Applied Maths Seminar: Rink -- Thermalisation and integrability in the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tzingou problem

Dear all, 

Our upcoming AM seminar is held Wed 17 May at 1pm in F11 Chemistry Lecture Theatre
4.  Our speaker is Bob Rink (VU Amsterdam).  

Talk details follow below: 

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Title: Thermalisation and integrability in the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tzingou problem 

Abstract: In the early 1950s, Fermi, Pasta, Ulam and Tzingou decided to investigate the
dynamics of large degree of freedom physical systems, by performing some of the first
numerical simulations in history.  Their study of a conservative chain of nonlinearly
interacting oscillators revealed quite a surprise: instead of the expected evolution to
a "thermal equilibrium", they observed recurrent behavior.  Since then, different
approaches were able to explain features of their observations, using for instance
integrable PDE approximations and perturbation theory.  In this talk I will give an
overview of some cornerstone results on the analysis of the problem, including their
shortcomings, and I will present some recent work of Antonio Ponno (Padova), Matteo
Gallone (SISSA Trieste) and myself on the near-integrable evolution of unidirectional
waves.
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An ongoing list of AM seminars is posted here:
https://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/SemConf/Applied.html 

See you there, 

Ian