Relativistic Boltzmann Equation Research Articles

Derivation of second-order relativistic hydrodynamics for reactive multicomponent systems

We derive the second-order hydrodynamic equation for reactive multi-component systems from the relativistic Boltzmann equation. In the reactive system, particles can change their species under the restriction of the imposed conservation laws during the collision process. Our derivation is based on the renormalization group (RG) method, in which the Boltzmann equation is solved in an organized perturbation method as faithfully as possible and possible secular terms are resummed away by a suitable setting of the initial value of the distribution function. The microscopic formulae of the relaxation times and the lengths are explicitly given as well as those of the transport coefficients for the reactive multi-component system. The resultant hydrodynamic equation with these formulae has nice properties that it satisfies the positivity of the entropy production rate and the Onsager's reciprocal theorem, which ensure the validity of our derivation.

The virial theorem in Eddington-Born-Infeld gravity

We consider the possibility that the Eddington-Born-Infeld (EBI) modified gravity provides an alternative explanation for the mass discrepancy in clusters of galaxies. For this purpose we derive the modified Einstein field equations, finding an additional “geometrical mass” term which provides an effective contribution to the gravitational binding energy. Using some approximations and assumptions for weak gravitational fields, and taking into account the collisionless relativistic Boltzmann equation, we derive a generalized version of the virial theorem in the framework of EBI gravity. We show that the “geometrical mass” term may account for the well known virial mass discrepancy in clusters of galaxies. We also derive the velocity dispersion relation for galaxies in the clusters, which could provide an efficient method for testing EBI gravity from astrophysical observations.

Relativistic causal hydrodynamics derived from Boltzmann equation: A novel reduction theoretical approach

We derive the second-order hydrodynamic equation and the microscopic formulae of the relaxation times as well as the transport coefficients systematically from the relativistic Boltzmann equation. Our derivation is based on a novel development of the renormalization-group method, a powerful reduction theory of dynamical systems, which has been applied successfully to derive the non-relativistic second-order hydrodynamic equation Our theory nicely gives a compact expression of the deviation of the distribution function in terms of the linearized collision operator, which is different from those used as an ansatz in the conventional fourteen-moment method. It is confirmed that the resultant microscopic expressions of the transport coefficients coincide with those derived in the Chapman-Enskog expansion method. Furthermore, we show that the microscopic expressions of the relaxation times have natural and physically plausible forms. We prove that the propagating velocities of the fluctuations of the hydrodynamical variables do not exceed the light velocity, and hence our seconder-order equation ensures the desired causality. It is also confirmed that the equilibrium state is stable for any perturbation described by our equation.

Dissipative properties of hot and dense hadronic matter in an excluded-volume hadron resonance gas model

We estimate dissipative properties viz: shear and bulk viscosities of hadronic matter using relativistic Boltzmann equation in relaxation time approximation within ambit of excluded volume hadron resonance gas (EHRG) model. We find that at zero baryon chemical potential the shear viscosity to entropy ratio ($\eta/s$) decreases with temperature while at finite baryon chemical potential this ratio shows same behavior as a function of temperature but reaches close to Kovtun-Son-Starinets (KSS) bound. Further along chemical freezout curve, ratio $\eta/s$ is almost constant apart from small initial monotonic rise. This observation may have some relevance to the experimental finding that the differential elliptic flow of charged hadrons does not change considerably at lower center of mass energy. We further find that bulk viscosity to entropy density ($\zeta/s$) decreases with temperature while this ratio has higher value at finite baryon chemical potential at higher temperature. Along freezout curve $\zeta/s$ decreases monotonically at lower center of mass energy and then saturates.

Investigating the domain of validity of the Gubser solution to the Boltzmann equation

We study the evolution of the one particle distribution function that solves exactly the relativistic Boltzmann equation within the relaxation time approximation for a conformal system undergoing simultaneously azimuthally symmetric transverse and boost-invariant longitudinal expansion. We show, for arbitrary values of the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio, that the distribution function can become negative in certain kinematic regions of the available phase space depending on the boundary conditions. For thermal equilibrium initial conditions, we determine numerically the physical boundary in phase space where the distribution function is always positive definite. The requirement of positivity of this particular exact solution restricts its domain of validity, and it imposes physical constraints on its applicability.

Bounded solution of the relativistic Boltzmann equation

In either a periodic box Td or Rd (1 ≤ d ≤ 3), we obtain global bounded solution of the relativistic Boltzmann equation near global relativistic Maxwellian, in terms of natural mass, energy conservation and the entropy inequality.

Mixtures of relativistic gases in gravitational fields: Combined Chapman-Enskog and Grad method and the Onsager relations.

