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Dieter ForsterEmeritus Professor of PhysicsPh.D., Harvard UniversitySERC, 474
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Research Interests
We know much less about the structure of liquids than we do about solid phases. Research is continuing on equilibrium and non-equilibrium fluctuations in simple liquids and liquid metals. We are also investigating fluctuations in liquid crystals and in molecular liquids. In recent years it has been found that even at long wavelength and low frequency the dynamical behavior of fluctuations in many-body systems is more singular than previously assumed, even far from critical points. We use field-theoretical and renormalization group techniques to investigate these singularities (longtime tails) in a variety of physical systems. This work has implications for the age-old problem of turbulence. There is, furthermore, some work on the properties of systems near phase transitions, with emphasis on relaxation behavior near critical points.
Key Publications
"Kinetic Theory of a Weakly Coupled Fluid", Dieter Forster and P.C. Martin. Phys. Rev. A2, 1575 (1970).
"Hydrodynamic Fluctuations, Broken Symmetry, and Correlation Functions", Dieter Forster. Monograph, vol. 47 of the FRONTIERS IN PHYSICS series, W.A. Benjamin, Inc. Russian edition by Atomizdat, Moscow, 1981. Reissued in "Advanced Book Classics", Addison-Wesley, 1990.
"Hydrodynamics of Liquid Crystals", Dieter Forster, T.C. Lubensky, P.C. Martin, J. Swift, and P. Pershan. Phys. Rev. Lett. 26, 1016 (1971).
"Hydrodynamics and Correlation Functions in Ordered Systems: Nematic Liquid Crystals", Dieter Forster. Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 84, 505 (1974).
"Large Distance and Long Time Properties of a Randomly Stirred Fluid", Dieter Forster, D.R. Nelson, and M.J. Stephen. Phys. Rev. A16, 732 (1977).
"Symmetry breaking, particle color and confinement, elementary particles as string excitations: the 2005 Benjamin Franklin medal in Physics presented to Yoichiro Nambu", Dieter Forster. J. Franklin Institute, 343, 263 (2006).
"Hydrodynamic Fluctuations, Broken Symmetry, and Correlation Functions", Dieter Forster. Monograph, vol. 47 of the FRONTIERS IN PHYSICS series, W.A. Benjamin, Inc. Russian edition by Atomizdat, Moscow, 1981. Reissued in "Advanced Book Classics", Addison-Wesley, 1990.
"Hydrodynamics of Liquid Crystals", Dieter Forster, T.C. Lubensky, P.C. Martin, J. Swift, and P. Pershan. Phys. Rev. Lett. 26, 1016 (1971).
"Hydrodynamics and Correlation Functions in Ordered Systems: Nematic Liquid Crystals", Dieter Forster. Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 84, 505 (1974).
"Large Distance and Long Time Properties of a Randomly Stirred Fluid", Dieter Forster, D.R. Nelson, and M.J. Stephen. Phys. Rev. A16, 732 (1977).
"Symmetry breaking, particle color and confinement, elementary particles as string excitations: the 2005 Benjamin Franklin medal in Physics presented to Yoichiro Nambu", Dieter Forster. J. Franklin Institute, 343, 263 (2006).