English

Ill-posedness of the Boltzmann-BGK model in the exponential class

Analysis of PDEs 2026-03-05 v3

Abstract

BGK (Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook) model is a relaxation-type model of the Boltzmann equation, which is popularly used in place of the Boltzmann equation in physics and engineering. In this paper, we address the ill-posedness problem for the BGK model, in which the solution instantly escapes the initial solution space. For this, we propose two ill-posedness scenarios, namely, the homogeneous and the inhomogeneous ill-posedness mechanisms. In the former case, we find a class of spatially homogeneous solutions to the BGK model, where removing the small velocity part of the initial data triggers ill-posedness by increasing temperature. For the latter, we construct a spatially inhomogeneous solution to the BGK model such that the local temperature constructed from the solution has a polynomial growth in spatial variable. These ill-posedness properties for the BGK model pose a stark contrast with the Boltzmann equation for which the solution map is, at least for a finite time, stable in the corresponding solution spaces.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2408.08163,
  title  = {Ill-posedness of the Boltzmann-BGK model in the exponential class},
  author = {Donghyun Lee and Sungbin Park and Seok-Bae Yun},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.08163},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Revised version, 83 pages, 1 figures, accepted in Arch. Rational Mech. Anal