Dynamics of annihilation. I. Linearized Boltzmann equation and hydrodynamics

Stability analysis of the homogeneous hydrodynamics of a model for a confined granular gas

The linear hydrodynamic stability of a model for confined quasi-two-dimensional granular gases is analyzed. The system exhibits homogeneous hydrodynamics, i.e., there are macroscopic evolution equations for homogeneous states. The stability analysis is carried out around all these states and not only the homogeneous steady state reached eventually by the system. It is shown that in some cases the linear analysis is not enough to reach a definite conclusion on the stability, and molecular dynamics simulation results are presented to elucidate these cases. The analysis shows the relevance of nonlinear hydrodynamic contributions to describe the behavior of spontaneous fluctuations occurring in the system, that lead even to the transitory formation of clusters of particles. The conclusion is that the system is always stable. The relevance of the results for describing the instabilities of confined granular gases observed experimentally is discussed.

Brownian motion under annihilation dynamics

The behavior of a heavy tagged intruder immersed in a bath of particles evolving under ballistic annihilation dynamics is investigated. The Fokker-Planck equation for this system is derived and the peculiarities of the corresponding diffusive behavior are worked out. In the long time limit, the intruder velocity distribution function approaches a Gaussian form, but with a different temperature from its bath counterpart. As a consequence of the continuous decay of particles in the bath, the mean-squared displacement increases exponentially in the collision per particle time scale. Analytical results are finally successfully tested against Monte Carlo numerical simulations.

Dynamics of annihilation. II. Fluctuations of global quantities

We develop a theory for fluctuations and correlations in a gas evolving under ballistic annihilation dynamics. Starting from the hierarchy of equations governing the evolution of microscopic densities in phase space, we subsequently restrict our attention to a regime of spatial homogeneity, and obtain explicit predictions for the fluctuations and time correlation of the total number of particles, total linear momentum, and total kinetic energy. Cross correlations between these quantities are worked out as well. These predictions are successfully tested against molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations. This provides strong support for the theoretical approach developed, including the hydrodynamic treatment of the spectrum of the linearized Boltzmann operator. This paper makes use of the spectral analysis reported in the preceding paper [Phys. Rev. E 77, 051127 (2008)].