In this work we study an r-species mixture of gases within the relativistic kinetic theory point of view. We use the relativistic covariant Boltzmann equation and incorporate the Schwarzschild metric. The method of solution of the Boltzmann equation is a combination of the Chapman-Enskog and Grad representations. The thermodynamic four-fluxes are expressed as functions of the thermodynamic forces so the generalized expressions for the Navier-Stokes, Fick, and Fourier laws are obtained. The constitutive equations for the diffusion and heat four-fluxes of the mixture are functions of thermal and diffusion generalized forces which depend on the acceleration and the gravitational potential gradient. While this dependence is of relativistic nature for the thermal force, this is not the case for the diffusion forces. We show also that the matrix of diffusion coefficients is symmetric, implying that the thermal-diffusion equals the diffusion-thermal effect, proving the Onsager reciprocity relations. The entropy four-flow of the mixture is also expressed in terms of the thermal and diffusion generalized forces, so its dependence on the acceleration and gravitational potential gradient is also determined.

Relativistic quantum transport coefficients for second-order viscous hydrodynamics

We express the transport coefficients appearing in the second-order evolution equations for bulk viscous pressure and shear stress tensor using Bose-Einstein, Boltzmann, and Fermi-Dirac statistics for the equilibrium distribution function and Grad's 14-moment approximation as well as the method of Chapman-Enskog expansion for the non-equilibrium part. Specializing to the case of transversally homogeneous and boost-invariant longitudinal expansion of the viscous medium, we compare the results obtained using the above methods with those obtained from the exact solution of the massive 0+1d relativistic Boltzmann equation in the relaxation-time approximation. We show that compared to the 14-moment approximation, the hydrodynamic transport coefficients obtained by employing the Chapman-Enskog method leads to better agreement with the exact solution of the relativistic Boltzmann equation.

Analytic solutions of the relativistic Boltzmann equation

We present new analytic solutions to the relativistic Boltzmann equation within the relaxation time approximation. We first obtain spherically expanding solutions which are the kinetic counterparts of the exact solutions of the Israel-Stewart equation in the literature. This allows us to compare the solutions of the kinetic and hydrodynamic equations at an analytical level. We then derive a novel boost-invariant solution of the Boltzmann equation which has an unconventional dependence on the proper time. The existence of such a solution is also suggested in second order hydrodynamics and fluid-gravity correspondence.

Electric conductivity of the quark-gluon plasma investigated using Boltzmann transport theory

The electric conductivity of a hot quark-gluon plasma is obtained numerically by solving the relativistic Boltzmann equation. We use a relativistic, semi-classical partonic cascade including screened binary and inelastic, radiative 2 ↔ 3 perturbative QCD scattering. We employ the Green-Kubo formula and, independently, evaluate the static electric current established by the influence of an external electric field, in order to extract the conductivity. Both numerical methods give the same result. By using only constant, isotropic cross sections, we are able to compare the numerical results and analytic formulas with excellent agreement. Using pQCD scattering with running coupling in the transport code allows us to contrast our results with recent lattice QCD data.

Elliptic flow and nuclear modification factor in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions within a partonic transport model.

The quark gluon plasma produced in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions exhibits remarkable features. It behaves like a nearly perfect liquid with a small shear viscosity to entropy density ratio and leads to the quenching of highly energetic particles. We show that both effects can be understood for the first time within one common framework. Employing the parton cascade Boltzmann approach to multiparton scatterings, the microscopic interactions and the space-time evolution of the quark gluon plasma are calculated by solving the relativistic Boltzmann equation. Based on cross sections obtained from perturbative QCD with explicitly taking the running coupling into account, we calculate the nuclear modification factor and elliptic flow in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. With only one single parameter associated with coherence effects of medium-induced gluon radiation, the experimental data of both observables can be understood on a microscopic level. Furthermore, we show that perturbative QCD interactions with a running coupling lead to a sufficiently small shear viscosity to entropy density ratio of the quark gluon plasma, which provides a microscopic explanation for the observations stated by hydrodynamic calculations.

General relativistic neutrino transport with spectral methods

Supernovae numerical simulations are highly demanding in computational power, yet they are also rapidly increasing in complexity. There is now a very high demand in new methods for neutrino treatment, due to the fact that neutrino is at the same time a crucial ingredient and the most expensive one in computational resources. A possibility to explore is the treatment by spectral methods, because they are known to require less resources. It is the purpose of a new code, named Lorene's Ghost (for Lorene's gravitational handling of spectral transport), developed to treat the problem of neutrino transport in supernovae. The code can handle full phase-space dependent problems (6D + time), retains the full energy dependence of the neutrinos, and can also handle general relativity in the conformally flat approximation. Several points of the formalism needed to obtain a formulation of the general relativistic Boltzmann equation adapted to our case are discussed, as well as some technical aspects of spectral methods.

