EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Toward a Predictive Theory of Far-from-equilibrium, Spatially Extended, Chaotic Systems
Speaker: Prof. D. Egolf
Speaker Info: Georgetown University
Brief Description:
Special Note: More current information may be available at Plan-it Purple
Abstract:

Systems maintained far-from-equilibrium often exhibit an intriguing persistent time dynamics. Whereas the chaotic dynamics of systems with only a few degrees of freedom is largely understood (or at least is well-characterized), more complex systems with large numbers of interacting degrees of freedom (heart tissue, fluid turbulence, planetary atmospheres and oceans, ecosystems, etc.) have proven quite difficult to understand despite abundant experimental and numerical data. Over the past 20 years, many researchers have focused on nonequilibrium, pattern- forming systems as test-beds for understanding these complicated systems. I will discuss two recent, exciting discoveries about these systems: a space-time localized mechanism for the generation of chaotic disorder and an equilibrium statistical mechanical description of a far-from- equilibrium system, and I will speculate about the broader applicability of the techniques behind the discoveries and the hope for a more general understanding of far-from-equilibrium systems.