AMS Sponsors Exhibit on Capitol Hill

The AMS sponsored an exhibit at the 19^th annual Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) Exhibition & Reception on Capitol Hill held on May 7, 2013. Philip T. Gressman, University of Pennsylvania, presented work on “The Boltzmann Equation: Where Mathematics and Science Collide.” The Exhibition drew over 285 people, including ten Members of Congress, to view 35 exhibits on research funded by the National Science Foundation.

Gressman and his colleague Robert M. Strain have found solutions to a 140-year-old, 7-dimensional equation that were not known to exist for more than a century despite its widespread use in modeling the behavior of gases.

The Boltzmann equation was developed to predict how gaseous material distributes itself in space and how it responds to changes in things like temperature, pressure or velocity. Using modern mathematical techniques from the fields of partial differential equations and harmonic analysis, Gressman and Strain proved the global existence of classical solutions and rapid time decay to equilibrium for the Boltzmann equation with long-range interactions. Global existence and rapid decay imply that the equation correctly predicts that the solutions will continue to fit the system’s behavior and not undergo any mathematical catastrophes such as a breakdown of the equation’s integrity caused by a minor change within the equation. Rapid decay to equilibrium means that the effect of an initial small disturbance in the gas is short-lived and quickly becomes unnoticeable.

The study also provides a new understanding of the effects due to grazing collisions, when neighboring molecules just glance off one another rather than collide head on. These glancing collisions turn out to be dominant type of collision for the full Boltzmann equation with long-range interactions.

CNSF is an alliance of over 130 scientific and professional societies and universities united by a concern for the future viability of the national science, mathematics and engineering enterprise.

Previous AMS exhibits at CNSF Exhibitions include:

• Beyond Coursework: Extending a Successful Model for Building Diversity in STEM to University Campuses presented by Talea Mayo, University of Central Florida
• Berry Smart: Mathematics for Food and Water Security presented by Lea Jenkins, Clemson University
• On the Movement of Cells, Birds, Fish and Other Agents: Mathematical Modeling in Biology and Ecology presented by Konstantina Trivisa, University of Maryland
• Mathematical Algorithms for Space Weather, Tsunamis, and Plasma Physics presented by Katharine Gurski, Howard University
• Topological Sensor Networks presented by Robert Ghrist, University of Pennsylvania
• The Boltzman Equation: Where Mathematics and Science Collide presented by Philip T. Gressman, University of Pennsylvania
• ICERM: Connecting Mathematics and Computing through Experimentation presented by Jill Pipher and Lauren Barrows, ICERM
• Efficient Energy Conversion: Mathematics of Nanoscale Networks presented by Keith Promislow, Michigan State University
• Industrial Modeling and Simulation: The Wave of the Future presented by Susan Minkoff, University of Maryland-Baltimore County
• Modeling Outbreaks in Agricultural Systems, Human Communities and Computer Networks presented by David Hiebeler, University of Maine
• Mathematics and Cardiology: Partners for the Future presented by Suncica Canic, University of Houston
• Computational Models for Cardiovascular Disease Assessment and Surgery Design presented by DalinTang, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)
• Disease Prediction and Treatment Design presented by Eva K. Lee, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Mathematics for Advanced Composites Technology presented by Robert Lipton,Louisiana State University
• Mathematical Modeling of Swimming Organisms presented by Lisa Fauci and Nick Cogan, Tulane University
• Mathematics of Sea Ice presented by Kenneth M. Golden, University of Utah
• Liquid Films and Image Inpainting presented by Andrea Bertozzi, Duke University
• Undergraduate Research Opportunities Made Possible by NSF presented by Dr. John Bush, MIT
• Computer Simulation of Blood Flow in the Heart presented by Charles S. Peskin, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University
• Mathematical Foundations of Image Analysis and Computational Vision presented by Don McClure, Brown University
• Ergodic Theory presented by Doug Lind, University of Washington
• The Energy of Knots presented with JPBM by Jonathan K. Simon, University of Iowa and Gregory R. Buck, Saint Anselm College