Hydrodynamics for a granular gas from an exactly solvable kinetic model

Abstract

A simple exactly solvable kinetic model for the non-linear inelastic hard sphere Boltzmann equation is used to explore the relevance of hydrodynamics for a granular gas. The equation predicts a non-trivial homogeneous cooling state (HCS), including algebraic decay at large velocities. The linearized kinetic equation for small perturbations about the HCS is solved exactly. It is shown that the hydrodynamic excitations exist in this linearized dynamics, and their detailed form is shown to agree with results from the Chapman-Enskog method up through Navier-Stokes order. The existence of the hydrodynamic modes at short wavelengths, far beyond Navier-Stokes order is demonstrated as well. Finally, the precise sense in which the hydrodynamic excitations dominate the dynamics at long times is described.