Hydrodynamic Fluctuations in Fluids and Fluid Mixtures

This book deals with density, temperature, velocity and concentration fluctuations in fluids and fluid mixtures. The book first reviews thermal fluctuations in equilibrium fluids on the basis of fluctuating hydrodynamics. It then shows how the method of fluctuating hydrodynamics can be extended to deal with hydrodynamic fluctuations when the system is in a stationary nonequilibrium state. In contrast to equilibrium fluids where the fluctuations are generally short ranged unless the system is close to a critical point, fluctuations in nonequilibrium fluids are always long-ranged encompassing the entire system. The book provides the first comprehensive treatment of fluctuations in fluids and fluid mixtures brought out of equilibrium by the imposition of a temperature and concentration gradient but that are still in a macroscopically quiescent state. By incorporating appropriate boundary conditions in the case of fluid layers, it is shown how fluctuating hydrodynamics affects the fluctuations close to the onset of convection. Experimental techniques of light scattering and shadowgraphy for measuring nonequilibrium fluctuations are elucidated and the experimental results thus far reported in the literature are reviewed.
José Maria Ortiz de Zárate received a Ph.D. from the Universidad Complutense in 1991. In 1994 and 1997 he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland. Currently he is a faculty member in the Applied Physics Department of the Universidad Complutense. His research interests cover both experimental and theoretical topics in thermal physics of nonequilibrium states.
Jan V. Sengers received a Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam in 1962. In 1963 he joined the National Bureau of Standards in the U.S. and in 1968 he became a faculty member at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. Sengers and his co-workers have made extensive theoretical and experimental studies in the areas of critical fluctuations and of nonequilibrium fluctuations in fluids and fluid mixtures