Series solution for the propagator of the linear Boltzmann equation

Abstract

This investigation is concerned with the evaluation and interpretation of the propagator, or conditional probability distribution function P(y,t| y0), of the Linear Boltzmann or Master equation from the "central limit viewpoint". We have obtained what is to our knowledge the first evaluation in series of the propagator for the typical kinetic-theoretical processes studied here, which are those underlying the problems usually studied in the approximation of the Fokker-Planck equation. We have been able to put the successive terms of this series in closed form; and have shown that the series can be interpreted as a generalized solution of the central limit problem of mathematical probability theory, the generalization consisting in the extension to a process in continuous time with non-independent increments. [TRUNCATED]