Asymptotic Velocity Profiles for Homoenergetic Rayleigh-Boltzmann Flows under Dominant Shear

Abstract

In this paper, we study a particular class of solutions to the Rayleigh--Boltzmann equation, known in the nonlinear setting as \emph{homoenergetic solutions}. These solutions take the form $ g(x, v, t) = f(v - L(t)x, t),$ where the matrix $L(t)$ represents a shear flow deformation. We began our analysis in \cite{MNV}, where we rigorously proved the existence of a stationary non-equilibrium solution and established different behaviours of the solutions depending on the size of the shear parameter, for cut-off collision kernels with homogeneity parameter $0 \leq \gamma < 1$, thus including Maxwell molecules and hard potentials. In the present work, we focus on the regime in which the deformation term dominates the collision term for large times (hyperbolic-dominated regime). This scenario occurs for collision kernels with $\gamma < 0$; in particular, we focus on the range $\gamma \in (-1, 0)$. In this regime, it is challenging to obtain a clear and direct description of the long-time asymptotic behaviour of the solutions. Here we present a formal analysis of the velocity distribution's long-time asymptotics and derive for the first time the explicit form of the corresponding asymptotic profile. We also discuss the different asymptotic behaviour expected in the case of homogeneity $\gamma < -1$. In addition, we provide a probabilistic interpretation involving a stochastic process combining collisions with shear flow. The tagged particle velocity $\{v(t)\}_{t\geq 0}$ is a Markov process that arises from the combination of free flights in a shear flow along with random jumps caused by collisions.