Role of chaos for the validity of statistical mechanics laws: Diffusion and conduction

Abstract

Several years after the pioneering work by Fermi, Pasta and Ulam, fundamental questions about the link between dynamical and statistical properties remain still open in modern statistical mechanics. Particularly controversial is the role of deterministic chaos for the validity and consistency of statistical approaches. This contribution reexamines such a debated issue taking inspiration from the problem of diffusion and heat conduction in deterministic systems. Is microscopic chaos a necessary ingredient to observe such macroscopic phenomena? © 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.