Exact results for the homogeneous cooling state of an inelastic hard-sphere gas

The infinite set of moments of the two-particle distribution function is found exactly for the uniform cooling state of a hard-sphere gas with inelastic collisions. Their form shows that velocity correlations cannot be neglected, and consequently the 'molecular chaos' hypothesis leading to the inelastic Boltzmann and Enskog kinetic equations must be questioned. © 1998 Cambridge University Press.