Kac collision operator ($Q={\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{N}{2}\right)}^{-1}{\sum }_{i<j}(2\pi {)}^{-1}\int U_{ij,\theta }d\theta$)

For $N\ge 2$, $U_{ij,\theta }F=F\circ R_{ij,\theta }$ uses the genuine two-coordinate rotation $(v_i,v_j)\mapsto (v_i\cos \theta +v_j\sin \theta ,-v_i\sin \theta +v_j\cos \theta )$. Average it uniformly over angles and pairs to obtain $Q$. Rotation invariance of Lebesgue measure makes $Q$ a bounded self-adjoint operator of norm one on $L^2({\mathbb{R}}^N)$. Each pair average is an orthogonal projection, but their full average is not in general a projection.

For the Kac collision operator, expanding the squared Hilbert space norm gives $⟨F,(I-Q)F⟩=(4\pi (\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{N}{2}){)}^{-1}{\sum }_{i<j}{\int }_0^{2\pi }{\int }_{{\mathbb{R}}^N}|F(R_{ij,\theta }v)-F(v){|}^{2}dvd\theta$. The nonnegative form measures failure of invariance under the pair rotations. It vanishes precisely on the radial kernel of the Kac collision operator.

Zero Dirichlet form of the Kac collision operator forces invariance under every pair rotation; strong continuity upgrades almost every angle to every angle. Coordinate-plane rotations generate the special orthogonal group, whose action is transitive on each sphere for $N\ge 2$. Averaging over normalized Haar measure therefore identifies the invariant $L^2$ functions with radial functions. Conversely radial functions are fixed by every pair rotation.