Kinetic Theory of the Moderately Dense Rigid-Sphere Fluid. V. Relaxation in Momentum Space

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Abstract
We consider the problem of a dense rigid‐sphere fluid at equilibrium in configuration space but perturbed in momentum space. The relaxation time for the return to equilibrium is computed analytically and shown to correspond to very few collisions—about four at gas densities and about one at liquid densities. This result is in good agreement with machine computations by Alder and Wainwright and shock‐tube measurements by Greene, Cowan, and Hornig. The results indicated that correlated successive binary collisions need not be considered to first order in the finite dense rigid‐sphere fluid.