Bianchi type-I magnetized cosmological models for the Einstein-Boltzmann equation with the cosmological constant

Global solutions regular for the Einstein-Boltzmann equation on a magnetized Bianchi type-I cosmological model with the cosmological constant are investigated. We suppose that the metric is locally rotationally symmetric. The Einstein-Boltzmann equation has been already considered by some authors. But, in general Bancel and Choquet-Bruhat [Ann. Henri Poincaré XVIII(3), 263 (1973); Commun. Math. Phys. 33, 83 (1973)], they proved only the local existence, and in the case of the nonrelativistic Boltzmann equation. Mucha [Global existence of solutions of the Einstein-Boltzmann equation in the spatially homogeneous case. Evolution equation, existence, regularity and singularities (Banach Center Publications, Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Science, 2000), Vol. 52] obtained a global existence result, for the relativistic Boltzmann equation coupled with the Einstein equations and using the Yosida operator, but confusing unfortunately with the nonrelativistic case. Noutchegueme and Dongho [Classical Quantum Gravity 23, 2979 (2006)] and Noutchegueme, Dongho, and Takou [Gen. Relativ. Gravitation 37, 2047 (2005)], have obtained a global solution in time, but still using the Yosida operator and considering only the uncharged case. Noutchegueme and Ayissi [Adv. Stud. Theor. Phys. 4, 855 (2010)] also proved a global existence of solutions to the Maxwell-Boltzmann system using the characteristic method. In this paper, we obtain using a method totally different from those used in the works of Noutchegueme and Dongho [Classical Quantum Gravity 23, 2979 (2006)], Noutchegueme, Dongho, and Takou [Gen. Relativ. Gravitation 37, 2047 (2005)], Noutchegueme and Ayissi [Adv. Stud. Theor. Phys. 4, 855 (2010)], and Mucha [Global existence of solutions of the Einstein-Boltzmann equation in the spatially homogeneous case. Evolution equation, existence, regularity and singularities (Banach Center Publications, Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Science, 2000), Vol. 52] the global in time existence and uniqueness of a regular solution to the Einstein-Maxwell-Boltzmann system with the cosmological constant. We define and we use the weighted Sobolev separable spaces for the Boltzmann equation; some special spaces for the Einstein equations, then we clearly display all the proofs leading to the global existence theorems.

THE GENERAL RELATIVISTIC EQUATIONS OF RADIATION HYDRODYNAMICS IN THE VISCOUS LIMIT

We present an analysis of the general relativistic Boltzmann equation for radiation, appropriate to the case where particles and photons interact through Thomson scattering, and derive the radiation energy-momentum tensor in the diffusion limit, with viscous terms included. Contrary to relativistic generalizations of the viscous stress tensor that appear in the literature, we find that the stress tensor should contain a correction to the comoving energy density proportional to the divergence of the four-velocity, as well as a finite bulk viscosity. These modifications are consistent with the framework of radiation hydrodynamics in the limit of large optical depth, and do not depend on thermodynamic arguments such as the assignment of a temperature to the zeroth-order photon distribution. We perform a perturbation analysis on our equations and demonstrate that, as long as the wave numbers do not probe scales smaller than the mean free path of the radiation, the viscosity contributes only decaying, i.e., stable, corrections to the dispersion relations. The astrophysical applications of our equations, including jets launched from super-Eddington tidal disruption events and those from collapsars, are discussed and will be considered further in future papers.

Electric conductivity from the solution of the relativistic Boltzmann equation

We present numerical results of electric conductivity ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\text{el}}$ of a fluid obtained solving the relativistic transport Boltzmann equation in a box with periodic boundary conditions. We compute ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\text{el}}$ using two methods: the definition itself, i.e., applying an external electric field, and the evaluation of the Green-Kubo relation based on the time evolution of the current-current correlator. We find a very good agreement between the two methods. We also compare numerical results with analytic formulas in relaxation time approximation (RTA) where the relaxation time for ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\text{el}}$ is determined by the transport cross section ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\text{tr}}$, i.e., the differential cross section weighted with the collisional momentum transfer. We investigate the electric conductivity dependence on the microscopic details of the two-body scatterings: isotropic and anisotropic cross section as well as massless and massive particles. We find that the RTA underestimates considerably ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\text{el}}$; for example, at screening masses ${m}_{D}\ensuremath{\sim}T$, such underestimation can be as large as a factor of 2. Furthermore, we study a more realistic case for a quark-gluon system (QGP) considering both a quasiparticle model tuned to lattice QCD (lQCD) thermodynamics, as well as the case of a perturbative QCD (pQCD) gas with running coupling. Also, for these cases more directly related to the description of the QGP system, we find that the RTA significantly underestimates the ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\text{el}}$ by about 60%--80%.

