NON-EQUILIBRIUM STATISTICAL MECHANICS

Course Description

This is a colloquium on non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. The main goal is to develop an understanding of how systems out of thermal equilibrium evolve in time, and how they evolve towards equilibrium. The course will be roughly divided into three sections.

The first will be on stochastic processes, and the role of fluctuations. Our canonical example throughout this portion will be various forms of Brownian motion.

The second section will be on kinetic theory. The primary goals of this section will be
a) to formalize the connection between classical mechanics and statistical mechanics and
b) to understand how systems far from equilibrium can evolve towards it.

Finally, we will explore quantum statistical mechanics. The goal will be to understand how quantum systems interact, and how interactions give rise interesting quantum and classical dynamics.

A familiarity with Hamiltonian mechanics, basic concepts in statistical mechanics (particularly the Boltzmann distribution), and basics of quantum mechanics (braket notation, the Schrodinger equation) is strongly encouraged.

This is a student-led colloquium led by Sidharth Kannan under the supervision of Ian Banta.