The Physisorbate-Layer Problem Arising in Kinetic Theory of Gas–Surface Interaction

A half-space problem of a linear kinetic equation for gas molecules physisorbed close to a solid surface, relevant to a kinetic model of gas–surface interaction and derived by Aoki et al. (Phys. Rev. E 106:035306, 2022), is considered. The equation contains a confinement potential in the vicinity of the solid surface and an interaction term between gas molecules and phonons. It is proved that a unique solution exists when the incoming molecular flux is specified at infinity. This validates the natural observation that the half-space problem serves as the boundary condition for the Boltzmann equation. It is also proved that the sequence of approximate solutions used for the existence proof converges exponentially fast. In addition, numerical results showing the details of the solution to the half-space problem are presented.