We show that the widely used relaxation time approximation to the relativistic Boltzmann equation contains basic flaws, being incompatible with microscopic and macroscopic conservation laws. We propose a new approximation that fixes such fundamental issues and maintains the basic properties of the linearized Boltzmann collision operator. We show how this correction affects transport coefficients, such as the bulk viscosity and particle diffusion.
We investigate the transport properties of a kinetic theory model that is tuned to describe the thermodynamic properties of QCD at zero chemical potential using a new formulation of the relaxation time approximation. In contrast to previous approaches, the latter is constructed to preserve the fundamental properties of the collision term of the Boltzmann equation for any energy-dependence of the relaxation time. A novel choice of matching conditions is implemented to ensure that the background mean-field depends only on the temperature even when the system is out of equilibrium. We provide a c…
We consider a momentum dependent relaxation time for the Boltzmann equation in the relaxation time approximation. We employ a power law parametrization for the momentum dependence of the relaxation time, and calculate the shear and bulk viscosity, as well as, the charge and heat conductivity. We show, that for the two popular parametrizations, referred to as the linear and quadratic ansatz, one can obtain transport coefficients which corresponds to the weak and strong coupling regimes, respectively. We also show that, for a system of massless particles with vanishing chemical potential, the of…
We present an exact solution of the relativistic Boltzmann equation for a system undergoing boost-invariant longitudinal and azimuthally symmetric transverse flow ("Gubser flow"). The resulting exact non-equilibrium dynamics is compared to 1st- and 2nd-order relativistic hydrodynamic approximations for various shear viscosity to entropy density ratios. This novel solution can be used to test the validity and accuracy of different hydrodynamic approximations in conditions similar to those generated in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.
We present new analytic solutions to the relativistic Boltzmann equation within the relaxation time approximation. We first obtain spherically expanding solutions which are the kinetic counterparts of the exact solutions of the Israel-Stewart equation in the literature. This allows us to compare the solutions of the kinetic and hydrodynamic equations at an analytical level. We then derive a novel boost-invariant solution of the Boltzmann equation which has an unconventional dependence on the proper time. The existence of such a solution is also suggested in second order hydrodynamics and fluid…
Starting from the Maxwell-Juettner equilibrium distribution, we develop a relativistic lattice Boltzmann (LB) algorithm capable of handling ultrarelativistic systems with flat, but expanding, spacetimes. The algorithm is validated through simulations of quark-gluon plasma, yielding excellent agreement with hydrodynamic simulations. The present scheme opens the possibility of transferring the recognized computational advantages of lattice kinetic theory to the context of both weakly and ultra-relativistic systems.
Generalizing the collision term in the relativistic Boltzmann equation to include nonlocal effects, and using Grad's 14-moment approximation for the single-particle distribution function, we derive evolution equations for the relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics and compare them with the corresponding equations obtained in the standard Israel-Stewart and related approaches. Significance of this generalization on hydrodynamic evolution is demonstrated in the framework of one-dimensional scaling expansion.
In this work we present a general derivation of relativistic fluid dynamics from the Boltzmann equation using the method of moments. The main difference between our approach and the traditional 14-moment approximation is that we will not close the fluid-dynamical equations of motion by truncating the expansion of the distribution function. Instead, we keep all terms in the moment expansion. The reduction of the degrees of freedom is done by identifying the microscopic time scales of the Boltzmann equation and considering only the slowest ones. In addition, the equations of motion for the dissi…
The relativistic Boltzmann equation for a single particle species generally implies a fixed, unchangeable equation of state that corresponds to that of an ideal gas. Real-world systems typically have more complicated equation of state which cannot be described by the Boltzmann equation. The present work derives a 'Boltzmann-like' equation that gives rise to a conserved energy-momentum tensor with an arbitrary (but thermodynamically consistent) equation of state. Using this, a Lattice Boltzmann scheme for diagonal metric tensors and arbitrary equations of state is constructed. The scheme is ver…
We derive the non-equilibrium single-particle momentum distribution function of a hadron resonance gas. We then study the effects that this newly derived expression can have in the freeze-out description of fluid-dynamical models of heavy ion collisions and compare it with the method traditionally employed, the 14-moment approximation.
Starting from Boltzmann equation with relaxation time approximation for the collision term and using Chapman-Enskog like expansion for distribution function close to equilibrium, we derive hydrodynamic evolution equations for the dissipative quantities directly from their definition. Although the form of the equations is identical to those obtained in traditional Israel-Stewart approaches employing Grad's 14-moment approximation and second moment of Boltzmann equation, the coefficients obtained are different. In the case of one-dimensional scaling expansion, we demonstrate that our results are…
This Thesis concentrates on the analysis of coupled RTA (relaxation time approximation) kinetic equations for bosons and fermions. Bosons are treated as massless particles, while fermions have a finite mass. Using analytic and numerical methods we find exact solutions for such a mixture in the case of one-dimensional, boost-invariant expansion (for systems which are transversally homogeneous). In this way, several earlier results obtained for one-component systems and classical particles are generalized.
