Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme

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PV: Plenarvorträge

PV VII

PV VII: Prize Talk

Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 13:00–13:45, H1

From Microscopic Dynamics to Macroscopic Behavior — •Joel L. Lebowitz — Department of Mathematics and Physics, Rutgers State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey, US --- Träger der Max-Planck-Medaille

Statistical mechanics aims to relate the behavior of macroscopic objects to the dynamics of their constituent microscopic entities. Examples include the approach to equilibrium in isolated systems, properties of non-equilibrium stationary states of open systems, and the nature of phase transitions in equilibrium systems. Surprisingly many aspects of these phenomena can be captured in greatly simplied models of the microscopic world, such as lattice gases evolving via simple local stochastic rules. These aspects emerge as collective properties of large aggregates which are independent of many details of the microscopic dynamics. This is fortunate, since out ability to deal rigorously with realistic quantum many body systems is still very limited. In my talk I will try to connect rigorous results on model systems of varying degrees of idealization with more heuristic arguments about the behavior of real macroscopic systems.