Rutgers Discrete Mathematics Seminar
Title: Big Bang Theory
Speaker: Jozsef Beck, Rutgers
Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 2:00pm
Location: Hill Center, Room 124, Rutgers University, Busch Campus, Piscataway, NJ
Abstract:
Statistical mechanics is based on the axiom that the gas
molecules are independent random variables. Our goal is to justify
this axiom in a Newtonian model. Consider N=10^{26} point-billiards in
a cubic container of side length one meter. Let us start with an
arbitrary extreme non-equilibrium initial configuration (=the set of
starting points); for example, we can start with a Big Bang: when at
the beginning all N point-billiards are in the same point. Assuming
the point-billiards have ``typical initial velocities" with average
speed 1000 meter per second (which is realistic), how long does it
take, starting from a Big Bang (say), to reach square-root
equilibrium? Is it less than a second or more than 100 years? The
answer depends on the definition of ``typical initial
velocities". (Square-root equilibrium means that, in a given test set,
the number of point-billiards equals the expected number plus-minus
the square-root of N; i.e., random size fluctuation.) We explain this,
and other surprising facts.
See: http://math.rutgers.edu/seminars/allseminars.php?sem_name=Discrete%20Math