title: Piston dynamics from a microcanonical ensemble.
abstract: The dynamical behavior of a system consisting of a (heavy) piston and two rectangular boxes, each containing two hard disks and in contact with the piston, is studied based on a projection operator method for a microcanonical ensemble. We derive a coupled set of nonlinear equations for slow variables of the system and solve it to confirm that our theory with no adjustable parameters reproduces experimental results fairly well. Some limitations of the theory are discussed from the viewpoint of the separation of slow and fast time scales and ergodicity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics and Physics, Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uranagase
authors.forename: Toyonori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Munakata