No Arabic abstract
In order to solve the Boltzmann equation numerically, in the present work, we propose a new model equation to approximate the Boltzmann equation without angular cutoff. Here the approximate equation incorporates Boltzmann collision operator with angular cut-off and the Landau collision operator. As a first step, we prove the well-posedness theory for our approximate equation. Then in the next step we show the error estimate between the solutions to the approximate equation and the original equation. Compared to the standard angular cut-off approximation method, our method results in higher order of accuracy.
The Boltzmann equation without an angular cutoff in a three-dimensional periodic domain is considered. The global-in-time existence of solutions in a function space $ W_k^{zeta,p}L^infty_TL^2_v $ with $p>1$ and $zeta>3(1-frac{1}{p})$ is established in the perturbation framework and the long-time behavior of solutions is also obtained for both hard and soft potentials. The proof is based on several norm estimates.
This is the first one of two papers on the global dynamics of the original Boltzmann equations without angular cutoff on the torus. We address the problem for the hard potentials and Maxwellian molecules in the present paper. The case of soft potentials is left to a forthcoming paper. The key to solve the problem is the energy-entropy method which characterizes the propagation of the regularity, $H$-theorem and the interplay between the energy and the entropy. Our main results are as follows: (i) We present a unified framework to prove the well-posedness for the original Boltzmann equation for both angular cutoff and without cutoff in weighted Sobolev spaces with polynomial weights. As a consequence, we obtain an explicit formula for the asymptotics of the equation from angular cutoff to non-cutoff. (ii) We describe the global dynamics of the equation under the almost optimal assumption on the solution which makes sure that the Boltzmann collision operator behaves like a fractional Laplace operator for the velocity variable. More precisely, we obtain the propagation of the regularity for the solution and a new mechanism for the convergence of the solution to its equilibrium with quantitative estimates. (iii) We prove that any global and smooth solution to the equation is stable, i.e., any perturbed solution will remain close to the reference solution if initially they are close to each other.
We give quantitative estimates on the asymptotics of the linearized Boltzmann collision operator and its associated equation from angular cutoff to non cutoff. On one hand, the results disclose the link between the hyperbolic property resulting from the Grads cutoff assumption and the smoothing property due to the long-range interaction. On the other hand, with the help of the localization techniques in the phase space, we observe some new phenomenon in the asymptotic limit process. As a consequence, we give the affirmative answer to the question that there is no jump for the property that the collision operator with cutoff does not have the spectrum gap but the operator without cutoff does have for the moderate soft potentials.
It is known that in the parameters range $-2 leq gamma <-2s$ spectral gap does not exist for the linearized Boltzmann operator without cutoff but it does for the linearized Landau operator. This paper is devoted to the understanding of the formation of spectral gap in this range through the grazing limit. Precisely, we study the Cauchy problems of these two classical collisional kinetic equations around global Maxwellians in torus and establish the following results that are uniform in the vanishing grazing parameter $epsilon$: (i) spectral gap type estimates for the collision operators; (ii) global existence of small-amplitude solutions for initial data with low regularity; (iii) propagation of regularity in both space and velocity variables as well as velocity moments without smallness; (iv) global-in-time asymptotics of the Boltzmann solution toward the Landau solution at the rate $O(epsilon)$; (v) continuous transition of decay structure of the Boltzmann operator to the Landau operator. In particular, the result in part (v) captures the uniform-in-$epsilon$ transition of intrinsic optimal time decay structures of solutions that reveals how the spectrum of the linearized non-cutoff Boltzmann equation in the mentioned parameter range changes continuously under the grazing limit.
The well-known Rutherford differential cross section, denoted by $ dOmega/dsigma$, corresponds to a two body interaction with Coulomb potential. It leads to the logarithmically divergence of the momentum transfer (or the transport cross section) which is described by $$int_{{mathbb S}^2} (1-costheta) frac{dOmega}{dsigma} dsigmasim int_0^{pi} theta^{-1}dtheta. $$ Here $theta$ is the deviation angle in the scattering event. Due to screening effect, physically one can assume that $theta_{min}$ is the order of magnitude of the smallest angles for which the scattering can still be regarded as Coulomb scattering. Under ad hoc cutoff $theta geq theta_{min}$ on the deviation angle, L. D. Landau derived a new equation in cite{landau1936transport} for the weakly interacting gas which is now referred to as the Fokker-Planck-Landau or Landau equation. In the present work, we establish a unified framework to justify Landaus formal derivation in cite{landau1936transport} and the so-called Landau approximation problem proposed in cite{alexandre2004landau} in the close-to-equilibrium regime. Precisely, (i). we prove global well-posedness of the Boltzmann equation with cutoff Rutherford cross section which is perhaps the most singular kernel both in relative velocity and deviation angle. (ii). we prove a global-in-time error estimate between solutions to Boltzmann and Landau equations with logarithm accuracy, which is consistent with the famous Coulomb logarithm. Key ingredients into the proofs of these results include a complete coercivity estimate of the linearized Boltzmann collision operator, a uniform spectral gap estimate and a novel linear-quasilinear method.