Seminar on the Evolution of Blast Waves in Cold Gas: Bridging Newtonian Dynamics and Hydrodynamics

Join us for an enlightening seminar on the Evolution of Blast Waves in Cold Gas, taking place on April 23rd, 2024, from 12 PM to 1 PM (IST) at venue D-128. Renowned speaker Prof Abhishek Dhar, Professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, TIFR, Bangalore, will delve into the intriguing topic titled "Evolution of a blast in a cold gas: From Newton to Euler and Navier-Stokes-Fourier." In this seminar, Prof Dhar will explore the fascinating realm where a gas governed by Newtonian dynamics seamlessly transitions to the continuum laws of hydrodynamics. He will shed light on the rigorous yet rare numerical demonstrations of this equivalence, focusing on classic scenarios like the evolution of blast-waves and the intriguing "splash" problem. Don't miss this opportunity to gain insights into one of the outstanding open problems in physics and mathematics.

Abstract:

It is known that a gas composed of a large number of atoms following Newtonian dynamics can also be described by the continuum laws of hydrodynamics. Proving this rigorously is one of the outstanding open problems in physics and mathematics. Surprisingly, precise numerical demonstrations of the equivalence of the hydrodynamic and microscopic descriptions are rather rare.  The talk will discuss  our recent numerical tests of  this equivalence in the context of the classic problem of the evolution of a blast-wave, where a large amount of energy is introduced in a localized region in a cold gas.  We will also discuss the "splash" problem where energy is injected from one side of a semi-infinite cold gas.