Linear Boltzmann equation 2026-10-06
A linear kinetic transport equation with velocity-integral gain and nonnegative loss coefficient . 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 and a globally convergent Volterra series for the linear Boltzmann equation on every finite time interval.
Denote the damped free-transport evolution from time to time by
By the argument in (b), . The integral operator is the Boltzmann Volterra operator
The Minkowski integral inequality and (a) give the useful stronger pointwise bound
Therefore the requested estimate is
For strongly measurable bounded -valued , these are Bochner integrals; their finite norm bounds establish existence of the integrals.
Work in the Banach space of bounded strongly measurable maps , with norm . Keeping actual representatives at every time matches the pointwise-in-time mild formulation. The Boltzmann Volterra operator is bounded on this space, and the factorial bound for a Volterra iterate gives
Thus the Volterra series for the linear Boltzmann equation converges in operator norm for every finite , even when . Set
For its partial sums, . The remainder tends to zero by the factorial estimate. Hence , precisely the required characteristic integral equation.
The norm bound in (b) gives an explicit choice of the existence constant:
Also , since every term with vanishes at zero and the damping interval has length zero. This proves existence in the paper's weak, characteristic-integral sense. With merely measurable nonnegative , that sense does not itself require a continuous initial trace; that trace follows under the additional local characteristic-integrability condition described in (b).