On the free path length distribution for linear motion in an n-dimensional box

Abstract

We consider the distribution of free path lengths, or the distance between consecutive bounces of random particles, in an n-dimensional rectangular box. If each particle travels a distance R, then, as the free path length coincides with the distribution of the length of the intersection of a random line with the box (for a natural ensemble of random lines) and we give an explicit formula (piecewise real analytic) for the probability density function in dimension two and three.In dimension two we also consider a closely related model where each particle is allowed to bounce N times, as , and give an explicit (again piecewise real analytic) formula for its probability density function.Further, in both models we can recover the side lengths of the box from the location of the discontinuities of the probability density functions.