Search arXivSearch

arXiv · 1002.1463

On the Boltzmann-Grad limit for the two dimensional periodic Lorentz gas

Abstract

The two-dimensional, periodic Lorentz gas, is the dynamical system corresponding with the free motion of a point particle in a planar system of fixed circular obstacles centered at the vertices of a square lattice in the Euclidian plane. Assuming elastic collisions between the particle and the obstacles, this dynamical system is studied in the Boltzmann-Grad limit, assuming that the obstacle radius $r$ and the reciprocal mean free path are asymptotically equivalent small quantities, and that the particle's distribution function is slowly varying in the space variable. In this limit, the periodic Lorentz gas cannot be described by a linear Boltzmann equation (see [F. Golse, Ann. Fac. Sci. Toulouse 17 (2008), 735--749]), but involves an integro-differential equation conjectured in [E. Caglioti, F. Golse, C.R. Acad. Sci. Sér. I Math. 346 (2008) 477--482] and proved in [J. Marklof, A. Strömbergsson, preprint arXiv:0801.0612], set on a phase-space larger than the usual single-particle phase-space. The main purpose of the present paper is to study the dynamical properties of this integro-differential equation: identifying its equilibrium states, proving a H Theorem and discussing the speed of approach to equilibrium in the long time limit. In the first part of the paper, we derive the explicit formula for a transition probability appearing in that equation following the method sketched in [E. Caglioti, F. Golse, loc. cit.].

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Emanuele Caglioti, François Golse. 2010-10-01. On the Boltzmann-Grad limit for the two dimensional periodic Lorentz gas. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-010-0046-1

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

A linear test approach to global controllability of third- and fifth-order nonlinear dispersive equations

We investigate third- and fifth-order nonlinear dispersive equations of KdV type on the torus and establishes approximate controllability by a fixed four-dimensional control; rather than relying solely on the saturation machinery, the analysis exploits the finite-dimensional controllability of the inviscid Burgers equation linearized around a carefully constructed return trajectory, with the trajectory itself obtained from an observable family. This ``linear test" strategy, yields more information about the structure of the control than the standard approach. In particular, the constructed control is shown to depend continuously on the initial and target states, a property that is by no means automatic in nonlinear control problems, and to decompose as a bounded linear operator applied to the data plus a fixed remainder, with the operator part interestingly independent of the order of dispersion.

math.AP

A conditional Lagrangian clock barrier at the $C^{1,\frac{1}{3}}$ threshold for axisymmetric Euler without swirl

We consider axisymmetric no-swirl solutions to the three-dimensional incompressible Euler equations, with initial velocity in $C^{1,α}\cap L^2$, where $α\in\left[\frac{1}{3},1\right)$. In a major breakthrough, Shkoller introduced a clock-and-driver framework that he used in order to prove finite-time type I blow-up below the $C^{1,\frac{1}{3}}$ threshold in this setting. Motivated by this, we define Lagrangian classes of coherent conditional solutions for which the same mechanism yields a supercritical-critical barrier to blow-up when $α\geq\frac{1}{3}$. When $α>\frac{1}{3}$, the aforementioned barrier is genuinely depleted, whereas at the critical endpoint $α=\frac{1}{3}$, we obtain an exponential bound preventing blow-up. In the general case, we formulate a matrix-clock criterion in terms of the smallest singular value of the deformation gradient and show that, under transverse cusp-tail, longitudinal, off-clock, Dini, and suitable geometric coherence hypotheses, this singular value cannot collapse in finite time. In particular, we also show that the class of such coherent solutions includes the smooth ones locally in time. In the on-axis case, the criterion reduces to the scalar clock inequality $\displaystyle \dot{J}(t)\gtrsim -B(t)J(t)-CJ(t)^{3α}$, which rules out Shkoller-type clock collapse for $α\geq\frac{1}{3}$. These results do not enlarge the known Lorentz-space global regularity classes. Rather, they in particular identify the supercritical Lagrangian obstruction dual to Shkoller's subcritical blow-up mechanism in the case $α>\frac{1}{3}$.

math.AP