Kinetic theory of spatially homogeneous systems with long-range interactions: I. General results

TL;DR

This paper reviews the kinetic theory of spatially homogeneous systems with long-range interactions, emphasizing collective effects, and derives general equations describing their evolution, relaxation, and response to external forcing.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive derivation of the Lenard-Balescu equation including collective effects and general expressions for diffusion and friction coefficients in such systems.

Findings

Derivation of the Lenard-Balescu equation with collective effects

Explicit formulas for diffusion and friction coefficients

Analysis of relaxation timescales and external forcing effects

Abstract

We review and complete the existing literature on the kinetic theory of spatially homogeneous systems with long-range interactions taking collective effects into account. The evolution of the system as a whole is described by the Lenard-Balescu equation which is valid in a weak coupling approximation. When collective effects are neglected it reduces to the Landau equation and when collisions (correlations) are neglected it reduces to the Vlasov equation. The relaxation of a test particle in a bath is described by a Fokker-Planck equation involving a diffusion term and a friction term. For a thermal bath, the diffusion and friction coefficients are connected by an Einstein relation. General expressions of the diffusion and friction coefficients are given, depending on the potential of interaction and on the dimension of space. We also discuss the scaling with $N$ (number of particles) or with $\Lambda$ (plasma parameter) of the relaxation time towards statistical equilibrium. Finally, we consider the effect of an external stochastic forcing on the evolution of the system and compute the corresponding term in the kinetic equation.