The Genesis of Simulation in Dynamics

Pursuing the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam Problem

Thomas P. Weissert (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

176 Seiten

1997
Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
978-0-387-98236-6 (ISBN)

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We hear a lot about dynamical systems theory these days-"chaos dy namics" is the popular idiom-but very little of this abstract discipline is taught in undergraduate or even in graduate school, unless that happens to be one's own field. People may have heard some of the terms, but they may not understand what a dynamicist does. Just what does a dynamicist do? Although I've been through the training, I spend much more time talk ing and thinking about dynamics than actually doing it, which is a circum stance that affords me an interesting perspective. Some time after defending my dissertation, when I stopped back by my alma mater on a visit through Boulder, I ran into one of my advisors, a practicing dynamicist, and he was excited to show me his new workstation and its resident software. Hope fully, by relating what I experienced then, I may in part help to answer my opening question. He sat down in front of a very large screen, at least 19 inches across, so closely, that it filled his field of view completely. At his fingertips were the usual mouse and keyboard. He fired up the software and chose a model; I think we were out to explore "just the standard map. " As the program began, the screen remained black, except for a small blinking cursor at the middle.

I: History.- 1. The FPU Model and Simulation: “A Little Discovery”.- 2. The FPU Research Program: Echoes on a String.- 3. The Kolmogorov—Arnold—Moser Theorem: “Here Comes the Surprise”.- 4. Research Threads Come Together: Harmonic Convergence.- II: Philosophy.- 5. Steps to an Epistemology of Simulation.- Append.- A. Hamiltonian Dynamics: Language of Abstraction.- A.1. Topology and Phase-Space Trajectories.- A.2. Canonical Transformations.- A.3. Transforming the Unperturbed String.- A.4. Cyclic Coordinates.- A.5. Liouville Integrability.- A.6. The Action-Angle Variables.- A.7. Dynamics on a Torus.- A.8. Commensurability: Two Types of Motion.- A.9. Digital Representation.- A.10.Physical Reality and the Continuum.- A.11.Perturbing the String.- References.

Zusatzinfo	XIII, 176 p.
Verlagsort	New York, NY
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Themenwelt	Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Angewandte Mathematik
	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Mechanik
ISBN-10	0-387-98236-1 / 0387982361
ISBN-13	978-0-387-98236-6 / 9780387982366
Zustand	Neuware