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Chaos to Order - some mathematical approaches N K Srinivasan Ph D Introduction This article aims to suggest some trends and approaches in mathematical physics on this topic. I was intrigued by the observation from the Hubble telescope in space that the galaxies are not just running away from us at constant rate [ as Edwin Hubble showed in the 1930's] but accelerating in their outward journey. The "expanding universe" is simply blowing up! Are we under some kind of misunderstanding of basic structure of Universe or our methods of physics have led us astray? For further inquiry, I tried to explore the trend of mathematical physics in the 20th century and in the late 19th century--- to glean

some insight for the trend in our mathematical thinking and theoretical approaches in physics, leaving aside the experimental approaches for sometime. From order to turbulance and chaos 1 Early work in mathematical physics started with understanding periodic phenomena, basically using sine waves and its modifications, [varying frequency and amplitude and combining waves];you can recall the works of Fourier, Bernoulli and Euler , Gauss and others. Fourier series was the most important tool, for understanding sound, light, heat conduction and so on. This approach continued till the end of 19th century and the beginning decades of 20th century. 2 The next major approach was to understand physical phenomena through differential equations, to map the trajectory or rays of a particle or a heavy object, with time and velocity vector. The extraordinary success of

differential equations is captivating ; how many things could be explained using a set of differential equations--even complex systems like prey-predator models? Laplace transform and Heaviside methods were the main tools at that stage. James Clark Maxwell could extend this differential equation approach with full vigor to electromagnetic waves, combining electrical and magnetic field variations. 3 Later on ,mathematicians and physicists tweaked the diff equations with varying initial conditions , small perturbations , boundary conditions and asymptotes. Several strange things emerged such as oscillations of the output and instability. We associate this kind of approach to Poincare, Lyapunov and others who could indicate systems leading to unstable situation or even chaos. Non-linear differential equations were the rage to understand

instability in electrical and mechanical systems ,including complicated coupling of forces in aerodynamics.[ If you can solve certain non-linear differential equation ,you could master and control the related phenomenon! ---or else you have to make simplifying numerical approximations.--] 4 After all these , there was much lull in understanding complex behavior of physical systems whether it is turbulence in air or water or complex force fields in atoms. [Early quantum mechanics and wave mechanics used simple differential equations, often the potential energy terms were simplified; simple perturbation theory was used to tweak the equation and get some answers or use brute force numerical methods using computers. Several empirical 'potential' functions were used to reduce complexity [ for instance, Thomas=Fermi potential ]or get easy answers to fit the

experimental observations (for calculating the energy states or atomic spectra.).Much of the success of Wave mechanics and matrix mechanics is due to simple functions ,superimposed for fitting the experimental observations. 5 The next stage to understand complex behavior or chaos came from unexpected quarters. While studying dynamical systems, Feigenbaum, Gaston Julia and Benoit Mandelbrot, among others, found mathematical systems that could end up into chaos for certain conditions. It was easy to relate this to natural phenomena such as coast line geometry ["fractal geometry"] and at the same time to growth curves observed in Nature. The probability theorists had come up with the mathematics of 'random walk ' or diffusion , starting from early work of Albert Einstein and R Smoluchowski on Brownian motion , --. Kolmagorov , Ronald Fischer, Poisson , Andrie

Markov , Norbert Weiner , Eugene Wigner and others -for stochastic processes. Mathematical physics has already moved from deterministic formalism to stochastic processes for complex phenomena (around 1940). Stanislaw Ulam and John von Neumann 'invented' the Monte-Carlo simulations for intractable differential equations and integrals; 'Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem' of non-linear springs could be solved with rather crude computers and classical concept of 'equipartition of energy among atoms' of Maxwell-Boltzmann vintage was doubted. This approach and related mathematical techniques, aided by fast computers, could enable us to represent 'chaos ' in several situations. 6 What next? We see that mathematical physics has helped us to understand simple periodic phenomena ,then

small perturbations ,randomness and then to full-scale chaos, to a remarkable degree. But what about the systems reverting from chaos to order?--- In other words, if an aircraft goes into tail spin, can it recover to smooth flight? Can a chaotic system become one of steady growth ? Can this be mathematically structured? This is important if we are to understand what happens to universe or 'universes' with galaxies running away or colliding with each other. What kind of mathematics would give an approach to study and solve such problems? We are still unfamiliar or ignorant of such mathematical fields that would lead us to traverse from chaos to order. Our understanding of physical universes ,and even physical phenomena on Earth,is limited by the lack of mathematical structures to handle the reverse process of "chaos to order". One approach is to consider the processes by

which an object can lose acceleration and coming into strong force fields that would pull such objects together. [ May be ,this happens all the time in black holes?] How can stars nucleate from gas dust with high energy particles swarming around? Then short range forces would 'assemble ' the objects [be they atoms or planets] into orderly arrangement, like atoms in a solid substance . The processes would involve 'drag forces' or frictional forces' in the universe to reduce the velocities. This could arise from the flow of steams of particles as in solar wind or other streams of energetic particles. [Can sedimentation reveal the mathematical nature of the reverse process of diffusion in the laboratory ?] Such processes could only be understood in terms of empirical relations to start with, till experimental observations could be extended for detailed mechanisms.

-------------------------------------------- General Reading 1 Richard Feynman -- Lectures in physics 2 G. Joos Theoretical physics (Dover) 3 Benoit Mandelbrot --Fractal geometry of nature {1982]( W H Freeman) 4 T L Hill --An Introduction to Statistical Thermodynamics (Dover) 5 F W Byron and R Fuller ---Mathematics of classical and quantum physics..(Dover and Kindle) 6 H Margenau and R Murphy-- The mathematics of physics and chemistry --(Young press,reprint 2009) 7 R Courant and D Hilbert -- Methods of math physics--Wiley 1961 8 R Courant, H Robbins and Ian Stewart --What is mathematics?-- Oxford U press, 9 L Pauling and E B Wilson --Introduction to Quantum mechanics (with applications to

chemistry) (Dover) 10 Landau and Lifshitz --Theoretical physics--several volumes 11 Note: It may be noted that many of these books have become classics or standard texts and may be available as reprints or Dover editions . ----------------------------------------------