Multiscale convergence properties for spectral approximations of a model kinetic equation

Abstract:

In this work, we prove rigorous convergence properties for a semi-discrete, moment-based approximation of a model kinetic equation in one dimension. This approximation is equivalent to a standard spectral method in the velocity variable of the kinetic distribution and, as such, is accompanied by standard algebraic estimates of the form $N^{-q}$, where $N$ is the number of modes and $q>0$ depends on the regularity of the solution. However, in the multiscale setting, the error estimate can be expressed in terms of the scaling parameter $\epsilon$, which measures the ratio of the mean-free-path to the characteristic domain length. We show that, for isotropic initial conditions, the error in the spectral approximation is $\mathcal {O}(\epsilon ^{N+1})$. More surprisingly, the coefficients of the expansion satisfy super convergence properties. In particular, the error of the $\ell \text {th}$ coefficient of the expansion scales like $\mathcal {O}(\epsilon ^{2N})$ when $\ell =0$ and $\mathcal {O}(\epsilon ^{2N+2-\ell })$ for all $1\leq \ell \leq N$. This result is significant, because the low-order coefficients correspond to physically relevant quantities of the underlying system. All the above estimates involve constants depending on $N$, the time $t$, and the initial condition. We investigate specifically the dependence on $N$, in order to assess whether increasing $N$ actually yields an additional factor of $\epsilon$ in the error. Numerical tests will also be presented to support the theoretical results.