New exact solution of the relativistic Boltzmann equation and its hydrodynamic limit.

We present an exact solution of the relativistic Boltzmann equation for a system undergoing boost-invariant longitudinal and azimuthally symmetric transverse flow ("Gubser flow"). The resulting exact nonequilibrium dynamics is compared to first and second order relativistic hydrodynamic approximations for various shear viscosity to entropy density ratios. This novel solution can be used to test the validity and accuracy of different hydrodynamic approximations in conditions similar to those generated in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.

Electric conductivity of the quark-gluon plasma investigated using a perturbative QCD based parton cascade

Electric conductivity is sensitive to effective cross sections among the particles of the partonic medium. We investigate the electric conductivity of a hot plasma of quarks and gluons, solving the relativistic Boltzmann equation. In order to extract this transport coefficient, we employ the Green-Kubo formalism and, independently, a method motivated by the classical definition of electric conductivity. To this end we evaluate the static electric diffusion current upon the influence of an electric field. Both methods give identical results. For the first time, we obtain numerically the Drude electric conductivity formula for an ultrarelativistic gas of quarks and gluons employing constant isotropic binary cross sections. Furthermore, we extract the electric conductivity for a system of massless quarks and gluons including screened binary and inelastic, radiative $2\ensuremath{\leftrightarrow}3$ perturbative QCD scattering. Comparing with recent lattice results, we find an agreement in the temperature dependence of the conductivity.

Boltzmann equation solver adapted to emergent chemical non-equilibrium

We present a novel method to solve the spatially homogeneous and isotropic relativistic Boltzmann equation. We employ a basis set of orthogonal polynomials dynamically adapted to allow for emergence of chemical non-equilibrium. Two time dependent parameters characterize the set of orthogonal polynomials, the effective temperature T(t) and phase space occupation factor ϒ(t). In this first paper we address (effectively) massless fermions and derive dynamical equations for T(t) and ϒ(t) such that the zeroth order term of the basis alone captures the particle number density and energy density of each particle distribution. We validate our method and illustrate the reduced computational cost and the ability to easily represent final state chemical non-equilibrium by studying a model problem that is motivated by the physics of the neutrino freeze-out processes in the early Universe, where the essential physical characteristics include reheating from another disappearing particle component (e±-annihilation).

THREE-DIMENSIONAL BOLTZMANN HYDRO CODE FOR CORE COLLAPSE IN MASSIVE STARS. I. SPECIAL RELATIVISTIC TREATMENTS

We propose a novel numerical method for solving multi-dimensional, special relativistic Boltzmann equations for neutrinos coupled to hydrodynamics equations. It is meant to be applied to simulations of core-collapse supernovae. We handle special relativity in a non-conventional way, taking account of all orders of v/c. Consistent treatment of advection and collision terms in the Boltzmann equations is the source of difficulties, which we overcome by employing two different energy grids: Lagrangian remapped and laboratory fixed grids. We conduct a series of basic tests and perform a one-dimensional simulation of core-collapse, bounce and shock-stall for a 15M_{sun} progenitor model with a minimum but essential set of microphysics. We demonstrate in the latter simulation that our new code is capable of handling all phases in core-collapse supernova. For comparison, a non-relativistic simulation is also conducted with the same code, and we show that they produce qualitatively wrong results in neutrino transfer. Finally, we discuss a possible incorporation of general relativistic effects in our method.

BAMPS with the improved Gunion–Bertsch matrix element

Abstract Focusing on the simultaneous investigation of the hard and the soft regime of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, we present our recent results on the nuclear modification factor R AA and the elliptic flow v 2 within the partonic transport model BAMPS (Boltzmann Approach to Multi-Parton Scatterings). While using interactions provided by perturbative QCD, BAMPS allows the full 3+1D simulation of the quark–gluon plasma (QGP) at the microscopic level by solving the relativistic Boltzmann equation for quarks and gluons. The microscopic interactions include both elastic 2 → 2 collisions, calculated by screened leading order pQCD matrix elements, and inelastic 2 ↔ 3 processes, calculated within an improved Gunion–Bertsch approximation. Furthermore, for all partonic processes a microscopic, running coupling is explicitly taken into account. We show that when fixing the parameter X LPM resulting from the effective modeling of the Landau–Pomeranchuk–Migdal effect, we find not only a good description of R AA at both RHIC and LHC, but also a sizable elliptic flow is built up within the partonic phase.