Hypocoercivity for kinetic equations with linear relaxation terms

This Note is devoted to a simple method for proving the hypocoercivity associated to a kinetic equation involving a linear time relaxation operator. It is based on the construction of an adapted Lyapunov functional satisfying a Gronwall-type inequality. The method clearly distinguishes the coercivity at microscopic level, which directly arises from the properties of the relaxation operator, and a spectral gap inequality at the macroscopic level for the spatial density, which is connected to the diffusion limit. It improves on previously known results. Our approach is illustrated by the linear BGK model and a relaxation operator which corresponds at macroscopic level to the linearized fast diffusion. To cite this article: J. Dolbeault et at, C R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. 1347 (2009). (C) 2009 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.