Several recent results are reported from work aiming to improve the quantitative precision of relativistic viscous fluid dynamics for relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The dense matter created in such collisions expands in a highly anisotropic manner. Due to viscous effects this also renders the local momentum distribution anisotropic. Optimized hydrodynamic approaches account for these anisotropies already at leading order in a gradient expansion. Recently discovered exact solutions of the relativistic Boltzmann equation in anisotropically expanding systems provide a powerful testbed for suc…
We derive the Boltzmann equation and the collision kernel for massive spin-1/2 particles, using the Wigner-function formalism and employing an expansion in powers of $\hbar$. The phase space is enlarged to include a variable related to the spin degrees of freedom. This allows to reduce the transport equations of the independent components of the Wigner function to one scalar equation. To next-to-leading order in $\hbar$, we find that the collision kernel contains both local and nonlocal terms. We show that off-shell contributions cancel in the Boltzmann equation. Our framework can be used to s…
For a massless gas with constant cross section in a homogeneous, isotropically expanding spacetime we reformulate the relativistic Boltzmann equation as a set of non-linear coupled moment equations. For a particular initial condition this set can be solved exactly, yielding the first analytical solution of the Boltzmann equation for an expanding system. The non-equilibrium behavior of this relativistic gas can be mapped onto that of a homogeneous, static non-relativistic gas of Maxwell molecules.
We derive multicomponent relativistic second-order dissipative fluid dynamics from the Boltzmann equations for a reactive mixture of $N_{\text{spec}}$ particle species with $N_q$ intrinsic quantum numbers (e.g. electric charge, baryon number, and strangeness) using the method of moments. We obtain the continuity equations for multiple conserved charges as well as the conservation equations for the total energy and momentum in the single-fluid approximation. These $4+N_q$ conservation laws are closed by deriving the second-order equations of motion for the dissipative quantities in the $(10+4N_…
Models of relativistic heavy ion collisions typically involve both a hydrodynamic module to describe the high density liquid-like phase and a Boltzmann module to simulate the low density break-up phase which is gas-like. Coupling the prescriptions is more complicated for viscous prescriptions if one wants to maintain continuity of the entire stress-energy tensor and currents. Derivations for the viscosity for a gas are reviewed, which then lead to expressions for changes in the phase space occupation based on simple relaxation-time pictures of viscosity. These expressions are shown to consiste…
Big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is valuable as a means to constrain the physics of the early universe and it is the only probe of the radiation-dominated epoch. A fundamental assumption in BBN is that the nuclear velocity distributions obey Maxwell-Boltzmann (MB) statistics as they do in stars. Specifically, the BBN epoch is characterized by a dilute baryon plasma for which the velocity distribution of nuclei is mainly determined by the dominant Coulomb elastic scattering with mildly relativistic electrons. One must therefore deduce the momentum distribution for reacting nuclei from the multi-c…
We have developed a numerical framework for a full solution of the relativistic Boltzmann equations for the quark-gluon matter using the multiple Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) on distributed clusters. Including all the $2 \to 2$ scattering processes of 3-flavor quarks and gluons, we compute the time evolution of distribution functions in both coordinate and momentum spaces for the cases of pure gluons, quarks and the mixture of quarks and gluons. By introducing a symmetrical sampling method on GPUs which ensures the particle number conservation, our framework is able to perform the space-ti…
We derive the spin Boltzmann equations for spin-1/2 fermions in a non-relativistic model with four-fermion contact interaction which conserves spin degrees of freedom. A great advantage of the model is that the spin matrix elements in collision terms can be completely worked out and be put into such a compact form that one can clearly see how spins are coupled in particle scatterings. A semi-classical expansion in the Planck constant has been made and the on-shell part of the spin Boltzmann equation up to the next-to-leading order is derived. At the leading order the equilibrium spin distribut…
We derive the second-order hydrodynamic equation and the microscopic formulae of the relaxation times as well as the transport coefficients systematically from the relativistic Boltzmann equation. Our derivation is based on a novel development of the renormalization-group method, a powerful reduction theory of dynamical systems, which has been applied successfully to derive the non-relativistic second-order hydrodynamic equation Our theory nicely gives a compact expression of the deviation of the distribution function in terms of the linearized collision operator, which is different from those…
We present an exact solution to the Boltzmann equation which describes a system undergoing boost-invariant longitudinal and azimuthally symmetric radial expansion for arbitrary shear viscosity to entropy density ratio. This new solution is constructed by considering the conformal map between Minkowski space and the direct product of three dimensional de Sitter space with a line. The resulting solution respects SO(3)_q x SO(1,1) x Z_2 symmetry. We compare the exact kinetic solution with exact solutions of the corresponding macroscopic equations that were obtained from the kinetic theory in idea…
