Wigner-Eckart Factorization of the Spectral Boltzmann Collision Operator

Abstract

We reduce the eight-dimensional weak form of the bilinear Boltzmann collision operator to a five-dimensional kinematic core by rigidly rotating the laboratory frame to align with the colliding pair and integrating over the $\mathrm{SO}(3)$ rotation group. This reduction yields an exact Wigner--Eckart factorization within a spectral Galerkin framework of associated Laguerre polynomials and spherical harmonics. The decomposition decouples the angular geometry from the scattering physics. The former, represented by Clebsch--Gordan coefficients, is evaluated exactly, while the latter is evaluated to machine precision by a spectrally convergent singular quadrature strategy. By explicitly zeroing specific entries, the macroscopic collision invariants are embedded without approximation. Cache-optimized contractions deliver up to a 37-fold single-core speedup and a 1000-fold memory reduction over standard dense Cartesian formulations. The approach is validated against analytical solutions for Maxwell molecules and infinite-order Chapman--Enskog viscosity coefficients for hard spheres.