How Does Statistical Physics Influence Astrophysics and Cosmology?

[matt_crouch]

I am currently a 3rd year university student and the project i have been assigned is the the above title, and basically involves looking at statistal physics and its applications. My interests are all in astrophysics and cosmology i was wondering if there was any place for my interests in this project if anyone could point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated. I understand the place of statistical physics in quantum mechanics i just need some pointing in the right direction so i can make this project more interesting for me

 

[ZapperZ]

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/cond-mat/pdf/0509/0509137v1.pdf

http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0412678

Zz.

 

[jetwaterluffy]

General relativity is similar to crumpled paper, as in it is crumpled spacetime, so you could look at that, I suppose. If not, there's http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/crumpled-paper-physics/"

 

[Vanadium 50]

The only thing GR has to do with crumpled paper is that when you start on a GR problem, by the time you finish you usually end up surrounded by piles of crumpled paper.

 

[Mute]

You could discuss crackling noise, I guess: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v410/n6825/full/410242a0.html

That paper is a review article of systems which exhibit crackling noise. It mentions crumbling paper as an example, but doesn't really talk much about paper itself. However, crackling noise occurs in lots of systems (as the paper above explains), so you might be able to find some example of it in an astrophysical system, or something related. Another name crackling noise goes by is "avalanches". A quick search turned up the book Self-organized criticality in astrophysics: The statistics of nonlinear processes in the universe. You might be able to make a connection there.

 

[jimmy1010100]

I'm not aware of the connection to statistical physics, but you may find interesting the application of the Brouwer fixed point theorem to crumpled paper:
http://www.math.hmc.edu/funfacts/ffiles/20002.7.shtml

 

[robphy]

Some connections to approaches to quantum gravity and string theory...
http://cs.adelaide.edu.au/~paulc/physics/randomsurfaces.html
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9701056
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_dynamical_triangulation

 

[atyy]

http://focus.aps.org/story/v27/st6