English

Probability distribution for the relative velocity of colliding particles in a relativistic classical gas

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2014-06-02 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Mathematical Physics math.MP Nuclear Theory

Abstract

We find the probability density function P(Vr)\mathcal{P}(V_{\texttt{r}}) of the relativistic relative velocity for two colliding particles in a non-degenerate relativistic gas. The distribution reduces to Maxwell distribution for the relative velocity in the non-relativistic limit. We find an exact formula for the mean value Vr\langle V_{\texttt{r}}\rangle. The mean velocity tends to the Maxwell's value in the non-relativistic limit and to the velocity of light in the ultra-relativistic limit. At a given temperature TT, when at least for one of the two particles the ratio of the rest energy over the thermal energy mc2/kBTm c^2/k_B T is smaller than 40 the Maxwell distribution is inadequate.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1311.4494,
  title  = {Probability distribution for the relative velocity of colliding particles in a relativistic classical gas},
  author = {M. Cannoni},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1311.4494},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

5 pages, 2 figures. V2: text revised. Part of this material is published in Phys. Rev. D 89, 103533 (2014) in a merged version with arXiv:1311.4508