Correlation dimension of the sheared hard-disk Lorentz gas

The correlation dimension for the isokinetic Lorentz gas is calculated for hard disks using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation. The trajectories are confined to a strange attractor embedded in a four-dimensional phase space—the additional degree of freedom having not been included properly until this work. This degree of freedom accounts for the explicit time dependence of the system (as quantified by the moving periodic cells under shear) and is significant because the collisions tend to synchronize with the periodic change of symmetry of the lattice at high shear rates.     

Thermostating by Deterministic Scattering: The Periodic Lorentz Gas

We present a novel mechanism for thermalizing a system of particles in equilibrium and nonequilibrium situations, based on specifically modeling energy transfer at the boundaries via a microscopic collision process. We apply our method to the periodic Lorentz gas, where a point particle moves diffusively through an ensemble of hard disks arranged on a triangular lattice. First, collision rules are defined for this system in thermal equilibrium. They determine the velocity of the moving particle such that the system is deterministic, time-reversible, and microcanonical. These collision rules can systematically be adapted to the case where one associates arbitrarily many degrees of freedom to the disk, which here acts as a boundary. Subsequently, the system is investigated in nonequilibrium situations by applying an external field. We show that in the limit where the disk is endowed by infinitely many degrees of freedom it acts as a thermal reservoir yielding a well-defined nonequilibrium steady state. The characteristic properties of this state, as obtained from computer simulations, are finally compared to those of the so-called Gaussian thermostated driven Lorentz gas.     

Computer simulation of some dynamical properties of the Lorentz gas

We carried out molecular dynamics simulations of a Lorentz gas, consisting of a lone hydrogen molecule moving in a sea of stationary argon atoms. A Lennard-Jones form was assumed for the H₂-Ar potential. The calculations were performed at a reduced temperatureK ^* =kT/_{H 2–Ar} = 4.64 and at reduced densities ^*= _{Ar Ar} ³ in the range 0.074–0.414. The placement of Ar atoms was assumed to be random rather than dictated by equilibrium considerations. We followed the trajectories of many H₂ molecules, each of which is assigned in turn a velocity given by the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution at the temperature of the simulation. Solving the equations of motion classically, we obtained the translational part of the incoherent dynamic structure factor for the H₂ molecule,S _tr(q, ). This was convoluted with the rotational structure factorS _rot(q, ) calculated assuming unhindered rotation to obtain the total structure factorS(q, ). Our results agree well with experimental data on this function obtained by Egelstaffet al. At the highest density ( ^*=0.414) we studied the dependence ofS(q, ) on system size (number of Ar atoms), number of H₂ molecules for which trajectories are generated, and the length of time over which these trajectories are followed.     

Density-Dependent Diffusion in the Periodic Lorentz Gas

We study the deterministic diffusion coefficient of the two-dimensional periodic Lorentz gas as a function of the density of scatterers. Based on computer simulations, and by applying straightforward analytical arguments, we systematically improve the Machta–Zwanzig random walk approximation [Phys. Rev. Lett. 50:1959 (1983)] by including microscopic correlations. We furthermore, show that, on a fine scale, the diffusion coefficient is a non-trivial function of the density. On a coarse scale and for lower densities, the diffusion coefficient exhibits a Boltzmann-like behavior, whereas for very high densities it crosses over to a regime which can be understood qualitatively by the Machta–Zwanzig approximation.     

On the Boltzmann equation for the Lorentz gas

We consider the Boltzmann-Grad limit for the Lorentz, or wind-tree, model. We prove that if is a fixed configuration of scatterer centers belonging to a set of full measure with respect to the Poisson distribution with parameter >0, then the evolution of an initial a.c. particle density tends in the Boltzmann-Grad limit to the solution of the Boltzmann equation for the model. As an intermediate step we prove that the process of the free path lengths and impact parameters induced by the Lebesgue measure on a small region tends to a limiting independent process.     

Topological dynamics of flipping Lorentz lattice gas models

We study the topological dynamics of the flipping mirror model of Ruijgrok and Cohen with one or an infinite number of particles. In particular we prove the topological transitivity and topological mixing up to a natural first integral for the one-particle model.     

Lorentz gas shear viscosity via nonequilibrium molecular dynamics and Boltzmann's equation

When nonequilibrium molecular dynamics is used to impose isothermal shear on a two-body periodic system of hard disks or spheres, the equations of motion reduce to those describing a Lorentz gas under shear. In this shearing Lorentz gas a single particle moves, isothermally, through a spatially periodic shearing crystal of infinitely massive scatterers. The curvilinear trajectories are calculated analytically and used to measure the dilute Lorentz gas viscosity at several strain rates. Simulations and solutions of Boltzmann's equation exhibit shear thinning resembling that found inN-body nonequilibrium simulations. For the three-dimensional Lorentz gas we obtained an exact expression for the viscosity which is valid at all strain rates. In two dimensions this is not possible due to the anisotropy of the scattering.     

Invariance principle for the stochastic Lorentz lattice gas

We prove scaling to nondegenerate Brownian motion for the path of a test particle in the stochastic Lorentz lattice gas on ^d under a weak ergodicity assumption on the scatterer distribution. We prove that recurrence holds almost surely ind2. Transience ind3 remains open.     

A dynamical partition function for the Lorentz gas

In this paper we introduce a dynamically defined partition function for the Lorentz gas and investigate its connection with the classical ensembles and the phase-space probability measure derived from periodic orbit expansions. Numerical evidence is presented to support the equivalence of these measures and to link them to the thermodynamic quantities for the Lorentz gas. This also suggests a new dynamical basis for the assumption of equala priori probabilities in the microcanonical ensemble.     

