arXiv subjects

Cédric Villani

Publications and source records attributed to Cédric Villani.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

On the kinetic Fokker--Planck equation in curved geometry

These notes are devoted to the kinetic Fokker--Planck equation on the tangent bundle of a compact Riemannian manifold, with motivations coming from relativistic kinetic theory of gases (à la Debbasch) and geometric analysis (à la Bismut). They are developed in particular from collaboration with Fabrice Debbasch and Yann Ollivier. The presentation is mostly self-contained, intended for readers without much prior familiarity with geometric analysis. Once the kinetic equations are reviewed, I expand the basic toolbox from functional and spectral analysis. Then the main focus is on global hypoelliptic $C^\infty$ regularization and hypocoercive exponential equilibration, both of which are addressed both in $L^2$ and $L^1$ settings. Various types of interpolation inequalities, spectral gap and entropic inequalities are established and used. Several existing results are simplified and unified, along with new ones. Some directions of research are mentioned.

math.AP↗

arXiv2025

Fisher Information in Kinetic Theory

These notes review the theory of Fisher information, especially its use in kinetic theory of gases and plasmas. The recent monotonicity theorem by Guillen--Silvestre for the Landau--Coulomb equation is put in perspective and generalised. Following my joint work with Imbert and Silvestre, it is proven that Fisher information is decaying along the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation, for all relevant interactions, and from this the once longstanding problem of regularity estimates for very singular collision kernels (very soft potentials) is solved.

math.AP↗

arXiv2024

On the monotonicity of the Fisher information for the Boltzmann equation

We prove that the Fisher information is monotone decreasing in time along solutions of the space-homogeneous Boltzmann equation for a large class of collision kernels covering all classical interactions derived from systems of particles. For general collision kernels, a sufficient condition for the monotonicity of the Fisher information along the flow is related to the best constant for an integro-differential inequality for functions on the sphere, which belongs in the family of the Log-Sobolev inequalities. As a consequence, we establish the existence of global smooth solutions to the space-homogeneous Boltzmann equation in the main situation of interest where this was not known, namely the regime of very soft potentials. This is opening the path to the completion of both the classical program of qualitative study of space-homogeneous Boltzmann equation, initiated by Carleman, and the program of using the Fisher information in the study of the Boltzmann equation, initiated by McKean. From the proofs and discussion emerges a strengthened picture of the links between kinetic theory, information theory and log-Sobolev inequalities.

math.AP↗

arXiv2011

A curved Brunn--Minkowski inequality on the discrete hypercube

We compare two approaches to Ricci curvature on non-smooth spaces, in the case of the discrete hypercube $\{0,1\}^N$. While the coarse Ricci curvature of the first author readily yields a positive value for curvature, the displacement convexity property of Lott, Sturm and the second author could not be fully implemented. Yet along the way we get new results of a combinatorial and probabilistic nature, including a curved Brunn--Minkowski inequality on the discrete hypercube.

math.PR↗

arXiv2010

Celebrating Cercignani's conjecture for the Boltzmann equation

Cercignani's conjecture assumes a linear inequality between the entropy and entropy production functionals for Boltzmann's nonlinear integral operator in rarefied gas dynamics. Related to the field of logarithmic Sobolev inequalities and spectral gap inequalities, this issue has been at the core of the renewal of the mathematical theory of convergence to thermodynamical equilibrium for rarefied gases over the past decade. In this review paper, we survey the various positive and negative results which were obtained since the conjecture was proposed in the 1980s.

math.AP↗

arXiv2010

Spectral methods for the non cut-off Boltzmann equation and numerical grazing collision limit

In this paper we study the numerical passage from the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation without cut-off to the Fokker-Planck-Landau equation in the so-called grazing collision limit. To this aim we derive a Fourier spectral method for the non cut-off Boltzmann equation in the spirit of L. Pareschi, B.Perthame, TTSP 25, (1996) and L.Pareschi, G.Russo, SINUM 37, (2000). We show that the kernel modes that define the spectral method have the correct grazing collision limit providing a consistent spectral method for the limiting Fokker-Planck-Landau equation. In particular, for small values of the scattering angle, we derive an approximate formula for the kernel modes of the non cut-off Boltzmann equation which, similarly to the Fokker-Planck-Landau case, can be computed with a fast algorithm. The uniform spectral accuracy of the method with respect to the grazing collision parameter is also proved.

math.NA↗

arXiv2009

Amortissement Landau

Dans cette note nous présentons les principaux résultats du récent travail hal-00376547/arXiv:0904.2760, où le phénomène d'amortissement Landau est pour la première fois établi dans un contexte non linéaire. ----- In this note we present the main results from the recent work hal-00376547 / arXiv:0904.2760, which for the first time establish Landau damping in a nonlinear context.

math.AP↗

arXiv2009

On Landau damping

Going beyond the linearized study has been a longstanding problem in the theory of Landau damping. In this paper we establish exponential Landau damping in analytic regularity. The damping phenomenon is reinterpreted in terms of transfer of regularity between kinetic and spatial variables, rather than exchanges of energy; phase mixing is the driving mechanism. The analysis involves new families of analytic norms, measuring regularity by comparison with solutions of the free transport equation; new functional inequalities; a control of nonlinear echoes; sharp scattering estimates; and a Newton approximation scheme. Our results hold for any potential no more singular than Coulomb or Newton interaction; the limit cases are included with specific technical effort. As a side result, the stability of homogeneous equilibria of the nonlinear Vlasov equation is established under sharp assumptions. We point out the strong analogy with the KAM theory, and discuss physical implications.

math.AP↗

arXiv2009

Landau damping

In this note we present the main results from the recent work hal-00376547/arXiv:0904.2760, which for the first time establish Landau damping in a nonlinear context.

math.AP↗

arXiv2008

Local Aronson-Bénilan estimates and entropy formulae for porous medium and fast diffusion equations on manifolds

In this work we derive local gradient and Laplacian estimates of the Aronson-Bénilan and Li-Yau type for positive solutions of porous medium equations posed on Riemannian manifolds with a lower Ricci curvature bound. We also prove similar results for some fast diffusion equations. Inspired by Perelman's work we discover some new entropy formulae for these equations.

math.DG↗

arXiv2006

Regularity theory for the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation with cut-off

We develop the regularity theory of the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation with cut-off and hard potentials (for instance, hard spheres), by (i) revisiting the Lp-theory to obtain constructive bounds, (ii) establishing propagation of smoothness and singularities, (iii) obtaining estimates about the decay of the sin- gularities of the initial datum. Our proofs are based on a detailed study of the "regularity of the gain operator". An application to the long-time behavior is presented.

math.AP↗