Denis Evans
Encyclopedia
Denis James Evans, is a Professor in the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

. He is widely recognised for his contributions to nonequilibrium thermodynamics and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and the simulation of nonequilibrium fluids.

Personal Profile

Denis Evans was a CSIRO Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

, a Research Fellow at Cornell University and a Fulbright  Fellow at the National Bureau of Standards (USA) during 1979 and 1980. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
Australian Academy of Science
The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The Academy is modelled after the Royal Society and operates under a Royal Charter; as such it is...

 and has won numerous awards, including the Frederick White Prize of the Australian Academy of Sciences (1990), the H. G. Smith Medal of the RACI (2000). the Boys-Rahman Lectureship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2000), a Centenary Medal
Centenary Medal
The Centenary Medal is an award created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the Centenary of Federation of Australia and to honour people who have made a contribution to Australian society or government...

 from the Australian Government and the Moyal Medal for distinguished contributions to mathematics, physics or statistics from Macquarie University
Macquarie University
Macquarie University is an Australian public teaching and research university located in Sydney, with its main campus situated in Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of Sydney...

.

He is also a keen bushwalker and photographer.

Research interests

Denis Evans heads the Liquid state chemical physics group in the Research School of Chemistry at The Australian National University. Denis is best known for the derivation and experimental validation of the Fluctuation theorem
Fluctuation theorem
The fluctuation theorem , which originated from statistical mechanics, deals with the relative probability that the entropy of a system which is currently away from thermodynamic equilibrium will increase or decrease over a given amount of time...

, an extension of the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Second law of thermodynamics
The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the tendency that over time, differences in temperature, pressure, and chemical potential equilibrate in an isolated physical system. From the state of thermodynamic equilibrium, the law deduced the principle of the increase of entropy and...

.

Denis Evans has over 280 publications on nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, dynamical systems theory as applied to bulk systems, irreversible thermodynamics, computer simulation algorithms for nonequilibrium systems, the relation of the intermolecular potential function to macroscopic fluid properties and molecular rheology. He has developed nonequilibrium simulation methods including the DOLLS and SLLOD algorithms for the study of shear flow
Shear flow
The term shear flow is used in solid mechanics as well as in fluid dynamics. Loosely speaking, shear flow is defined as:* the gradient of a shear stress force through the body ;...

, the Evans' method for heat flow, the color conductivity method for the determination of self diffusion
Diffusion
Molecular diffusion, often called simply diffusion, is the thermal motion of all particles at temperatures above absolute zero. The rate of this movement is a function of temperature, viscosity of the fluid and the size of the particles...

.

He is also well known for the development of links between the theory of chaos
Chaos theory
Chaos theory is a field of study in mathematics, with applications in several disciplines including physics, economics, biology, and philosophy. Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, an effect which is popularly referred to as the...

 and properties of fluids including development of the Conjugate Pairing Rule.

Books


  • Evans, D.J. and Morriss, G.P., "Statistical mechanics of nonequilibrium Liquids", Second Edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, to appear April 2008.

Selected publications

  • Steven R. Williams and Denis J. Evans, Linear Response Domain in Glassy System, Phys. Rev. Lett., 96 015701 (2006)
  • Butler B.D., Ayton G., Jepps O.G. and Evans D.J., Configurational temperature: Verification of Monte Carlo simulations, J. Chem. Phys., 109, 6519-6522 (1998).
  • Lue L. and Evans D.J., Configurational temperature for systems with constraints, Phys. Rev. E,62, 4764–4768 (2000).
  • Wang, G.M., Sevick, E.M., Mittag, E., Searles, D.J. and Evans, D.J., Experimental demonstration of violations of the Second Law of Thermodynamics for small systems and short time scales, Phys. Rev. Lett., 89(5), 050601/1–4 (2002).
  • Evans, D.J. and Searles, D.J., The Fluctuation Theorem, Adv. in Phys.51, 1529-1585 (2002).

See also

  • Fluctuation theorem
    Fluctuation theorem
    The fluctuation theorem , which originated from statistical mechanics, deals with the relative probability that the entropy of a system which is currently away from thermodynamic equilibrium will increase or decrease over a given amount of time...

  • Loschmidt's paradox
    Loschmidt's paradox
    Loschmidt's paradox, also known as the reversibility paradox, is the objection that it should not be possible to deduce an irreversible process from time-symmetric dynamics...

     - how can one reconcile thermodynamic irreversibility with the time reversibility inherent in the microscopic equations of motion for both classical and quantum mechanical systems
  • Le Chatelier's principle
    Le Châtelier's principle
    In chemistry, Le Chatelier's principle, also called the Chatelier's principle, can be used to predict the effect of a change in conditions on a chemical equilibrium. The principle is named after Henry Louis Le Chatelier and sometimes Karl Ferdinand Braun who discovered it independently...

     - a nineteenth century principle that defied a mathematical proof until the advent of the Fluctuation Theorem.
  • Crooks fluctuation theorem
    Crooks Fluctuation Theorem
    The Crooks equation is an equation in statistical mechanics that relatesthe work done on a system during a non-equilibrium transformation to thefree energy difference between the final and the initial state of the...

     - an example of transient fluctuation theorem relating the dissipated work in non equilibrium transformations to free energy differences.
  • Jarzynski equality
    Jarzynski equality
    The Jarzynski equality is an equation in statistical mechanics that relates free energy differences between two equilibrium states and non-equilibrium processes...

     - another nonequilibrium equality closely related to the fluctuation theorem and to the second law of thermodynamics
  • Green-Kubo relations
    Green-Kubo relations
    The Green–Kubo relations give the exact mathematical expression for transport coefficients in terms of integrals of time correlation functions.-Thermal and mechanical transport processes:...

     - there is a deep connection between the fluctuation theorem and the Green-Kubo relations for linear transport coefficients - like shear viscosity
    Viscosity
    Viscosity is a measure of the resistance of a fluid which is being deformed by either shear or tensile stress. In everyday terms , viscosity is "thickness" or "internal friction". Thus, water is "thin", having a lower viscosity, while honey is "thick", having a higher viscosity...

     or thermal conductivity
    Thermal conductivity
    In physics, thermal conductivity, k, is the property of a material's ability to conduct heat. It appears primarily in Fourier's Law for heat conduction....

  • Boltzmann
  • Thermodynamics
    Thermodynamics
    Thermodynamics is a physical science that studies the effects on material bodies, and on radiation in regions of space, of transfer of heat and of work done on or by the bodies or radiation...

  • Brownian motor
    Brownian motor
    Brownian motors are nano-scale or molecular devices by which thermally activated processes are controlled and used to generate directed motion in space and to do mechanical or electrical work...


External links

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