International Conference on “Unconventional Applications of Statistical Physics”

Abstract

In his presidential address before the British Association in 1871, William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) said, “the greatest achievement yet made in molecular theory of the properties of matter is the kinetic theory of gases, shadowed forth by Lucretius, definitely stated by Daniel Bernoulli, largely developed by Herapath, made a reality by Joule, and worked out to its present advanced state by Clausius and Maxwell”. Then, in 1889, in an obituary tribute to Rudolf Clausius, Josiah Willard Gibbs wrote that the kinetic theory of gases “is mainly the work of three men, Clausius, Maxwell and Boltzmann”. However, it was Gibbs himself who put statistical mechanics on a solid foundation in 1902 by developing the general formalisms in his classic book “Elementary Principles of Statistical Mechanics”. These formalisms were not restricted merely to gases but were applicable to all forms of matter. But, despite relentless efforts of statistical physicists over the last one century, an equally strong foundation of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics remains elusive.Twentieth century has witnessed many triumphs of the powerful tools of statistical mechanics in solving manymysteries of inanimate matter. Encouraged by the overwhelming success of these concepts and techniques in physics,some statistical physicists took bold steps to venture out of the traditional disciplinary boundaries of physics by applying the same tools to understand systems and phenomena which were subjects of investigation in other traditional disciplines. Such “unconventional” applications of statistical mechanics opened up new horizons of research through interdisciplinary collaborations; just as statistical physics helped in solving problems in other branches of science and engineering as well as social sciences, these disciplines also enriched statistical physics by providing wider testing grounds for its toolbox.Traditional (“foreign”) disciplines have increasingly become the playground of statistical physicists in the recent years including, for example, computer science and information technology, biology, geology, economics, social sciences. Dietrich Stauffer is one of those bold adventurers who has collaborated on many of these “unconventional voyages” with several other fellow travelers in these uncharted territories. From the current pace of his research output, Dietrich Stauffer may appear hardly a 30-year-old assistant professor working very hard for his tenure. The long list of publications may suggest that Stauffer is a 90-year-old globetrotter. In fact, Dietrich Stauffer has turned just 60 this year. We decided to organize an International Conference on “Unconventional Applications of Statistical Physics” in his honor on the occasion of his 60th birthday. In one of the sessions at this conference, organized at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, during 20–22 March, 2003, Dietrich Stauffer was felicitated.The papers included in these proceedings, which are essentially the invited talks and three selected contributed papers, will help the readers to get a feeling of the joy and excitement in appreciating intellectual challenges in other disciplines and in solving some of these by unconventional applications of conventional tools of statistical physics.AcknowledgementsWe gratefully acknowledge the financial and infrastructural support of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkata, India, for holding the Conference. We are thankful to Bikash Sinha, Director of SINP, for his enthusiastic support. We are also grateful to the Advisory Committee members, and especially to Arnab Chatterjee, the Organizing Secretary, for their all-round support and efforts.