Relativistic Boltzmann Equation Research Articles

Equilibration and freeze-out of an expanding gas in a transport approach in a Friedmann–Robertson–Walker metric

Motivated by a recent finding of an exact solution of the relativistic Boltzmann equation in a Friedmann–Robertson–Walker spacetime, we implement this metric into the newly developed transport approach Simulating Many Accelerated Strongly-interacting Hadrons (SMASH). We study the numerical solution of the transport equation and compare it to this exact solution for massless particles. We also compare a different initial condition, for which the transport equation can be independently solved numerically. Very nice agreement is observed in both cases. Having passed these checks for the SMASH code, we study a gas of massive particles within the same spacetime, where the particle decoupling is forced by the Hubble expansion. In this simple scenario we present an analysis of the freeze-out times, as function of the masses and cross sections of the particles. The results might be of interest for their potential application to relativistic heavy-ion collisions, for the characterization of the freeze-out process in terms of hadron properties.

The relativistic Boltzmann equation for soft potentials

The paper concerns the Cauchy problem on the relativistic Boltzmann equation for soft potentials in a periodic box. We show that the global-in-time solutions around relativistic Maxwellians exist in the weighted L∞ perturbation framework and also approach equilibrium states in large time in the weighted L2 framework at the rate of exp⁡(−λtβ) for some λ>0 and β∈(0,1). The proof is based on the nonlinear L2 energy method and nonlinear L∞ pointwise estimate with appropriate exponential weights in momentum. The results extend those on the classical Boltzmann equation by Caflisch [2,3] and Strain and Guo [31] to the relativistic version, and also improve the recent result on almost exponential time-decay by Strain [28] to the exponential rate. Moreover, we study the propagation of spatial regularity for the obtained solutions and also the large time behavior in the corresponding regular Sobolev space, provided that the spatial derivatives of initial data are bounded, not necessarily small.

Globally Hyperbolic Moment Model of Arbitrary Order for One-Dimensional Special Relativistic Boltzmann Equation

This paper extends the model reduction method by the operator projection to the one-dimensional special relativistic Boltzmann equation. The derivation of arbitrary order globally hyperbolic moment system is built on our careful study of two families of the complicate Grad type orthogonal polynomials depending on a parameter. We derive their recurrence relations, calculate their derivatives with respect to the independent variable and parameter respectively, and study their zeros and coefficient matrices in the recurrence formulas. Some properties of the moment system are also proved. They include the eigenvalues and their bound as well as eigenvectors,hyperbolicity, characteristic fields, linear stability, and Lorentz covariance. A semi-implicit numerical scheme is presented to solve a Cauchy problem of our hyperbolic moment system in order to verify the convergence behavior of the moment method. The results show that the solutions of our hyperbolic moment system can converge to the solution of the special relativistic Boltzmann equation as the order of the hyperbolic moment system increases.

Late-time behaviour of Israel particles in a FLRW spacetime with Λ > 0

In this paper we study the space-homogeneous Boltzmann equation in a spatially flat FLRW spacetime. We consider Israel particles, which are the relativistic counterpart of the Maxwellian particles, and obtain global-in-time existence and the asymptotic behaviour of solutions. The main argument of the paper is to use the energy method of Guo, and we observe that the method can be applied to study small solutions in a cosmological case. It is the first result of this type where a physically well-motivated scattering kernel is considered for the general relativistic Boltzmann equation.

Heat Flux for a Relativistic Dilute Bidimensional Gas

Relativistic kinetic theory predicts substantial modifications to the dissipation mechanisms of a dilute gas. For the heat flux, these include (in the absence of external forces) a correction to the thermal conductivity and the appearance of a new, purely relativistic, term proportional to the density gradient. In this work we obtain such constitutive equation for the particular case of a bidimensional gas. The calculation is based on the Chapman–Enskog solution to the relativistic Boltzmann equation and yields analytical expressions for the corresponding transport coefficients, which are evaluated for the particular case of hard disks. These results will be useful for numerical simulations and may be applied to bidimensional non-dense materials.

