On the basis of a recently discovered collision group [V. L. Saveliev, in Rarefied Gas Dynamics: 22nd International Symposium, edited by T. J. Bartel and M. Gallis, AIP Conf. Proc. No. 585 (AIP, Melville, NY, 2001), p. 101], the Boltzmann collision integral is exactly rewritten in two parts. The first part describes the scattering of particles with small angles. In this part the infinity due to the infinite cross sections is extracted from the Boltzmann collision integral. Moreover, the Boltzmann collision integral is represented as a divergence of the flow in velocity space. Owing to this, the role of collisions in the kinetic equation can be interpreted in terms of the nonlocal friction force that depends on the distribution function.

• Received 3 December 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.65.051205