PHYSICS SEMINAR
From Classical and Quantum Particles to Groundwater Flow: Using Geometry to Remove Forces or Sources from the Dynamics
Dr. Valerio Faraoni
Physics Department
Bishop's University
Friday, November 13, 2009
1:45 p.m.
Nicolls 1
The Jacobi formulation of the least action principle removes the forces acting on a classical particle by changing the geometry of space. Interpreting this result as a conformal transformation of the geometry of space and extending it, the potential energy can be removed from the Schroedinger equation for a quantum particle, and from the Klein-Gordon equation for a scalar field. The technique is almost universal: an application to hydrology to remove sources/sinks from the equations of groundwater flow, or to reduce an anisotropic aquifer to an isotropic one, will be discussed.
