Non-Equilibrium Steady States in Kac's Model Coupled to a Thermostat

Abstract: This paper studies the existence, uniqueness and convergence to non-equilibrium steady states in Kac's model with an external coupling. We work in both Fourier distances and Wasserstein distances. Our methods work in the case where the external coupling is not a Maxwellian equilibrium. This provides an example of a non-equilibrium steady state. We also study the behaviour as the number of particles goes to infinity and show quantitative estimates on the convergence rate of the first marginal.