Generalized linear transport theory in dilute neutral gases and dispersion relation of sound waves

The transport processes in dilute neutral gases are studied by using the kinetic equation with a collision relaxation model that meets all conservation requirements. The kinetic equation is solved keeping the whole anisotropic part of the distribution function with the use of the continued fractions. The conservative laws of the collision operator are taken into account with the projection operator techniques. The generalized heat flux and stress tensor are calculated in the linear approximation, as functions of the lower moments, i.e., the density, the flow velocity and the temperature. The results obtained are valid for arbitrary collision frequency nu with the respect to kv(t) and the characteristic frequency omega, where k(-1) is the characteristic length scale of the system and v(t) is the thermal velocity. The transport coefficients constitute accurate closure relations for the generalized hydrodynamic equations. An application to the dispersion and the attenuation of sound waves in the whole collisionality regime is presented. The results obtained are in very good agreement with the experimental data.