DETERMINISTIC CHAOS AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE KINETIC-THEORY OF GASES

Recent work in dynamical systems theory has shown that many properties that are associated with irreversible processes in fluids can be unde rstood in terms of the dynamical properties of reversible, Hamiltonian systems. That is, stochastic like behavior is possible for these syst ems. Here we review the basic theory for this stochastic-like behavior and show how it may be used to obtain an understanding of irreversibl e processes in gases and fluids. Recent, closely related, work on the use of kinetic theory to calculate dynamical quantities such as Lyapun ov exponents is also discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.