RELAXATION OF THE DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION TAILS FOR GASES WITH POWER-LAW INTERACTION POTENTIALS

The relaxation of rarefied gases of particles with the power-law inter action potentials U=alpha/r(s), where 1 less than or equal to s<4, is considered. The formation and evolution of the distribution function t ails are investigated on the basis of the one-dimensional kinetic Land au-Fokker-Planck equation. For long times, the constructed asymptotic solutions have a propagating-wave appearance in the high velocity regi on. The analytical solutions are expressed explicitly in terms of the error function. The analytical consideration is-accomplished by numeri cal calculations. The obtained analytical results are in a good agreem ent with the numerical simulation results.