Time Reversibility, Computer Simulation and Chaos

Mathematical Reviews, 2002
"... lively, informal, and somewhat personal review of a branch of statistical physics ..."

Book Info
Describes the work of physicists, chemists, mathematicians, and engineers who are attacking the classic problem of the reversibility paradox, describing their work from the perspective of computer simulation, emphasizing the author's approach to the problem of understanding the compatability of time-reverse mechanics.


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The book begins with a discussion contrasting the idealized reversibility of basic physics and the pragmatic irreversibility of real life. Computer models, and simulation, are next discussed and illustrated. Simulations provide the means to assimilate concepts through worked-out examples. State-of-the-art analyses, from the point of view of dynamical systems, are applied to many body examples from nonequilibrium molecular dynamics and to chaotic irreversible flows from finite-difference, finite-element, and particle-based continuum simulations. Two necessary concepts from dynamical-systems theory - fractals and Lyapunov instability - are fundamental to the approach." "Undergraduate-level physics, calculus, and ordinary differential equations are sufficient background for a full appreciation of this book, which is intended for advanced undergraduates, graduates, and research workers.


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