Convergence to Global Equilibrium for Spatially Inhomogeneous Kinetic Models of Non-Micro-Reversible Processes

Abstract.

We study the long-time asymptotics of linear kinetic models with periodic boundary conditions or in a rectangular box with specular reflection boundary conditions. An entropy dissipation approach is used to prove decay to the global equilibrium under some additional assumptions on the equilibrium distribution of the mass preserving scattering operator. We prove convergence at an algebraic rate depending on the smoothness of the solution. This result is compared to the optimal result derived by spectral methods in a simple one dimensional example.