Enrico Fermi and the birth of modern nonlinear wave physics
| When |
Sep 28, 2020
from 11:00 to 12:00 |
|---|---|
| Where | Web seminar |
| Attendees |
Miguel Onorato |
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In the early fifties in Los Alamos E. Fermi in collaboration with J. Pasta, S. Ulam and M. Tsingou investigated a one dimensional chain of equal masses connected by a weakly nonlinear spring. The key question was related to the understanding of the phenomenon of conduction in solids; in particular they wanted to estimate the time needed to reach a statistical equilibrium state characterized by the equipartition of energy among the Fourier modes. They approached the problem numerically using the MANIAC I computer; however, the system did not thermalize and they observed a recurrence to the initial state (this is known as the FPUT-recurrence). This unexpected result has led to the development of modern nonlinear physics (discovery of solitons and integrability).
In this seminar, I will give an historical overview of the subject and present new results on the problem of thermalization based on the Wave Turbulence Theory.