain on bounded continuous functions, with bound $\Vert Kf{\Vert }_{\infty }\le \Vert k_1{\Vert }_{\infty }\Vert k_2{\Vert }_1\Vert f{\Vert }_{\infty }$. The dominated convergence theorem proves joint continuity of the velocity integral. Combined with damped transport, the factorial bound for a Volterra iterate proves existence on arbitrary finite time slabs.

Relativistic kinetic theory describes particles by a scalar phase-space distribution function on the future mass shell. Its Boltzmann equation uses geodesic streaming and a collision operator. Integrating its momentum moments supplies a kinetic stress-energy tensor and particle-number currents. An orthonormal tetrad makes the local momentum integrals identical in form to those of special relativity.

A scalar function on the future mass shell describing the expected particle count in a phase-space distribution cell. In a local orthonormal tetrad, the number crossing a spacelike surface element is $f{p}^{\mu }d{\Sigma }_{\mu }{d}^{3}p/E$. On a constant-time slice it becomes $f{d}^{3}x{d}^{3}p$. Including degeneracy and phase-space normalization in $f$ gives the stress-energy tensor $T^{\mu \nu }=\int (d^{3}p/E)f{p}^{\mu }{p}^{\nu }$. Other conventions may put the degeneracy or $(2\pi {)}^{-3}$ explicitly in the measure.

The temporal-temporal component of the photon stress-energy tensor in a local orthonormal tetrad. For an isotropic one-particle distribution function expressed using comoving energy $ϵ=aE$, it is ${\bar{\rho }}_{\gamma }=4\pi a^{-4}\int dϵ{ϵ}^3\bar{f}(ϵ)$. A thermal photon temperature perturbation gives a first-order directional energy perturbation four times its fractional temperature change. Boundary conditions on the distribution justify this factor through integration by parts.

The invariant future mass-shell measure is $d^{3}p/E$, up to fixed normalization factors absorbed in $f$. Its relation to the Lorentz-invariant phase-space measure follows by integrating $2\theta (p^0)\delta (p_{\mu }{p}^{\mu }+m^2)d^{4}p$ over $p^0$ in a local orthonormal tetrad. A particle carries four-momentum $p^{\mu }$ and crosses a local spatial surface with velocity $p^i/p^0$. Integrating the associated momentum flux gives the displayed stress-energy tensor. For photons, $p^{\hat{a}}=E(1,\mathbf{e})$ and $|\mathbf{e}|=1$.

Expanding an angular distribution in multipoles converts the Boltzmann equation into a hierarchy in which free streaming couples neighboring multipoles and collisions damp or source selected moments.