Prof. Baruch Meerson

Hebrew University of Jerusalem Racah Institute of Physics Jerusalem 91904, Israel meerson_at_mail.huji.ac.il +972 2 658 4470 +972 2 658 4396

CV and publication list

My Research Interests: Physics Far From Equilibrium

Large fluctuations in stochastic non-equilibrium systems, including population dynamics

Clustering, pattern formation and phase separation in granular flows

Phase transition kinetics

Ostwald ripening

Self-similarity and dynamic scaling in physics

Fluid dynamics and plasma theory

Nonlinear oscillations and waves

How long will it take for an isolated population (of molecules, bacteria, animals or even people) to go extinct? Here are some of our papers - 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , - and a non-technical review - 6 - on this kind of problems.

Is there anything in common between a bunch of marbles and an expanding universe? Take a look at one of our papers on clustering in a freely cooling granular gas.

One fascinating granular phenomenon that we worked on is granular levitation , when a heavy close-packed granular cluster is supported from below by a dilute granular gas. Here is our paper on the theory and simulations of this system.

You can also watch a Flash Movie 6.0 (1.2 Mb.) of experiment (by I. Aranson et al.) showing Ostwald ripening far from equilibrium: coarsening of granular clusters in electrostatically-driven metallic powders. Here is our paper on a theory of this process.

What is fractal coarsening? It is shape relaxation of fractal objects by surface tension or another "fractality spoiler". Enjoy a small animation, or a larger-scale movie of the diffusion-controlled coarsening of a DLA cluster, as seen in numerical simulations. Here is our pioneering work on this subject. Why do not this and other related systems show simple dynamic scaling behaviors? See this paper.

What is autoresonance? Here are two of our several papers that dealt with this phenomenon: in theory and in experiment

I also worked in plasma physics. Here is a review I wrote on nonlinear dynamics of thermal instability in plasmas that are cooled by their own radiation.

There are presently two openings in my research group for excellent Masters or doctoral students on challenging projects in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics

The courses I teach at the Hebrew University:

• Equations of Mathematical Physics (No. 77313, semester 1, syllabus in Hebrew)

• Nonlinear Dynamics of Continuous Media (No. 77728, semester 2, syllabus)

• Dynamical Systems and Chaos (No. 77368, semester 2, syllabus)

In 2009 I organized international workshop "Giant Fluctuations in Population Dynamics" in Leiden, the Netherlands.

My previous research interests

embraced a broad variety of subjects in nonlinear, non-equilirium and statistical physics. Among them was the discovery in 1979 (together with E.A. Oks and P.V. Sasorov) of chaos in highly-excited (Rydberg) atoms driven by an oscillating electric field.

When I was a student,

two great physicists, Lev Landau and Richard Feynman, were my heroes. Here are portraits of Lev Landau and Richard Feynman, painted by Nataly Meerson.