From Hyperbolic Systems to Kinetic Theory

Book excerpt: This fascinating book, penned by Luc Tartar of America’s Carnegie Mellon University, starts from the premise that equations of state are not always effective in continuum mechanics. Tartar relies on H-measures, a tool created for homogenization, to explain some of the weaknesses in the theory. These include looking at the subject from the point of view of quantum mechanics. Here, there are no "particles", so the Boltzmann equation and the second principle, can’t apply.