Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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SYAW: Awards Symposium

SYAW 1: Awards Symposium I

SYAW 1.4: Prize Talk

Wednesday, March 19, 2014, 15:30–16:00, Kinosaal

Non-equilibrium: from heat transport to turbulence (to life). — •David Ruelle — IHES, 91440 Bures sur Yvette, FRANCE --- Laureate of the Max-Planck-Medal

We review some problems in non-equilibrium physics from the point of view of statistical physics and differentiable dynamics. Specifically, we discuss the specific mathematical difficulties which inherently underlie applications to heat transport, to hydrodynamic turbulence, and to the study of life. The microscopic dynamics of transport phenomena (in particular heat transport) is necessarily non hyperbolic, which explains why it is a difficult problem. The 3D turbulent energy cascade can be analyzed formally as a heat flow, and experimental intermittency data indicate that this requires discussing a Hamiltonian system with ~10000 degrees of freedom. Life is a non-equilibrium statistical physics phenomenon which involves chemical reactions and not just transport. Considering life as a problem in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics at least shows how complex and difficult the study of non-equilibrium can be.