[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 83 (Wednesday, June 12, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H3298]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           AN ALGORITHMIC SOLUTION TO THE BOLTZMANN EQUATION

  (Mr. McNERNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. McNERNEY. Madam Speaker, I rise to announce a new advancement in 
mathematics: an algorithmic solution to the full Boltzmann equation 
that has taken 140 years to solve.
  The full seven-dimensional Boltzmann equation provides a crucial link 
between the microscopic, or quantum, behavior of atomic particles on 
the one hand and the behavior of matter that we humans observe on the 
other hand. It does this by predicting how gaseous material responds to 
external influences, such as changes in temperature and pressure, 
quickly settling to a stable equilibrium.
  The solution of this equation gives us an understanding of grazing 
collisions, when molecules glance off one another, which is the 
dominant type of collision. The algorithm uses a range of geometric 
fractional derivatives from kinetic theory.
  I congratulate the authors, Philip Gressman and Robert Strain, from 
the University of Pennsylvania on this advancement; and I commend the 
National Science Foundation for supporting these scientists in their 
work.

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