Summary
Under suitable conditions the motion of a massive (Brownian) particle in a fluid is well described by a Langevin equation, i.e. an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process in which the influence of the fluid on the motion is taken into account by frictional and fluctuating forces. A mechanical model for such a description was previously given for the translational motion of a sphere in an ideal gas in the “Brownian limit”. Here that description is extended to include also the rotational motion of a massive convex body. The only probabilistic assumptions concern the initial distribution of the gas; the time evolution of the convex body-ideal gas system is entirely deterministic.
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Supported by a Nato fellowship
Supported by NSF Grant No. PHY 78-03816
Supported by NSF Grant No. PHY 78-15920. — Author is also at Dept. of Physics
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Dürr, D., Goldstein, S. & Lebowitz, J.L. A mechanical model for the Brownian motion of a convex body. Z. Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie verw Gebiete 62, 427–448 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00534196
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00534196