Asymptotic Analysis of Transport Equation in Bounded Domains

TL;DR

This paper rigorously analyzes the asymptotic limits of neutron transport equations in 3D convex domains, showing convergence to Laplace and heat equations using advanced boundary layer and geometric correction techniques.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive asymptotic analysis with novel boundary layer methods and geometric corrections for complex 3D neutron transport problems.

Findings

Steady solutions converge to Laplace's equation as Knudsen number approaches zero.

Unsteady solutions converge to heat equation in the asymptotic limit.

Develops new techniques for boundary layer analysis with geometric correction.

Abstract

Consider neutron transport equations in 3D convex domains with in-flow boundary. We mainly study the asymptotic limits as the Knudsen number $\epsilon\rightarrow 0^+$. Using Hilbert expansion, we rigorously justify that the solution of steady problem converges to that of the Laplace's equation, and the solution of unsteady problem converges to that of the heat equation. The proof relies on a detailed analysis on the boundary layer effect with geometric correction. This problem can be formulated in many different settings, and the above one is probably the most physically significant and most mathematically challenging. We have to utilize almost all methods and techniques we developed in a series of papers in the past decade, and bring novel ideas to treat the new complications. The difficulty mainly comes from three sources: 3D domain, boundary layer regularity, and time dependence. To fully solve this problem, we introduce several techniques: (1) boundary layer with geometric correction; (2) remainder estimates with $L^2-L^{2m}-L^{\infty}$ framework; boundary layer decomposition.