The velocity correlation function for the Lorentz gas

The results of variational solutions of the repeated ring and self-consistent repeated ring equations for the two-and three-dimensional overlapping Lorentz gas (LG), as formulated in a previous report, are presented. Calculations of the full velocity correlation function (VCF) for the 2D LG, including long-time tails, are compared with those from molecular dynamics. The trial functions chosen lead to predictions for the long-time tails that improve as the density of the scatterers is increased. At a value of 0.24 for* (= ², where is the density and the radius of scatterers), the self-consistent amplitudes of the long-time tail are within 40% of the molecular dynamics. A limited number of 3D results for the short-time behavior of the repeated ring VCF are presented. The 3D solutions agree with the molecular dynamics to within 10%.     

On the quantum Lorentz group

The quantum analog of Pauli matrices are introduced and investigated. From these matrices and an appropriate trace over spinorial indices we construct a quantum Minkowski metric. In this framework we show explicitly the correspondence between the SL(2,C) and Lorentz quantum groups. Five matrices of the quantum Lorentz group are constructed in terms of the R matrix of SL(2,C) group. These matrices satisfy Yang–Baxter equations and two of which have adequate properties tied to the quantum Minkowski space structure as the reality conditions of the coordinates and the symmetrization of the metric. It is also shown that the Minkowski metric leads to invariant and central lengths of four-vectors.     

On the Distribution of Free Path Lengths for the Periodic Lorentz Gas III

 For r(0,1), let Z _r ={xR ² |dist(x,Z ²)>r/2} and define τ _r (x,v)=inf{t>0|x+tv∂Z _r }. Let Φ _r (t) be the probability that τ _r (x,v)≥t for x and v uniformly distributed in Z _r and §¹ respectively. We prove in this paper that

Paraelectric--ferroelectric interface dynamics induced by latent heat transfer and irreversibility of ferroelectric phase transitions

The temperature gradients that arise in the paraelectric--ferroelectric interface dynamics induced by the latent heat transfer are studied from the point of view that a ferroelectric phase transition is a stationary, thermal-electric coupled transport process. The local entropy production is derived for a ferroelectric phase transition system from the Gibbs equation. Three types of regions in the system are described well by using the Onsager relations and the principle of minimum entropy production. The theoretical results coincides with the experimental ones.     

Dynamical chaos in the Lorentz lattice gas

This paper provides an introduction to the applications of dynamical systems theory to nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, in particular to a study of nonequilibrium phenomena in Lorentz lattice gases with stochastic collision rules. Using simple arguments, based upon discussions in the mathematical literature, we show that such lattice gases belong to the category of dynamical systems with positive Lyapunov exponents. This is accomplished by showing how such systems can be expressed in terms of continuous phase space variables. Expressions for the Lyapunov exponent of a one-dimensional Lorentz lattice gas with periodic boundaries are derived. Other quantities of interest for the theory of irreversible processes are discussed.     

Microscopic Chaos and Reaction-Diffusion Processes in the Periodic Lorentz Gas

We apply the hypothesis of microscopic chaos to diffusion-controlled reaction which we study in a reactive periodic Lorentz gas. The relaxation rate of the reactive eigenmodes is obtained as eigenvalue of the Frobenius–Perron operator, which determines the reaction rate. The cumulative functions of the eigenstates of the Frobenius–Perron operator are shown to be generalizations of Lebesgue's singular continuous functions. For small enough densities of catalysts, the reaction is controlled by the diffusion. A random-walk model of this diffusion-controlled reaction process is presented, which is used to study the dependence of the reaction rate on the density of catalysts.Aspirant FNRS     

Measures with infinite Lyapunov exponents for the periodic Lorentz gas

We study invariant measures for the periodic Lorentz gas which are supported on the set of points with infinite Lyapunov exponents. We construct examples of such measures which are measures of maximal entropy and ones which are not.     

Exact and approximate generalized diffusion equation for the Lorentz gas

The Lorentz model of a rarefied gas is used for testing two different methods of solving the Boltzman kinetic equation. It is shown that the Zwanzig-Mori method gives the generalized diffusion equation which agrees with the exact Hauge solution. The Zubarev-Khonkin approach gives a series expansion of the exact generalized diffusion coefficient. Their method is compared with the Chapman-Enskog method.     

Kinetic equation for the dilute Lorentz gas with attractive forces

The kinetic equation for the dilute Lorentz gas of particles with repulsive-attractive potential, is derived. For that purpose the distribution function is decomposed into two parts: the one corresponding to the bounded motion of the marked particle and the second corresponding to its unbounded motion; only the second part, as representing the diffusion, is considered.After the appropriate modification of the projection operator, a general kinetic equation for the diffusion part of the distribution function is obtained. The low density limit of the scattering operator of this equation is found. The regions of bounded motion are excluded in the integration over position space.For the square-well potential, the Laplace-transformed kinetic equation is also given in full detail.     

Statistical dynamics of conserved densities for the hard-sphere Lorentz gas

The statistical dynamics of a particle scattered by randomly positioned stationary hard spheres are investigated. We examine the somewhat unusual long-wavelength, low-frequency fluctuation spectra resulting from the existence of an infinite set of mutually coupled conserved densities of which the number density and energy density are two members. The analytically soluble infinite-mode correlation functions are compared with the corresponding functions obtained by truncating the set of slow modes at successively increasing orders. Furthermore, we evaluate the long-wavelenght number density autocorrelation function for a fixed speed, υ₀, in terms of a frequency-dependent diffusivity D(ω;υ₀) and obtain the fluctuation spectra of all conserved densities by an additional velocity average with the appropriate canonical weights. The effect of the frequency-dependent diffusivity D(ω;υ₀) on the density fluctuation spectra at frequencies small compared to the mean collision frequency is elucidated.