Forced canonical thermalization in a hadronic transport approach at high density

Hadronic transport approaches based on an effective solution of the relativistic Boltzmann equation are widely applied for the dynamical description of heavy ion reactions at low beam energies. At high densities, the assumption of binary interactions often used in hadronic transport approaches may not be applicable anymore. Therefore, we effectively simulate the high-density regime using the local forced canonical thermalization. This framework provides the opportunity to interpolate in a dynamical way between two different limits of kinetic theory: the dilute gas approximation and the ideal fluid case. This approach will be important for studies of the dynamical evolution of heavy ion collisions at low and intermediate energies as experimentally investigated at the beam energy scan program at RHIC, and in the future at FAIR and NICA. On the other hand, this new way of modeling hot and dense strongly interacting matter might be relevant for small systems at high energies (LHC and RHIC) as well.

Inhomogeneous relativistic Boltzmann equation near vacuum in the Robertson–Walker space-time

In this paper, we consider the Cauchy problem for the relativistic Boltzmann equation with near vacuum initial data where the distribution function depends on the time, the position and the impulsion. The collision kernel considered here is for the hard potentials case and the background space-time in which the study is done is the Robertson-Walker space-time. Unique global (in time) mild solution is obtained in a suitable weighted space.

Transport coefficients for relativistic gas mixtures of hard-sphere particles

In the present work, we calculate the transport coefficients for a relativistic binary mixture of diluted gases of hard-sphere particles. The gas mixture under consideration is studied within the relativistic Boltzmann equation in the presence of a gravitational field described by the isotropic Schwarzschild metric. We obtain the linear constitutive equations for the thermodynamic fluxes. The driving forces for the fluxes of particles and heat will appear with terms proportional to the gradient of gravitational potential. We discuss the consequences of the gravitational dependence on the driving forces. We obtain general integral expressions for the transport coefficients and evaluate them by assuming a hard-sphere interaction amongst the particles when they collide and not very disparate masses and diameters of the particles of each species. The obtained results are expressed in terms of their temperature dependence through the relativistic parameter which gives the ratio of the rest energy of the particles and the thermal energy of the gas mixture. Plots are given to analyze the behavior of the transport coefficients with respect to the temperature when small variations in masses and diameters of the particles of the species are present. We also analyze for each coefficient the corresponding limits to a single gas so the non-relativistic and ultra-relativistic limiting cases are recovered as well. Furthermore, we show that the transport coefficients have a dependence on the gravitational field.

Nonlinear dynamics from the relativistic Boltzmann equation in the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker spacetime

The dissipative dynamics of an expanding massless gas with constant cross section in a spatially flat Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) universe is studied. The mathematical problem of solving the full nonlinear relativistic Boltzmann equation is recast into an infinite set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations for the moments of the one-particle distribution function. Momentum-space resolution is determined by the number of non-hydrodynamic modes included in the moment hierarchy, i.e., by the truncation order. We show that in the FLRW spacetime the non-hydrodynamic modes decouple completely from the hydrodynamic degrees of freedom. This results in the system flowing as an ideal fluid while at the same time producing entropy. The solutions to the nonlinear Boltzmann equation exhibit transient tails of the distribution function with nontrivial momentum dependence. The evolution of this tail is not correctly captured by the relaxation time approximation nor by the linearized Boltzmann equation. However, the latter probes additional high-momentum details unresolved by the relaxation time approximation. While the expansion of the FLRW spacetime is slow enough for the system to move towards (and not away from) local thermal equilibrium, it is not sufficiently slow for the system to actually ever reach complete local equilibrium. Equilibration is fastest in the relaxation time approximation, followed, in turn, by kinetic evolution with a linearized and a fully nonlinear Boltzmann collision term.

Maxwell-Jüttner distribution for rigidly rotating flows in spherically symmetric spacetimes using the tetrad formalism

We consider rigidly rotating states in thermal equilibrium on static spherically symmetric spacetimes. Using the Maxwell-Juttner equilibrium distribution function, onstructed as a solution of the relativistic Boltzmann equation, the equilibrium particle flow four-vector, stress-energy tensor and the transport coefficients in the Marle model are computed. Their properties are discussed in view of the topology of the speed-of-light surface induced by the rotation for two classes of spacetimes: maximally symmetric (Minkowski, de Sitter and anti-de Sitter) and charged (Reissner-Nordstrom) black-hole spacetimes. To facilitate our analysis, we employ a non-holonomic comoving tetrad field, obtained unambiguously by applying a Lorentz boost on a fixed background tetrad.

