J.R. Dorfman

Hard Ball Systems and the Lorentz Gas are fundamental models arising in the theory of Hamiltonian dynamical systems. Moreover, in these models, some key laws of statistical physics can also be tested or even established by mathematically rigorous tools. The mathematical methods are most beautiful but sometimes quite involved. This collection of surveys written by leading researchers of the fields - mathematicians, physicists or mathematical physicists - treat both mathematically rigourous results, and evolving physical theories where the methods are analytic or computational. Some basic topics: hyperbolicity and ergodicity, correlation decay, Lyapunov exponents, Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy, entropy production, irreversibility. This collection is a unique introduction into the subject for graduate students, postdocs or researchers - in both mathematics and physics - who want to start working in the field.

Hard Ball Systems and the Lorentz Gas are fundamental models arising in the theory of Hamiltonian dynamical systems. Moreover, in these models, some key laws of statistical physics can also be tested or even established by mathematically rigorous tools. The mathematical methods are most beautiful but sometimes quite involved. This collection of surveys written by leading researchers of the fields - mathematicians, physicists or mathematical physicists - treat both mathematically rigourous results, and evolving physical theories where the methods are analytic or computational. Some basic topics: hyperbolicity and ergodicity, correlation decay, Lyapunov exponents, Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy, entropy production, irreversibility. This collection is a unique introduction into the subject for graduate students, postdocs or researchers - in both mathematics and physics - who want to start working in the field.

Kinetic theory provides a microscopic description of many observable, macroscopic processes and has a wide range of important applications in physics, astronomy, chemistry, and engineering. This powerful, theoretical framework allows a quantitative treatment of many non-equilibrium phenomena such as transport processes in classical and quantum fluids. This book describes in detail the Boltzmann equation theory, obtained in both traditional and modern ways. Applications and generalizations describing non-equilibrium processes in a variety of systems are also covered, including dilute and moderately dense gases, particles in random media, hard sphere crystals, condensed Bose-Einstein gases, and granular materials. Fluctuation phenomena in non-equilibrium fluids, and related non-analyticities in the hydrodynamic equations are also discussed in some detail. A thorough examination of many topics concerning time dependent phenomena in material systems, this book describes both current knowledge as well as future directions of the field.

This book is an introduction to the applications in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics of chaotic dynamics, and also to the use of techniques in statistical mechanics important for an understanding of the chaotic behaviour of fluid systems. The fundamental concepts of dynamical systems theory are reviewed and simple examples are given. Advanced topics including SRB and Gibbs measures, unstable periodic orbit expansions, and applications to billiard-ball systems, are then explained. The text emphasises the connections between transport coefficients, needed to describe macroscopic properties of fluid flows, and quantities, such as Lyapunov exponents and Kolmogorov-Sinai entropies, which describe the microscopic, chaotic behaviour of the fluid. Later chapters consider the roles of the expanding and contracting manifolds of hyperbolic dynamical systems and the large number of particles in macroscopic systems. Exercises, detailed references and suggestions for further reading are included.