Exponential stability of slowly decaying solutions to the kinetic Fokker-Planck equation

The aim of the present paper is twofold:(1) We carry on with developing an abstract method for deriving decay estimates on the semigroup associated to non-symmetric operators in Banach spaces as introduced in [10]. We extend the method so as to consider the shrinkage of the functional space. Roughly speaking, we consider a class of operators writing as a dissipative part plus a mild perturbation, and we prove that if the associated semigroup satisfies a decay estimate in some reference space then it satisfies the same decay estimate in another-smaller or larger-Banach space under the condition that a certain iterate of the "mild perturba- tion" part of the operator combined with the dissipative part of the semigroup maps the larger space to the smaller space in a bounded way. The cornerstone of our approach is a factorization argument, reminiscent of the Dyson series.(2) We apply this method to the kinetic Fokker-Planck equation when the spatial domain is either the torus with periodic boundary conditions, or the whole space with a confinement potential. We then obtain spectral gap es- timates for the associated semigroup for various metrics, including Lebesgue norms, negative Sobolev norms, and the Monge-Kantorovich-Wasserstein distance W\_1.Comment: Some typos corrected, proof of Lemma 4.7 only sketched to shorten the paper, 41 page

Lyapunov functionals for boundary-driven nonlinear drift-diffusions

We exhibit a large class of Lyapunov functionals for nonlinear drift-diffusion equations with non-homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. These are generalizations of large deviation functionals for underlying stochastic many-particle systems, the zero range process and the Ginzburg-Landau dynamics, which we describe briefly. As an application, we prove linear inequalities between such an entropy-like functional and its entropy production functional for the boundary-driven porous medium equation in a bounded domain with positive Dirichlet conditions: this implies exponential rates of relaxation related to the first Dirichlet eigenvalue of the domain. We also derive Lyapunov functions for systems of nonlinear diffusion equations, and for nonlinear Markov processes with non-reversible stationary measures

Quantitative perturbative study of convergence to equilibrium for collisional kinetic models in the torus

For a general class of linear collisional kinetic models in the torus, including in particular the linearized Boltzmann equation for hard spheres, the linearized Landau equation with hard and moderately soft potentials and the semi-classical linearized fermionic and bosonic relaxation models, we prove explicit coercivity estimates on the associated integro-differential operator for some modified Sobolev norms. We deduce existence of classical solutions near equilibrium for the full non-linear models associated, with explicit regularity bounds, and we obtain explicit estimates on the rate of exponential convergence towards equilibrium in this perturbative setting. The proof are based on a linear energy method which combines the coercivity property of the collision operator in the velocity space with transport effects, in order to deduce coercivity estimates in the whole phase space

About L-P estimates for the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation

For the homogeneous Boltzmann equation with (cutoff or non cutoff) hard potentials, we prove estimates of propagation of Lp norms with a weight $(1+ |x|^2)^q/2$ ($1 < p < +\infty$, $q \in \R\_+$ large enough), as well as appearance of such weights. The proof is based on some new functional inequalities for the collision operator, proven by elementary means

On measure solutions of the Boltzmann equation, part I: Moment production and stability estimates

The spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation with hard potentials is considered for measure valued initial data having finite mass and energy. We prove the existence of \emph{weak measure solutions}, with and without angular cutoff on the collision kernel; the proof in particular makes use of an approximation argument based on the Mehler transform. Moment production estimates in the usual form and in the exponential form are obtained for these solutions. Finally for the Grad angular cutoff, we also establish uniqueness and strong stability estimate on these solutions

On the Mean Field and Classical Limits of Quantum Mechanics

The main result in this paper is a new inequality bearing on solutions of the $N$-body linear Schr\"{o}dinger equation and of the mean field Hartree equation. This inequality implies that the mean field limit of the quantum mechanics of $N$ identical particles is uniform in the classical limit and provides a quantitative estimate of the quality of the approximation. This result applies to the case of $C^{1,1}$ interaction potentials. The quantity measuring the approximation of the $N$-body quantum dynamics by its mean field limit is analogous to the Monge-Kantorovich (or Wasserstein) distance with exponent $2$. The inequality satisfied by this quantity is reminiscent of the work of Dobrushin on the mean field limit in classical mechanics [Func. Anal. Appl. 13 (1979), 115-123]. Our approach of this problem is based on a direct analysis of the $N$-particle Liouville equation, and avoids using techniques based on the BBGKY hierarchy or on second quantization

Cooling process for inelastic Boltzmann equations for hard spheres, Part II: Self-similar solutions and tail behavior

We consider the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation for inelastic hard spheres, in the framework of so-called constant normal restitution coefficients. We prove the existence of self-similar solutions, and we give pointwise estimates on their tail. We also give general estimates on the tail and the regularity of generic solutions. In particular we prove Haff 's law on the rate of decay of temperature, as well as the algebraic decay of singularities. The proofs are based on the regularity study of a rescaled problem, with the help of the regularity properties of the gain part of the Boltzmann collision integral, well-known in the elastic case, and which are extended here in the context of granular gases.Comment: 41 page

Approach to equilibrium for the phonon Boltzmann equation

We study the asymptotics of solutions of the Boltzmann equation describing the kinetic limit of a lattice of classical interacting anharmonic oscillators. We prove that, if the initial condition is a small perturbation of an equilibrium state, and vanishes at infinity, the dynamics tends diffusively to equilibrium. The solution is the sum of a local equilibrium state, associated to conserved quantities that diffuse to zero, and fast variables that are slaved to the slow ones. This slaving implies the Fourier law, which relates the induced currents to the gradients of the conserved quantities.Comment: 23 page

Quantitative lower bounds for the full Boltzmann equation, Part I: Periodic boundary conditions

We prove the appearance of an explicit lower bound on the solution to the full Boltzmann equation in the torus for a broad family of collision kernels including in particular long-range interaction models, under the assumption of some uniform bounds on some hydrodynamic quantities. This lower bound is independent of time and space. When the collision kernel satisfies Grad's cutoff assumption, the lower bound is a global Maxwellian and its asymptotic behavior in velocity is optimal, whereas for non-cutoff collision kernels the lower bound we obtain decreases exponentially but faster than the Maxwellian. Our results cover solutions constructed in a spatially homogeneous setting, as well as small-time or close-to-equilibrium solutions to the full Boltzmann equation in the torus. The constants are explicit and depend on the a priori bounds on the solution.Comment: 37 page

Towards an HH-theorem for granular gases

The $H$-theorem, originally derived at the level of Boltzmann non-linear kinetic equation for a dilute gas undergoing elastic collisions, strongly constrains the velocity distribution of the gas to evolve irreversibly towards equilibrium. As such, the theorem could not be generalized to account for dissipative systems: the conservative nature of collisions is an essential ingredient in the standard derivation. For a dissipative gas of grains, we construct here a simple functional $\mathcal H$ related to the original $H$, that can be qualified as a Lyapunov functional. It is positive, and results backed by three independent simulation approaches (a deterministic spectral method, the stochastic Direct Simulation Monte Carlo technique, and Molecular Dynamics) indicate that it is also non-increasing. Both driven and unforced cases are investigated