Center for Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics,
renamed
Center for Complex Quantum Systems
History
Linda Reichl
- Served as Acting Director of the Center for Statistical Mechanics and Complex Systems 1974-2003 and Director 2003-2006.
- Served as Co-Director of the Center for Complex Quantum Systems 2006-present.
Early members of the center: Prigogine, Linda Reichl, William C. Schieve, Jack Turner, Werner Horsthemke, Michael John Haggarty,
Michael John Haggerty BASc’60, PhD’64
4 January 1939-15 December 2011 Michael John Haggerty, late of Vancouver, passed away peacefully at St. James Cottage Hospice, Vancouver, December 15, 2011. Mike's career in theoretical physics included being a member of the research team headed by 1977 Nobel Laureate, Ilya Prigogine. In recent years he was retired to Vancouver, where his many friends included those in his walking clubs. Mike was predeceased by his parents, Bill and Irene Haggerty, and sister Robin Pretious. He is survived by his children, John, Megan (Greg Cargnelli) and Braden (Anthony Dutton), grandsons Sam and Ivo Cargnelli and Declan and Luca Dutton, longtime partner Sharon, sister Joan and several nieces and nephews. The family is grateful for the care and support provided by the staff at Vancouver General Hospital and the Cottage Hospice, and by those who visited Mike during his hospital stay. A celebration of Mike's life will be held at The Gallery in Artisan Square, Bowen Island, Tuesday, December 20, from 3 to 5 p.m. No flowers, please. Those who wish may make a donation to a charity of their choice in Mike's name.
1985 writeup about the Center:
Research focuses on problems in nonequilibrium thermodynamics and statistical physics and encourages interdiscipliriary research. Two broad areas of research are pursued. One area concerns the dynamical evolution of nonlinear physical and chemical systems which exhibit broken symmetries and are subject to influences from the environment. The other area concerns the dynamical origins of irreversible behavior observed in nonlinear physical and biological systems which evolve in time.
A major topic of research on the macroscopic level concerns the properties of “dissipative structures" and bifurcation phenomena in nonlinear chemical systems. These studies are experimental and theoretica| and include mechanisms for chemical pattern formation and bifurcation sequences to chaos in the Belousov-Zhabotinskii and other reactions, and mechanisms by which chiral symmetry of molecules may be broken during chemical reactions.
Quantum optics systems present many analogs to nonlinear phenomena observed in clientical systems. Phase transitions and bifurcation sequences in
quantum optics systems are studied using macroscopic and stochastic theory. The theory of nonlinear chemical systems may also be applied to human populations and social systems and is being used to study economic processes and traffic flow.
Response of nonlinear systems to external influences such as simple external fields and external noise is another major area of research, especially as concerns the dynamics of biological systems on the intra- and intermolecular levels. Stochastic theory is used to study the effect of memory induced by hydrodynamics on the microscopic level. Mechanisms by which external noise may induce phase transitions in nonlinear systems and stabilize otherwise unstable systems are other topics of study.
A fundamental topic of research on the microscopic level concerns the origin of macroscopic irreversibility in unstable reversible nonlinear dynamical
systems, and a related topic concerns the effect of external fields in creating chaos and irreversible behavior. A major application involves nonlinear
intramolecular dynamics of molecules. Studies of coherent energy propagation (solitons) and chaos in nonlinear quantum and classical dynamics systems are underway. Theoretical and numerical studies of homogeneous nucleation of the liquid state from supersaturated vapor are also currently underway.
Currently about I5 graduate students are performing Ph.D. research in statistical mechanics.
The research is supported by contracts/grants from NSF, USAF, DOE, State of Texas, and The Robert A. Welch Foundation. The total research budget is in excess of $400,000 for I984-1985.
HERMAN, R.
Professor of Physics and L. P. Gilvin Professor in Civil Engineering: B.S., City College of New York, 1935; M.A. and Ph.D., Princeton, 1940. Member, National Academy of Engineering. Recipient: Magellanic Premium, American Philosophical Society; George Vanderlinden Prix, Belgiun Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Fine Arts; John Price Wetherill Gold Medal, Franklin Institute; Award in Physical and Mathematical Science, New York Academy of Sciences. Cosmology, nuclear charge structure, solid state and molecular physics, vehicular traffic science and operations research.
HORSTHEMKE, W.
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., Brussels Free University, 1978. Stochastic theory, chemical instabilities, nonlinear dynamics.
Biographical Sketch: Education and Professional Experience I studied physics, with a minor in mathematics, at the Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster in Germany. In 1975 I was awarded the degree of Diplomphysiker (M.S. degree); thesis: "Behandlung von Zufallsprozessen mit stochastischen Differentialgleichungen, Fokker-Planck-Gleichungen, unendlichdimensionalen Verteilungen", Adviser: J. Kamphusmann. For my doctoral studies in physical chemistry, I went to the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, to work with G. Nicolis and I. Prigogine (Chemistry Nobel Laureate 1977). In November 1978 I defended my dissertation "Stochastic Differential Equations and Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions" and received the degree of docteur en sciences. My studies were supported by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation) from 1970 to 1978. I stayed on in Brussels as a research associate for a couple of years to work on noise-induced transitions with R. Lefever, with whom I had initiated the field in 1977. One intuitively expects random perturbations to create more disorder in a system. We discovered the counterintuitive effect that order can be induced in nonlinear systems by external random fluctuations (noise). These noise-induced transitions can occur if the influence of the fluctuations depends on the state of the system. Then the random noise may stabilize unstable states or even give rise to states that do not exist in a nonrandom environment, leading to increased order. In 1981 I joined the Physics Department of the University of Texas at Austin. My research on noise-induced transitions with Lefever culminated in a monograph ("Noise Induced Transitions"), and I then began to work with Harry Swinney and his group on chemical spatial pattern formation. I joined SMU's Chemistry Department in 1988. Married Brenda Sue Kissel, November 29, 1980. 1 child, Stephan. Father: Stefan Horsthemke Mother: Helene Wilhelmine (Lohmann) Horsthemke
PRIGOGINE, I.
Professor of Physics and of Chemical Engineering. M.A., Brussels (Belgium), 1939, Ph.D., 1941. Nobel laureate (Chemistry) 1977. Numerous honorary degrees; membership in fifteen national academies, including U. S. And Belgium. Theoretical physics and chemistry, nonequilibrium processes.
REICHL, L. E.
Associate Professor. B.S., Denver, 1964; M.S., 1967, Ph.D., 1969. Quantum fluids, transport theory, nonlinear dynamics, nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, stochastic theory.
Timeline for Center for Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics
1967: Ilya Prigogine founded the Center for Statistical Mechanics, later renamed the Ilya Prigogine Center for Studies in Statistical Mechanics and Complex Systems.
Current description of Center:
Center for Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics |
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