Brandeis-Harvard-MIT-Northeastern

JOINT MATHEMATICS COLLOQUIUM


 
From Newton's dynamics to the heat equation

 

Laure Saint-Raymond

ENS (Paris), visiting Harvard
 
 

Harvard University

Thursday, February 5, 2015


 

Talk at 4:30 p.m. in Science Center A

Tea at 4:00 p.m. in the Math Lounge


 
 

Abstract:  The goal of this lecture is to show how the brownian motion can be derived rigorously from a deterministic system of hard spheres in the limit where the number of particles $N$ tends to infinity, and their diameter simultaneously converges to 0. As suggested by Hilbert in his sixth problem, we will use the linear Boltzmann equation as an intermediate level of description for the dynamics of one tagged particle. We will discuss especially the origin of irreversibility, which is a fundamental feature of both the brownian motion and the Boltzmann equation having no counterpart at the microscopic level.


 

Home Web page:  Alexandru I. Suciu   Comments to:  i.loseu@neu.edu  
Posted: February 2, 2015    URL: http://www.math.neu.edu/bhmn/saint-raymond15.html