In October 2012 our group has familiarized themselves with this interesting theory. Few seminars, which were held at VU ITPA, on the stochastic theory of nonequilibrium steady states were read by dr. Julius Ruseckas, one the researchers in our group. This theory is discussed in two articles recently published in the Physical Reports journal [1, 2]. Read on for the links to the articles.

References

• X.-J. Zhang, H. Qian, M. Qian. Stochastic theory of nonequilibrium steady states and its applications. Part I. Physics Reports 510 (1-2), 2012: 1-86. doi: 10.1016/j.physrep.2011.09.002.
• H. Ge, M. Qian, H. Qian. Stochastic theory of nonequilibrium steady states. Part II: Applications in chemical biophysics. Physics Reports 510: 87-118 (2012). doi: 10.1016/j.physrep.2011.09.001.

Topic: "Agent-based Versus Macroscopic Modeling of Competition and Business Processes in Economics and Finance"

Speaker: dr. Vygintas Gontis

Briefly: The talk will be focused on the agent-based and stochastic modeling done by the Department of the Theory of Processes and Structures of the VU ITPA.

When? 6th of November, 17:00.

Where? VU Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (Naugarduko g. 24, Vilnius), 400 auditorium.

Organized by: Department of the Mathematical Analysis of the VU MIF.

Recent hurricane, which struck east coast of the USA, has very interesting symmetry properties. This natural phenomenon obeys the golden ratio! Well at least such information has been circulating on the science.memebase.com! Similar properties are also observed in some fractals such as Penrose tiling (we have not yet discussed this fractal on Physics of Risk, thus we'd like to recommend reading an article on the Wikipedia).

Quantum mechanics and statistical physics use very similar and inter-connected concepts. E.g., the latter is concerned with distribution and probabilities, while the former operates with wave functions and amplitudes. Even the essential equations, master and Shrodinger, appear to be similar:

\begin{equation} \frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d} t} \psi(t) = H \psi(t) \quad\text{and} \quad i \frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d} t} \psi(t) = H\psi(t) . \end{equation}

The only difference is the imaginary factor i! But these similarities lie just on the surface...

You can read more about it in a draft paper by J. C. Baez and J. Biamonte [1]. Please be sure to buy one, if you like and if it becomes available! Currently you can get from the arXiv website (see the references section).

References

• J. C. Baez, J. Biamonte. A Course on Quantum Techniques for Stochastic Mechanics. 2012. arXiv: 1209.3632 [quant-ph].

Topic: "Physics is not a risk: Brief introduction into the Physics of Risk"

Speaker: Aleksejus Kononovicius

Briefly: Social sciences have accomplished many different things. Yet it should be evident that there is a place for improvements - to look into the old and new social problems a bit differently. As many of the social problems are strongly non-linear and very complex, the physicists' point of view is very useful. This, new, point of view is known as Physics of Risk.

When? 18th of October, 17:00.

Where? VU Faculty of Physics (Saulėtekio al. 9, III rūmai, Vilnius), 201 auditorium.

Organized by: VU Faculty of Physics Students Scientific Association.

Facebook event: here.

Slides: download (in Lithuanian).