Fluid Dynamic Limits of the Kinetic Theory of Gases

These three lectures introduce the reader to recent progress on the hydrodynamic limits of the kinetic theory of gases. Lecture 1 outlines the main mathematical results in this direction, and explains in particular how the Euler or NavierStokes equations for compressible as well as incompressible fluids, can be derived from the Boltzmann equation. It also presents the notion of renormalized solution of the Boltzmann equation, due to P.-L. Lions and R. DiPerna, together with the mathematical methods used in the proofs of the fluid dynamic limits. Lecture 2 gives a detailed account of the derivation by L. Saint-Raymond of the incompressible Euler equations from the BGK model with constant collision frequency [L. Saint-Raymond, Bull. Sci. Math. 126 (2002), 493–506]. Finally, lecture 3 sketches the main steps in the proof of the incompressible Navier-Stokes limit of the Boltzmann equation, connecting the DiPerna-Lions theory of renormalized solutions of the Boltzmann equation with Leray’s theory of weak solutions of the Navier-Stokes system, following [F. Golse, L. Saint-Raymond, J. Math. Pures Appl. 91 (2009), 508–552]. As is the case of all mathematical results in continuum mechanics, the fluid dynamic limits of the Boltzmann equation involve some basic properties of isotropic tensor fields that are recalled in Appendices 1-2.