21 - 25 September 2015

Organisers: Colm Connaughton (Warwick), Oleg Zaboronski (Warwick), Eric Vanden-Eijnden (Courant Institute NYU), R. Rajesh (Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai)

Scientific scope

One of the greatest scientific achievements of the 20th century is the theoretical understanding
of the origins of the strong universality observed in the properties of many systems near equilibrium phase transitions. Understanding such systems required an appreciation of how strongly correlated fluctuations can invalidate mean-field approximations leading to the modern theory of equilibrium critical phenomena. Mathematically, the foundations of equilibrium statistical mechanics are now well understood and the theory of large deviations is central to characterising equilibrium fluctuations. The nature of fluctuations in nonequilibrium systems, despite their ubiquity in the physical and biological sciences, is much less clear. Non-equilibrium systems and their phase transitions do not seem as strongly universal as their equilibrium counterparts. Nevertheless many non-equilibrium systems such as turbulence, reaction-diffusion models and driven interacting particle systems still exhibit anomalous scaling and violation of mean-field dynamics due to correlated fluctuations.

This workshop will explore topics such as recent advances in the extension of the formalism of large deviation theory to describe non-equilibrium fluctuations, anomalous scaling in reaction diffusion systems and stochastic aggregation and nonequilibrium phase transitions such as gelation and out-of-equilibrium condensation. It will also include work on systems where rigorous mathematical progress is being made such as in understanding condensation in interacting particle systems for which exact stationary stationary measures are known and the use of fluctuation theorems to characterise non-equilibrium fluctuations.

Invited speakers include

• Eli Ben-Naim (LANL)
• Freddy Bouchet (Lyon)
• Gregory Falkovich (Weizmann Institute)
• Malte Henkel (Université de Lorraine)
• Rainer Klages (Queen Mary University of London)
• Paul Krapivsky (Boston)
• Vladimir Lebedev (Landau)
• Bernhard Mehlig (Gothenburg)
• R. Rajesh (IMS, Chennai)
• Gunther Schütz (Julich)
• Eric Vanden-Eijnden (Courant Institute, NYU)
• Michael Wilkinson (Open University)
• Mattieu Wyart (NYU)

Programme

Draft programme is available here (subject to revision).

Registration

All Warwick EPSRC Mathematics Symposium workshops are open to all interested parties within the mathematical sciences community in the UK and internationally, both in academia and, where appropriate, in industry.

There is no registration fee for this workshop although all prospective participants are required to register here (scroll down until you find the link for this workshop).

Registration deadline is Friday 21 August.

The total number of participants may be limited by room capacity. In the event that the workshop is over-subscribed, the organisers will use their discretion when issuing invitations.

Logistical information and financial support

The meeting will take place in the Zeeman Building at the University of Warwick. Information about Warwick and how to get here can be found in the links on the right.

The EPSRC has provided limited funds to support the travel and accommodation expenses of workshop participants. We expect visitors to cover travel and accommodation expenses from their own grants whenever reasonable to do so. Financial support can be requested during the registration process.

For further information contact Colm Connaughton (C.P.Connaughton@warwick.ac.uk)

See also:
Mathematics Research Centre
Mathematical Interdisciplinary Research at Warwick (MIR@W)
Past Events 
Past Symposia