Nontrivial Velocity Distributions in Inelastic Gases

Abstract

We study freely evolving and forced inelastic gases using the Boltzmann equation. We consider uniform collision rates and obtain analytical results valid for arbitrary spatial dimension d and arbitrary dissipation coefficient epsilon. In the freely evolving case, we find that the velocity distribution decays algebraically, P(v,t) ~ v^{-sigma} for sufficiently large velocities. We derive the exponent sigma(d,epsilon), which exhibits nontrivial dependence on both d and epsilon, exactly. In the forced case, the velocity distribution approaches a steady-state with a Gaussian large velocity tail.

4 pages, 1 figure