Uniform stability of the solutions to the relativistic Enskog equation

We present the uniform stability of classical solutions to the relativistic Enskog equation under the locally Lipschitz assumption of the collision factors given by Polewczak. This stability is an extension of the result given by Ha and Xiao for the relativistic Boltzmann equation and it is very useful for the study of the Cauchy problem for the relativistic Enskog equation.

From conduction to convection of thermally relativistic fluids between two parallel walls under gravitational force

Abstract The thermal conduction and convection of thermally relativistic fluids between two parallel walls under the gravitational force are discussed both theoretically and numerically. In the theoretical discussion, the Lorentz contraction is assumed to be negligible and spacetime is assumed to be flat. For understanding of the thermal conduction and convection of thermally relativistic fluids between two parallel walls under the gravitational force, the relativistic Boltzmann equation is solved using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method, numerically. Numerical results indicate that strongly nonequilibrium states are formed in vicinities of two walls, which do not allow us to discuss the transition of the thermal conduction to the thermal convection of thermally relativistic fluids under the gravitational force in the framework of the relativistic Navier–Stokes–Fourier equation, when the flow-field is under the transition regime between the rarefied and continuum regimes, whereas such strongly nonequilibrium states are not formed in vicinities of two walls under the nonrelativistic limit.

Exact solutions of the Boltzmann equation and optimized hydrodynamic approaches for relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Several recent results are reported from work aiming to improve the quantitative precision of relativistic viscous fluid dynamics for relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The dense matter created in such collisions expands in a highly anisotropic manner. Due to viscous effects this also renders the local momentum distribution anisotropic. Optimized hydrodynamic approaches account for these anisotropies already at leading order in a gradient expansion. Recently discovered exact solutions of the relativistic Boltzmann equation in anisotropically expanding systems provide a powerful testbed for such improved hydrodynamic approximations. We present the latest status of our quest for a formulation of relativistic viscous fluid dynamics that is optimized for applications to relativistic heavy-ion collisions.

Chilly dark sectors and asymmetric reheating

In a broad class of theories, the relic abundance of dark matter is determined by interactions internal to a thermalized dark sector, with no direct involvement of the Standard Model (SM). We point out that these theories raise an immediate cosmological question: how was the dark sector initially populated in the early universe? Motivated in part by the difficulty of accommodating large amounts of entropy carried in dark radiation with cosmic microwave background measurements of the effective number of relativistic species at recombination, $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$, we aim to establish which admissible cosmological histories can populate a thermal dark sector that never reaches thermal equilibrium with the SM. The minimal cosmological origin for such a dark sector is asymmetric reheating, when the same mechanism that populates the SM in the early universe also populates the dark sector at a lower temperature. Here we demonstrate that the resulting inevitable inflaton-mediated scattering between the dark sector and the SM can wash out a would-be temperature asymmetry, and establish the regions of parameter space where temperature asymmetries can be generated in minimal reheating scenarios. Thus obtaining a temperature asymmetry of a given size either restricts possible inflaton masses and couplings or necessitates a non-minimal cosmology for one or both sectors. As a side benefit, we develop techniques for evaluating collision terms in the relativistic Boltzmann equation when the full dependence on Bose-Einstein or Fermi-Dirac phase space distributions must be retained, and present several new results on relativistic thermal averages in an appendix.

Well-Balanced Schemes Based on Elementary Solutions for Kinetic Models of Ionized or Ultra-Relativistic Gas

ABSTRACTWell-balanced schemes for two types of (1 + 1)-dimensional kinetic models are set up relying on scattering matrices derived from the explicit so–called elementary solutions of the corresponding stationary equations. A “matrix balancing” (or “matrix equilibration”) technique is evoked to ensure the overall mass (and positivity) preservation. The first model is a simplification of edge plasma dynamics close to a wall, like a tokamak divertor, whereas the second one is essentially a rewriting of the Anderson-Witting Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) model of relativistic Boltzmann equation for example, photons. Numerical results on coarse grids are provided to illustrate the feasibility of the algorithms.

