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The hierarchy obtained by integrating the $N$-particle Hamiltonian Liouville equation over successively fewer particle coordinates. Each marginal equation involves the next marginal, so an autonomous one-particle equation requires a closure. For a pair potential, its first equation couples the phase-space distribution function to the two-particle distribution function. Number-normalized factorial marginals and unit-normalized probability marginals have different explicit combinatorial factors.

Conservation of probability under a deterministic characteristic flow map with velocity $b(z,t)$ gives the displayed continuity equation on phase space. Along a characteristic, $dP/dt=-P{\nabla }_z\cdot b$. Unlike the Hamiltonian Liouville equation, it allows contraction of phase-space volume and increasing density along trajectories. It still preserves total probability when boundary fluxes vanish.

For a complete invertible Hamiltonian flow $\Phi (t,s)$, integrate the source along the backward characteristic ending at $z$ at time $t$. The displayed formula solves the Hamiltonian Liouville equation. Volume preservation makes each composition with $\Phi (s,t)$ an isometry of Lp spaces.

Kinetic theory describes many-particle systems through a distribution on phase space, retaining both position and velocity. In the number-density convention, $f(t,\mathbf{x},\mathbf{v})d^{3}x{d}^{3}v$ is the expected number of particles in a small position–velocity region. For identical particles of mass $m$, its integrals give the number density $n$ and bulk velocity $\mathbf{u}$:This $f$ is not normalized to one: its integral over the whole phase space gives the total expected particle number. Transport moves particles along trajectories, while collision or diffusion terms change the distribution. The Boltzmann equation, Hamiltonian Liouville equation and Fokker-Planck equation describe different physical assumptions, rather than interchangeable collision laws.

An ideal gas is a motivating example: the pressure on a wall comes from microscopic momentum transfers, even when the bulk velocity is zero. The Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution separates this random molecular motion from bulk motion; see ideal gas pressure from wall collisions. The attractive feature of kinetic theory is that a distribution can describe two opposing populations where one average velocity hides almost everything. It also tells us when averaging into a continuum approximation loses essential information: compare the intermolecular mean free path with the apparatus scale using the Knudsen number. ^[ref]

Let ${\mathbf{A}}_i={\sum }_{j\ne i}{K}_{ij}({\mathbf{v}}_j-{\mathbf{v}}_i)$. Conservation of probability in the full phase space gives the dissipative Liouville equationNormalize $\int \varrho {\prod }_i{d}^3{x}_i{d}^3{v}_i=1$. Decay at infinity makes all boundary fluxes vanish, so the equation preserves this normalization of a probability distribution.

Unlike the Hamiltonian Liouville equation, this transport has nonzero phase-space divergence. In three dimensions,The probability density increases along a contracting characteristic flow map; setting its material derivative to zero would lose conservation of probability. The $j=i$ force is identically zero, including its derivative, which is why the last sums exclude it.

Put $z_i=({\mathbf{x}}_i,{\mathbf{v}}_i)$ and $d{z}_i=d^3{x}_i{d}^3{v}_i$. Normalize the symmetric $N$-particle phase-space distribution function $D_N$ to one. Use factorial normalization for its one-particle marginal and two-particle distribution function:Thus $\int fdz=N$ and $\int f_2(z_1,z_2)d{z}_2=(N-1)f(z_1)$. For unit particle mass, $f$ also carries mass density. These conventions explain why no extra factor $N-1$ occurs in the result.

Separate the Hamiltonian as $H=H_1+H_{\mathrm{rest}}+H_{\mathrm{int}}$, whereand $H_{\mathrm{rest}}$ contains all terms involving only particles $2,\dots ,N$. The stated Poisson bracket gives Hamilton's equationsConservation of probability along the Hamiltonian flow gives the Hamiltonian Liouville equationAssume decay of the required velocity moments and either decay or periodic boundary conditions in position. Integrating over $z_2,\dots ,z_N$ eliminates the $H_{\mathrm{rest}}$ terms by integration by parts. The terms in $H_{\mathrm{int}}$ differentiating an integrated velocity also vanish. Indistinguishability makes the remaining $N-1$ terms equal, soRelabeling the two particles gives the first BBGKY hierarchy equation:This is exact for a differentiable pair potential; no independent-particle closure has been made.

Normalize the symmetric $N$-particle phase-space distribution function $D_N$ to one and write $z_i=({\mathbf{x}}_i,{\mathbf{v}}_i)$, $d{z}_i=d^3{x}_i{d}^3{v}_i$. The number-normalized one- and two-particle distribution functions areThus $\int fdz=N$ and $\int f_2(z,z_{\star })d{z}_{\star }=(N-1)f(z)$. These conventions absorb the otherwise explicit factor $N-1$ in the first BBGKY hierarchy equation.

Separate the Hamiltonian into kinetic energy, external potential energy, and pair potential terms. Their Hamilton's equations giveThe sign follows directly from the stated Poisson bracket: ${\dot{v}}_{i\alpha }=\{v_{i\alpha },H\}=-{\partial }_{x_{i\alpha }}H$. The Hamiltonian Liouville equation is consequentlyIntegrate over $z_2,\dots ,z_N$ and multiply by $N$. Assume sufficient decay in velocity space and either decay or periodic boundary conditions in position, so that integration by parts removes all transport terms with $i\ge 2$. The surviving interaction term iswhere indistinguishability makes all $N-1$ terms equal. Relabeling $(z_1,z_2)$ as $(z,z_{\star })$ yields the exact resultNo assumption of molecular chaos for the Boltzmann equation has entered: the dependence on the two-particle distribution function is still exact.

Write $z=(x,v)$ and let $\Phi (t,s,z)$ denote the Hamiltonian flow from time $s$ to time $t$. The characteristic curves satisfy Hamilton's equations:The Hamiltonian Liouville equation then reduces along each curve toThe signs and derivative variables here are those in the PDF.

The global characteristic flow for a Hamiltonian with bounded Hessian follows, for example, from $H\in C^2(\mathbb{R}\times {\mathbb{R}}^{2d})$ and, for every finite $T$,Thus the Hamiltonian vector field $b=({\nabla }_{v}H,-{\nabla }_{x}H)$ is globally Lipschitz continuous in $z$ on each finite time interval and satisfies $|b(t,z)|\le A_T+L_T|z|$. The Picard-Lindelöf theorem gives local existence and uniqueness, while the Gronwall inequality gives, for example,This excludes finite-time escape. There is a unique Hamiltonian flow for all finite forward and backward times, and $\Phi (s,t)$ is the inverse of $\Phi (t,s)$. These sufficient conditions are deliberately stronger than necessary.

For homogeneous Hamiltonian Liouville equation transport with autonomous $H$, compact initial support remains in the fixed energy sublevel determined by its maximum initial energy. If these sublevels are compact, this proves uniform compact support without solving the flow. The harmonic energy $H_{\omega }=(|v{|}^2+{\omega }^2|x{|}^2)/2$ has this property exactly when $\omega \ne 0$; at zero frequency spatial free streaming can escape every compact set.