Fully spectral scheme for the linear BGK equation on the whole space

In this article, we design a fully spectral method in both space and velocity for a linear inhomogeneous kinetic equation with mass, momentum and energy conservation. We focus on the linear BGK equation with a confinement potential $\mathrm{\Phi }$, even if the method could be applied to different collision operators. It is based upon the projection on Hermite polynomials in velocity and orthonormal polynomials with respect to the weight e^{-Φ} in space. The potential $\mathrm{\Phi }$ is assumed to be a polynomial. It is, to the author’s knowledge, the first scheme which preserves hypocoercive behavior in addition to the conservation laws. These different properties are illustrated numerically on both quadratic and double well potential.