This paper deals with solutions of the nonlinear Boltzmann equation for
spatially uniform freely cooling inelastic Maxwell models for large times and
for large velocities, and the nonuniform convergence to these limits. We
demonstrate how the velocity distribution approaches in the scaling limit to a
similarity solution with a power law tail for general classes of initial
conditions and derive a transcendental equation from which the exponents in the
tails can be calculated. Moreover on the basis of the available analytic and
numerical results for inelastic hard spheres and inelastic Maxwell models we
formulate a conjecture on the approach of the velocity distribution function to
a scaling form.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. Accepted in J. Statistical Physic
