Carlo Cercignani (17 June 1939 in
Teulada – 7 January 2010 in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
) was an Italian
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
known for his work on the
kinetic theory
Kinetic (Ancient Greek: κίνησις “kinesis”, movement or to move) may refer to:
* Kinetic theory, describing a gas as particles in random motion
* Kinetic energy, the energy of an object that it possesses due to its motion
Art and ente ...
of gases. His contributions to the study of
Boltzmann's equation
The Boltzmann equation or Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) describes the statistical behaviour of a thermodynamic system not in a state of equilibrium, devised by Ludwig Boltzmann in 1872.Encyclopaedia of Physics (2nd Edition), R. G. Lerne ...
include the proof of the
H-theorem
In classical statistical mechanics, the ''H''-theorem, introduced by Ludwig Boltzmann in 1872, describes the tendency to decrease in the quantity ''H'' (defined below) in a nearly-ideal gas of molecules.
L. Boltzmann,Weitere Studien über das Wä ...
for
polyatomic
A polyatomic ion, also known as a molecular ion, is a covalent bonded set of two or more atoms, or of a complex (chemistry), metal complex, that can be considered to behave as a single unit and that has a net electrical charge, charge that is no ...
gases.
The Cercignani conjecture is named after him.
Cercignani's conjecture is "sometimes true and always almost true", as proved by the Fields medalist mathematician
Cedric Villani
Cedric () is a masculine given name invented by Walter Scott in the 1819 novel '' Ivanhoe''.Sir Walter Scott, Graham Tulloch (ed.), ''Ivanhoe'', vol. 8 of The Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels, Edinburgh University Press, 1998, , "explanato ...
.
He is the author of several
monographs and more than 300 papers in kinetic theory, as well as of a biography of
Boltzmann
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics, and the statistical explanation of the second law of thermodyn ...
. Cercignani was member of the
French Academy of SciencesFrench Academy of Sciences necrology
and of the Accademia dei Lincei. He received the Humboldt Prize
The Humboldt Prize, the Humboldt-Forschungspreis in German, also known as the Humboldt Research Award, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of G ...
in 1994.[
]
Selected publications
Kinetic theory
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History of science
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Notes
External links
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Mathematical physicists
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
2010 deaths
1939 births
{{Italy-mathematician-stub