Upgrading the Local Ergodic Theorem for planar semi-dispersing billiards

The Local Ergodic Theorem (also known as the `Fundamental Theorem') gives sufficient conditions under which a phase point has an open neighborhood that belongs (mod 0) to one ergodic component. This theorem is a key ingredient of many proofs of ergodicity for billiards and, more generally, for smooth hyperbolic maps with singularities. However the proof of that theorem relies upon a delicate assumption (Chernov-Sinai Ansatz), which is difficult to check for some physically relevant models, including gases of hard balls. Here we give a proof of the Local Ergodic Theorem for two dimensional billiards without using the Ansatz.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure

The characteristic exponents of the falling ball model

We study the characteristic exponents of the Hamiltonian system of $n$ ($\ge 2$) point masses $m_1,\dots,m_n$ freely falling in the vertical half line $\{q|\, q\ge 0\}$ under constant gravitation and colliding with each other and the solid floor $q=0$ elastically. This model was introduced and first studied by M. Wojtkowski. Hereby we prove his conjecture: All relevant characteristic (Lyapunov) exponents of the above dynamical system are nonzero, provided that $m_1\ge\dots\ge m_n$ (i. e. the masses do not increase as we go up) and $m_1\ne m_2$

Heat conduction and diffusion of hard disks in a narrow channel

Using molecular dynamics we study heat conduction and diffusion of hard disks in one dimensional narrow channels. When collisions preserve momentum the heat conduction $\kappa$ diverges with the number of disks $N$ as $\kappa\sim N^\alpha$ $(\alpha \approx 1/3)$. Such a behaviour is seen both when the ordering of disks is fixed ('pen-case' model), and when they can exchange their positions. Momentum conservation results also in sound-wave effects that enhance diffusive behaviour and on an intermediate time scale (that diverges in the thermodynamic limit) normal diffusion takes place even in the 'pen-case' model. When collisions do not preserve momentum, $\kappa$ remains finite and sound-wave effects are absent.Comment: 4 pages, accepted in Phys.Rev.

Proving The Ergodic Hypothesis for Billiards With Disjoint Cylindric Scatterers

In this paper we study the ergodic properties of mathematical billiards describing the uniform motion of a point in a flat torus from which finitely many, pairwise disjoint, tubular neighborhoods of translated subtori (the so called cylindric scatterers) have been removed. We prove that every such system is ergodic (actually, a Bernoulli flow), unless a simple geometric obstacle for the ergodicity is present.Comment: 24 pages, AMS-TeX fil

On the complexity of curve fitting algorithms

We study a popular algorithm for fitting polynomial curves to scattered data based on the least squares with gradient weights. We show that sometimes this algorithm admits a substantial reduction of complexity, and, furthermore, find precise conditions under which this is possible. It turns out that this is, indeed, possible when one fits circles but not ellipses or hyperbolas.Comment: 8 pages, no figure

Stable regimes for hard disks in a channel with twisting walls

We study a gas of $N$ hard disks in a box with semi-periodic boundary conditions. The unperturbed gas is hyperbolic and ergodic (these facts are proved for N=2 and expected to be true for all $N\geq 2$). We study various perturbations by twisting the outgoing velocity at collisions with the walls. We show that the dynamics tends to collapse to various stable regimes, however we define the perturbations and however small they are.Comment: 30 pages, final version to appear in "Chaos

Approximating multi-dimensional Hamiltonian flows by billiards

Consider a family of smooth potentials $V_{\epsilon}$, which, in the limit $\epsilon\to0$, become a singular hard-wall potential of a multi-dimensional billiard. We define auxiliary billiard domains that asymptote, as $\epsilon\to0$ to the original billiard, and provide asymptotic expansion of the smooth Hamiltonian solution in terms of these billiard approximations. The asymptotic expansion includes error estimates in the $C^{r}$ norm and an iteration scheme for improving this approximation. Applying this theory to smooth potentials which limit to the multi-dimensional close to ellipsoidal billiards, we predict when the separatrix splitting persists for various types of potentials

Ethical living: relinking ethics and consumption through care in Chile and Brazil

Mainstream conceptualizations of ‘ethical consumption’ equate the notion with conscious, individual, market-mediated choices motivated by ethical or political aims that transcend ordinary concerns. Drawing on recent sociology and anthropology of consumption literature on the links between ordinary ethics and ethical consumption, this article discusses some of the limitations of this conceptualization. Using data from 32 focus groups conducted in Chile and Brazil, we propose a conceptualization of ethical consumption that does not centre on individual, market-mediated choices but understands it at the level of practical outcomes, which we refer to as different forms of ‘ethical living’. To do that, we argue, we need to depart from the deontological understanding of ethics that underpins mainstream approaches to ethical consumption and adopt a more consequentialist view focusing on ethical outcomes. We develop these points through describing one particular ordinary moral regime that seemed to be predominant in participants’ accounts of ethics and consumption in both Chile and Brazil: one that links consumption and ethics through care. We show that the moral regime of care leads to ‘ethical outcomes’, such as energy saving or limiting overconsumption, yet contrary to the mainstream view of ethical consumption emphasizing politicized choice expressed through markets, these result from following ordinary ethics, often through routines of practices

On the work distribution for the adiabatic compression of a dilute classical gas

We consider the adiabatic and quasi-static compression of a dilute classical gas, confined in a piston and initially equilibrated with a heat bath. We find that the work performed during this process is described statistically by a gamma distribution. We use this result to show that the model satisfies the non-equilibrium work and fluctuation theorems, but not the flucutation-dissipation relation. We discuss the rare but dominant realizations that contribute most to the exponential average of the work, and relate our results to potentially universal work distributions.Comment: 4 page

Rotation sets of billiards with one obstacle

We investigate the rotation sets of billiards on the $m$-dimensional torus with one small convex obstacle and in the square with one small convex obstacle. In the first case the displacement function, whose averages we consider, measures the change of the position of a point in the universal covering of the torus (that is, in the Euclidean space), in the second case it measures the rotation around the obstacle. A substantial part of the rotation set has usual strong properties of rotation sets