Dissipation process of binary gas mixtures in thermally relativistic flow

In this paper, dissipation process of binary gas mixtures in thermally relativistic flows is discussed with focus on characteristics of diffusion flux. As an analytical object, we consider the relativistic rarefied-shock layer around a triangular prism. Numerical results for the diffusion flux are compared with the Navier–Stokes–Fourier (NSF) order approximation of the diffusion flux, which is calculated using the diffusion and thermal-diffusion coefficients by Kox et al (1976 Physica A 84 165–74). In the case of uniform flow with small Lorentz contraction, the diffusion flux, which is obtained by calculating the relativistic Boltzmann equation, is roughly approximated by the NSF order approximation inside the shock wave, whereas the diffusion flux in the vicinity of a wall is markedly different from the NSF order approximation. The magnitude of the diffusion flux, which is obtained by calculating the relativistic Boltzmann equation, is similar to that of the NSF order approximation inside the shock wave, unlike the pressure deviator, dynamic pressure and heat flux, even when the Lorentz contraction in the uniform flow becomes large, because the diffusion flux does not depend on the generic Knudsen number from its definition in Eckart’s frame. Finally, the author concludes that for accuracy diffusion flux must be calculated using the particle four-flow and averaged four velocity, which are formulated using the four velocity defined by each species of hard spherical particles.

Transient oscillations in a macroscopic effective theory of the Boltzmann equation

A new transient effective theory of the relativistic Boltzmann equation is derived for locally momentum-anisotropic systems. In the expansion of the distribution function around a local "quasi-equilibrium" state a non-hydrodynamic dynamical degree of freedom is introduced at leading order that breaks local momentum isotropy. By replacing the deviation of the distribution function from this quasi-equilibrium state in terms of moments of the leading-order distribution and applying a systematic power counting scheme that orders the non-hydrodynamic modes by their microscopic time scales, a closed set of equations for the dynamical degrees of freedom is obtained. Truncating this set at the level of the slowest non-hydroynamic mode we find that it exhibits transient oscillatory behavior -- a phenomenon previously found only in strongly coupled theories, where it appears to be generic. In weakly coupled systems described by the Boltzmann equation, these transient oscillations depend on the breaking of local momentum isotropy being treated non-perturbatively at leading order in the expansion of the distribution function.

Relativistic virial relation for cosmological structures

Starting with the relativistic Boltzmann equation for a system of particles defined by a distribution function, we have derived the virial relation for a spherical structure within an expanding background in the context of general relativity. This generalized form of the virial relation is then applied to the static case of a spherically symmetric structure to see the difference in the simplest case to the Newtonian relation. A relativistic Mass-Temperature relation for this simple case is also derived which can be applied to compact objects in astrophysics. Our general virial relation is then applied to the non-static case of a structure within an expanding universe where an extra term, usually missed in studies of structures in the presence of the dark energy, appears.

Analytic Solution of the Boltzmann Equation in an Expanding System

For a massless gas with a constant cross section in a homogeneous, isotropically expanding spacetime we reformulate the relativistic Boltzmann equation as a set of nonlinear coupled moment equations. For a particular initial condition this set can be solved exactly, yielding the first analytical solution of the Boltzmann equation for an expanding system. The nonequilibrium behavior of this relativistic gas can be mapped onto that of a homogeneous, static nonrelativistic gas of Maxwell molecules.

Perfect fluidity of a dissipative system: Analytical solution for the Boltzmann equation inAdS2⊗S2

In this paper we obtain an analytical solution of the relativistic Boltzmann equation under the relaxation time approximation that describes the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of a radially expanding massless gas. This solution is found by mapping this expanding system in flat spacetime to a static flow in the curved spacetime $\mathrm{AdS}_{2}\otimes \mathrm{S}_{2}$. We further derive explicit analytic expressions for the momentum dependence of the single particle distribution function as well as for the spatial dependence of its moments. We find that this dissipative system has the ability to flow as a perfect fluid even though its entropy density does not match the equilibrium form. The non-equilibrium contribution to the entropy density is shown to be due to higher order scalar moments (which possess no hydrodynamical interpretation) of the Boltzmann equation that can remain out of equilibrium but do not couple to the energy-momentum tensor of the system. Thus, in this system the slowly moving hydrodynamic degrees of freedom can exhibit true perfect fluidity while being totally decoupled from the fast moving, non-hydrodynamical microscopic degrees of freedom that lead to entropy production.