Yves Pomeau

Yves Pomeau (* 1942 ) is a French physicist who deals with hydrodynamics , elasticity theory and nonlinear dynamics ( chaos theory ).

Pomeau was Research Director of the CNRS at the École normal supérieure . After his retirement he was at the University of Arizona .

Pomeau and Paul Manneville discovered the phenomenon of intermittency in chaos theory in 1979 during the numerical investigation of the Lorenz attractor . Together with Pierre Bergé (physicist) and others, they also investigated the phenomenon with Rayleigh-Bénard convection . With Manneville he discovered phase diffusion (Pomeau-Manneville equation) and with his student S. Zaleski he investigated the various mechanisms of wavenumber selection. According to Pomeau, the transition to turbulence with parallel flow is analogous to directional percolation . In 1986 he and Uriel Frisch and Brosl Hasslacher developed a lattice gas model of the Navier-Stokes equation in hydrodynamics ( FHP model ). The basis for this was his grid model from 1973. FHP was widely used in the simulation of complex liquids and in industrial applications.

At the beginning of his career, he investigated the long-term tails of the correlation functions and the divergence of the transport coefficients in two-dimensional liquids and developed a mode-mode-locking approach, which turned out to be crucial for the study of dense gases. In the case of weak turbulence, he worked out the phenomenon of the condensation of non-linear waves, which he sees as a classic analog of the Bose-Einstein condensation. In pattern formation he proposed a solution to the problem of Saffman-Taylor fingers and the speed selection problem in the growth of crystalline dendrites in supercooled melts. He predicted vortex condensation nucleation in supersonic flow around an obstacle (analysis of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation). This was tested experimentally with ultra-cold atomic gases (Bose-Einstein condensation).

In addition, he dealt with nonlinear deformations in continuum mechanics (for example singularities of "crumpled" paper), the parking problem, time-reversal symmetry, solitons on inclined planes, random networks of automata, capillarity, wetting and description of interfaces with phase fields, vortex statistics in two-dimensional hydrodynamics.

In 1987 he became a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences . In 1981 he received the Paul Langevin Prize . For 2016 he was awarded the Boltzmann Medal for his essential contributions to the statistical physics of non-equilibrium phenomena and especially for the development of the modern understanding of hydrodynamics, instabilities, pattern formation and chaos (laudation).

Fonts (selection)

with Pierre Bergé, Monique Dubois-Gance Des rythmes au chaos , Paris, Odile Jacob 1994
with Bergé, Monique Dubois, Paul Manneville Intermittency and Rayleigh-Benard convection , Journal de Physique, Lettres, Volume 41, 1980, L 341
with Bergé, Christian Vidal Order within chaos- towards a deterministic approach to turbulence , Wiley 1984 (French original Ordre dans le chaos , Hermann, Paris 1984)
with Bergé, Vidal: L'espace chaotique , 1998
with P. Manneville Intermittent transition to turbulence in dissipative dynamical systems , Comm. Math. Phys., Vol. 74, 1980, pp. 189-197
with Brosl Hasslacher, Uriel Frisch: Lattice gas automata for the Navier Stokes equation , Physical Review Letters, Volume 56, 1986, p. 1505
with Basile Audoly: Elasticity and Geometry: From hair curls to the nonlinear response of shells. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010, x + 586 pages, ISBN 978-0-19-850625-6 .
with Minh-Binh Tran: Statistical Physics of Non Equilibrium Quantum Phenomena , Lecture Notes in Physics 967, Springer Nature 2019, ISBN 978-3-030-34393-4

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Recognition of the Boltzmann Medal 2016, Statphys 27
↑ For his seminal contributions to the Statistical Physics of non-equilibrium phenomena in general and, in particular, for developing our modern understanding of fluid mechanics, instabilities, pattern formation and chaos. Statphys 27

personal data
SURNAME	Pomeau, Yves
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French physicist
DATE OF BIRTH	1942

[1] Recognition of the Boltzmann Medal 2016, Statphys 27

[2] For his seminal contributions to the Statistical Physics of non-equilibrium phenomena in general and, in particular, for developing our modern understanding of fluid mechanics, instabilities, pattern formation and chaos. Statphys 27