Predrag Cvitanovic'
Theoretical Nonlinear Physics Professor

Ph.D., Cornell University,1973
Phone: (404) 385-2502
Room: Howey-W501A

EMail: cns [at] cns.physics.gatech.edu

 

■ Research ■

Before joining our faculty, Predrag Cvitanovic was director of the Center for Chaos and Turbulence Studies and Carlsberg Foundation Research Professor at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. His research interests include many topics in theoretical physics, including nonlinear dynamics, chaos, quantum chaos, particle physics, the topology of hyperbolic flows, statistical mechanics, and turbulence. Perhaps his best-known work is his introduction of cycle expansions -- that is, expansions based on using periodic orbit theory -- to approximate chaotic dynamics in a controlled perturbative way. This technique has proven to be widely useful for diagnosing and quantifying chaotic dynamics in problems ranging from atomic physics to neurophysiology. Cvitanovic is currently working toward a periodic-orbits theory of spatiotemporal turbulence in infinite-dimensional dynamical systems, and towards a deterministic theory of far-from-equilibrium processes in settings such as transport in idealized gases. By combining semiclassical quantization and periodic orbit theory and systematically including diffractive, penumbra, and creeping effects, Cvitanovic hopes that a periodic orbit theory of wave chaos can be transformed into a general tool for practical applications, such as testing shapes of elastic objects by their acoustic spectroscopy.

Cvitanovic's most recent work has focused on classical and quantum chaos, and he and his collaborators are currently completing an advanced graduate textbook, Classical and Quantum Chaos-Periodic Orbit Theory.

■ Publications ■

Selected Publications

1. "Dynamical Averaging in Terms of Periodic Orbits," Physica D83:109 (1995)
2. "Entire Fredholm Determinants for Evaluation of Semi-Classical and Thermodynamical Spectra" [with G. Vattay], Physical Review Letters 71:4138 (1993)
3. "Advection of Vector Fields by Chaotic Flows" [with N. J. Balmforth, G. R. Ierley, E. A. Spiegel, and G. Vattay], Stochastic Processes in Astrophysics, Annals of New York Academy of Sciences 706:148 (1993)

All Publications

Please go to CNS website to view all publications at  http://cns.physics.gatech.edu/~predrag/papers/preprints.html

CNS has a rudimentary publications list on
http://www.cns.gatech.edu/research/preprints.html

■ Awards ■

•  Recipient, Research Prize of the Danish Physical Society

■ Group Sites ■

•  Personal Page
• Center for Nonlinear Science