Simulation and Control of Chaotic Nonequilibrium Systems

With a Foreword by Julien Clinton Sprott

This book aims to provide a lively working knowledge of the thermodynamic control of microscopic simulations, while summarizing the historical development of the subject, along with some personal reminiscences. Many computational examples are described so that they are well-suited to learning by doing. The contents enhance the current understanding of the reversibility paradox and are accessible to advanced undergraduates and researchers in physics, computation, and irreversible thermodynamics.

Contents:

• Overview of Atomistic Mechanics
• Formulating Atomistic Simulations
• Thermodynamics, Statistical Mechanics, and Temperature
• Continuum Mechanics: Continuity, Stress, Heat Flux, Applications
• Numerical Molecular Dynamics and Chaos
• Time-Reversible Atomistic Thermostats
• Key Results from Nonequilibrium Simulations
• Second Law, Reversibility, Instability
• Outlook for Progress and Life on Earth

Readership: Advanced undergraduates and researchers in physics, computation and irreversible thermodynamics.
Key Features:

• Provides both a comprehensive historical background and contemporary research ideas and results in a variety of fields: computational simulation of irreversible flows, thermodynamics, chaos and instability, control theory
• Readers can replicate and generalize the many illustrative problems detailed in the book