Beyond the relaxation time approximation

Abstract

The relaxation time approximation (RTA) is a well known method of describing the time evolution of a statistical ensemble by linking distributions of the variables of interest at different stages of their temporal evolution. We show that if all the distributions occurring in the RTA have the same functional form of a quasi-power Tsallis distribution the time evolution of which depends on the time evolution of its control parameter, nonextensivity $q(t)$, then it is more convenient to consider only the time evolution of this control parameter.