Sunday, August 7, 2016

statistical mechanics - Is the Maxwell distribution a solution of the Boltzmann equation?


I am studying about the Boltzmann Equation for non-equilibrium rarefied gases (dilute gases to be more specific): $$\frac{\partial f}{\partial t}+\pmb{v}\cdot\nabla_{\pmb{x}}f=Q(f,f)$$


My question is this: is the Maxwell distribution a solution of the equation above?



Answer



It has to be, because the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution is the maximum entropy distribution. If your model does not allow relaxation to the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution it is in conflict with the second law of thermodynamics.



No comments:

Post a Comment

classical mechanics - Moment of a force about a given axis (Torque) - Scalar or vectorial?

I am studying Statics and saw that: The moment of a force about a given axis (or Torque) is defined by the equation: $M_X = (\vec r \times \...