Uniform convergence to equilibrium for granular media

We study the long time asymptotics of a nonlinear, nonlocal equation used in the modelling of granular media. We prove a uniform exponential convergence to equilibrium for degenerately convex and non convex interaction or confinement potentials, improving in particular results by J. A. Carrillo, R. J. McCann and C. Villani. The method is based on studying the dissipation of the Wasserstein distance between a solution and the steady state

Contractive metrics for scalar conservation laws

We consider nondecreasing entropy solutions to 1-d scalar conservation laws and show that the spatial derivatives of such solutions satisfy a contraction property with respect to the Wasserstein distance of any order. This result extends the L^1-contraction property shown by Kruzkov

A new approach to quantitative propagation of chaos for drift, diffusion and jump processes

This paper is devoted the the study of the mean field limit for many-particle systems undergoing jump, drift or diffusion processes, as well as combinations of them. The main results are quantitative estimates on the decay of fluctuations around the deterministic limit and of correlations between particles, as the number of particles goes to infinity. To this end we introduce a general functional framework which reduces this question to the one of proving a purely functional estimate on some abstract generator operators (consistency estimate) together with fine stability estimates on the flow of the limiting nonlinear equation (stability estimates). Then we apply this method to a Boltzmann collision jump process (for Maxwell molecules), to a McKean-Vlasov drift-diffusion process and to an inelastic Boltzmann collision jump process with (stochastic) thermal bath. To our knowledge, our approach yields the first such quantitative results for a combination of jump and diffusion processes.Comment: v2 (55 pages): many improvements on the presentation, v3: correction of a few typos, to appear In Probability Theory and Related Field

Structure preserving schemes for mean-field equations of collective behavior

In this paper we consider the development of numerical schemes for mean-field equations describing the collective behavior of a large group of interacting agents. The schemes are based on a generalization of the classical Chang-Cooper approach and are capable to preserve the main structural properties of the systems, namely nonnegativity of the solution, physical conservation laws, entropy dissipation and stationary solutions. In particular, the methods here derived are second order accurate in transient regimes whereas they can reach arbitrary accuracy asymptotically for large times. Several examples are reported to show the generality of the approach.Comment: Proceedings of the XVI International Conference on Hyperbolic Problem

An exact solution of the inelastic Boltzmann equation for the Couette flow with uniform heat flux

In the steady Couette flow of a granular gas the sign of the heat flux gradient is governed by the competition between viscous heating and inelastic cooling. We show from the Boltzmann equation for inelastic Maxwell particles that a special class of states exists where the viscous heating and the inelastic cooling exactly compensate each other at every point, resulting in a uniform heat flux. In this state the (reduced) shear rate is enslaved to the coefficient of restitution $\alpha$, so that the only free parameter is the (reduced) thermal gradient $\epsilon$. It turns out that the reduced moments of order $k$ are polynomials of degree $k-2$ in $\epsilon$, with coefficients that are nonlinear functions of $\alpha$. In particular, the rheological properties ($k=2$) are independent of $\epsilon$ and coincide exactly with those of the simple shear flow. The heat flux ($k=3$) is linear in the thermal gradient (generalized Fourier's law), but with an effective thermal conductivity differing from the Navier--Stokes one. In addition, a heat flux component parallel to the flow velocity and normal to the thermal gradient exists. The theoretical predictions are validated by comparison with direct Monte Carlo simulations for the same model.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures,1 table; v2: minor change

Dimension dependent hypercontractivity for Gaussian kernels

We derive sharp, local and dimension dependent hypercontractive bounds on the Markov kernel of a large class of diffusion semigroups. Unlike the dimension free ones, they capture refined properties of Markov kernels, such as trace estimates. They imply classical bounds on the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck semigroup and a dimensional and refined (transportation) Talagrand inequality when applied to the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. Hypercontractive bounds on the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck semigroup driven by a non-diffusive L\'evy semigroup are also investigated. Curvature-dimension criteria are the main tool in the analysis.Comment: 24 page

Collisional rates for the inelastic Maxwell model: application to the divergence of anisotropic high-order velocity moments in the homogeneous cooling state

The collisional rates associated with the isotropic velocity moments $$and the anisotropic moments$$ and $$ are exactly derived in the case of the inelastic Maxwell model as functions of the exponent $r$, the coefficient of restitution $\alpha$, and the dimensionality $d$. The results are applied to the evolution of the moments in the homogeneous free cooling state. It is found that, at a given value of $\alpha$, not only the isotropic moments of a degree higher than a certain value diverge but also the anisotropic moments do. This implies that, while the scaled distribution function has been proven in the literature to converge to the isotropic self-similar solution in well-defined mathematical terms, nonzero initial anisotropic moments do not decay with time. On the other hand, our results show that the ratio between an anisotropic moment and the isotropic moment of the same degree tends to zero.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures; v2: clarification of some mathematical statements and addition of 7 new references; v3: Published in "Special Issue: Isaac Goldhirsch - A Pioneer of Granular Matter Theory

Tanaka Theorem for Inelastic Maxwell Models

We show that the Euclidean Wasserstein distance is contractive for inelastic homogeneous Boltzmann kinetic equations in the Maxwellian approximation and its associated Kac-like caricature. This property is as a generalization of the Tanaka theorem to inelastic interactions. Consequences are drawn on the asymptotic behavior of solutions in terms only of the Euclidean Wasserstein distance

Propagation of chaos for rank-based interacting diffusions and long time behaviour of a scalar quasilinear parabolic equation

We study a quasilinear parabolic Cauchy problem with a cumulative distribution function on the real line as an initial condition. We call 'probabilistic solution' a weak solution which remains a cumulative distribution function at all times. We prove the uniqueness of such a solution and we deduce the existence from a propagation of chaos result on a system of scalar diffusion processes, the interactions of which only depend on their ranking. We then investigate the long time behaviour of the solution. Using a probabilistic argument and under weak assumptions, we show that the flow of the Wasserstein distance between two solutions is contractive. Under more stringent conditions ensuring the regularity of the probabilistic solutions, we finally derive an explicit formula for the time derivative of the flow and we deduce the convergence of solutions to equilibrium.Comment: Stochastic partial differential equations: analysis and computations (2013) http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40072-013-0014-

Probabilistic study of the speed of approach to equilibrium for an inelastic Kac model

This paper deals with a one--dimensional model for granular materials, which boils down to an inelastic version of the Kac kinetic equation, with inelasticity parameter $p>0$. In particular, the paper provides bounds for certain distances -- such as specific weighted $\chi$--distances and the Kolmogorov distance -- between the solution of that equation and the limit. It is assumed that the even part of the initial datum (which determines the asymptotic properties of the solution) belongs to the domain of normal attraction of a symmetric stable distribution with characteristic exponent \a=2/(1+p). With such initial data, it turns out that the limit exists and is just the aforementioned stable distribution. A necessary condition for the relaxation to equilibrium is also proved. Some bounds are obtained without introducing any extra--condition. Sharper bounds, of an exponential type, are exhibited in the presence of additional assumptions concerning either the behaviour, near to the origin, of the initial characteristic function, or the behaviour, at infinity, of the initial probability distribution function