On measure solutions of the Boltzmann equation, Part II: Rate of convergence to equilibrium

The paper considers the convergence to equilibrium for measure solutions of the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation for hard potentials with angular cutoff. We prove the exponential sharp rate of strong convergence to equilibrium for conservative measure solutions having finite mass and energy. The proof is based on the regularizing property of the iterated collision operators, exponential moment production estimates, and some previous results on the exponential rate of strong convergence to equilibrium for square integrable initial data. We also obtain a lower bound of the convergence rate and deduce that no eternal solutions exist apart from the trivial stationary solutions given by the Maxwellian equilibrium. We finally use these convergence rates in order to deduce global-in-time strong stability of measure solutions. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 35Q Equations of mathematical physics and other areas of application [See also 35J05, 35J10, 35K05, 35L05], 76P05 Rarefied gas flows, Boltzmann equation [See also 82B40, 82C40, 82D05].