Probability distribution for the relative velocity of colliding particles in a relativistic classical gas
Abstract
We find the probability density function 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 . 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 , when at least for one of the two particles the ratio of the rest energy over the thermal energy 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