The extremal current principle for driven diffusive systems

Statistical Physics and Complexity Group meeting

The extremal current principle for driven diffusive systems

  • Event time: 11:30am
  • Event date: 18th May 2011
  • Speaker: Philip Greulich (Formerly School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
  • Location: Room 2511,

Event details

I will present a theoretical framework to describe macroscopic properties of driven diffusive systems which are confined to narrow geometries and interact locally. These systems exhibit particle queuing/jamming phase transitions, if the influx exceeds the transport capacity. The phase transitions are determined by the dynamics of domain walls (shock waves). It can be shown that the macroscopic features of these systems can be captured by an extremal principle on the current.