  The free cooling process in the inelastic hard sphere system is studied by
analysing the data from large scale molecular dynamics simulations on a three
dimensional system. The initial energy decay, the velocity distribution
function, and the velocity correlation functions are calculated to be compared
with theoretical predictions. The energy decay rate in the homogeneous cooling
state is slightly but distinctively smaller than that expected from the
independent collision assumption. The form of the one particle velocity
distribution is found not to be stationary. These contradict to the predictions
of the kinetic theory based on the Enskog-Boltzmann equation and suggest that
the velocity correlation is already important in the early stage of homogeneous
cooling state. The energy decay rate is analysed in terms of the velocity
correlation.
