Kinetic Methods For Nonconservative And Reacting Systems

In recent years, mainly due to its importance in applications to environmental problems, the classical kinetic theory of ideal gases based on the Boltzmann equation has been extended to cover both nonconservative and reacting systems. In the physics of dissipative systems, granular gases are one special topic out of the numberless fascinating subjects. Granular gases are dilute systems of inelastically colliding particles. As common for open systems, granular gases reveal a rich variety of self-organized structures such as large scale clusters, vertex fields, characteristic shock waves and others, which are still far from being completely understood. Applications of such systems range from astrophysics (stellar clouds, planetary rings), to industrial processes (handling of pharmaceutical), environment (pollution, erosion processes) and geophysics (volcanology). A second remarkable application of nonconservative kinetic theory can be found in the study of microscopic models of simple market economiesand financial markets.