Large time analysis of the rate function associated to the Boltzmann equation: dynamical phase transitions.

Abstract. We analyze the large time behavior of the rate function that describes the probability of large fluctuations of an underlying microscopic model associated with the homogeneous Boltzmann equation, such as the Kac walk. We consider in particular the asymptotic of the number of collisions per particle and per unit of time and show it exhibits a phase transition in the joint limit in which the number of particles N and the time interval [0,T] diverge. More precisely, due to the existence of Lu--Wennberg solutions, the corresponding limiting rate function vanishes for subtypical values of the number of collisions. We also analyze the second order large deviations showing that the probability of subtypical fluctuations is exponentially small in N, independently of T. As a key point, we establish the controllability of the homogeneous Boltzmann equation.