51 research outputs found
Celebrating Cercignani's conjecture for the Boltzmann equation
Cercignani's conjecture assumes a linear inequality between the entropy and
entropy production functionals for Boltzmann's nonlinear integral operator in
rarefied gas dynamics. Related to the field of logarithmic Sobolev inequalities
and spectral gap inequalities, this issue has been at the core of the renewal
of the mathematical theory of convergence to thermodynamical equilibrium for
rarefied gases over the past decade. In this review paper, we survey the
various positive and negative results which were obtained since the conjecture
was proposed in the 1980s.Comment: This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Carlo Cercignani,
powerful mind and great scientist, one of the founders of the modern theory
of the Boltzmann equation. 24 pages. V2: correction of some typos and one
ref. adde
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