Cercignani Memoriam Ictt 2011

Dipartimento di Sistemi e Informatica Università di Firenze

22 th International Conference on Tra Transport nsport Theory Portland, September 12-16, 201 2011 1

22 nd International Conference on Transport Theory Portland, September 12-16, 2011

REMEMBERING REMEMBERI NG CARLO CERCIGNANI

Giovanni Frosali

Università di Firenze (Italy) [email protected]


22 th International Conference on Transport Theory Portland, September 12-16, 2011

Carlo Cercignani was born on June 17, 1939, Teulada (Sardinia Italy) and passed away in Milan, on January 7°, 2010.



Carlo Cercignani has been one of the most active researchers of the Boltzmann equation and related topics. The second half of the last century were very auspicious for kinetic theory and Carlo Cercignani was always among its most important contributors. In 1975 he published his most famous treatise “The Boltzmann equation and its applications,”

which collects and unifies numerous results on the Boltzmann equation previously scattered in hundreds of references.



In the Introduction for Carlo s Special Issue , of J. Stat. Phys. 124 (2006) Cedric Villani wrote: 

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This book is just one example of Carlo’s amazing productivity, with nearly three hundreds research papers published and ten books or so. Almost all of these show Carlo’s passion for the Boltzmann equation, and more generally everything related to Boltzmann.

ICTT-17 – London, 2001



Cercignani spent his first years in Tuscany , in Pisa. Then he moved to Milan, where he obtained the degrees in Physics (1961) and in Mathematics (1963).

Carlo with G.M.Kremer, at Pasadena , RGD Conference 1988.



During the 60’s, he was research and teaching assistant in Milan and visited several foreign Institutions (MIT, Berkeley, Courant Institute).


Eventually, Carlo chose to settle in Italy, became an Associate Professor in Aerodynamics at the Politecnico di Milano in 1968, and Full Professor in Mathematical Physics in 1975. There he spent the rest of his life, which was impressively active, intense, and productive despite the fact that he had to deal with the effects of multiple sclerosis for more than 30 years.




The scientific work of Carlo Cercignani was very fruitful. As a mathematician, Cercignani obtained important results in the theory of Partial Differential Equations, Semigroup Theory, Monte-Carlo Methods, Spectral Theory, Riemann-Hilbert Problems, Fourier Analysis, and Functional Analysis. His main research interest was Kinetic Theory. Cercignani devoted a particular attention to the H-theorem, and to the problem of how macroscopic, irreversible evolution equations can follow from microscopic, reversible motion equations. In 1972, he obtained an elegant generalization of the Darrozes-Guiraud formula, and proved an Htheorem for polyatomic gases. During the 80’s, he studied the evaporation-condensation interface between a gas and a liquid, stating an important conjecture for the long-time behavior of the Boltzmann equation solutions.



Cercignani improved the continuum turbulence models for the Large Eddy Simulations (LES) of the Navier-Stokes equation. During the 90’s, in collaboration with Stefan Stefanov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia), he studied the onset of instabilities in rarefied gases. By using Monte-Carlo simulations, they studied the long-time behavior of the solutions, and identified the formation of coherent structures and attractors. The last decade of his professional life was mainly devoted to the study of the MEMS. His last paper, number 318 in his publication list, is: A.V. Bobylev, C. Cercignani, and I.M. Gamba “ On the Self-Similar Asymptotics for generalized Nonlinear Kinetic Maxwell Models”, Comm. Math. Phys., 291 (2009), 599-644.



Here we list only his books: C. Cercignani, Mathematical methods in kinetic theory. Plenum Press, New York 1969 ix +227 pp. ! er " in'jani, K. Matematicheskie metody v kinetichesko# teorii gazov. (Russian) [Mathematical methods in the kinetic theory of gases] Translated from the English by V.S.Galkin, V.A.Perepuhov and O.G.Fridlender. ``Mir'', Moscow, 1973. 245 pp. C.Cercignani, Mathematical Methods in Kinetic Theory , Plenum Press, 1990. ISBN 0-306-43450-1 C.Cercignani, Theory and application of the Boltzmann equation. Elsevier, New York, 1975. xii+415 pp. ! er " in jani, K .,Teoriya i prilozheniya uravneniya Bol tsmana. Translated from the English by È. A. Gurmuzova, et ``Mir'', Moscow, 1978. 495 pp. C.Cercignani, The Boltzmann equation and its applications. Springer-Verlag, New York, 1988. xii+455 pp. C.Cercignani, Mathematical methods in kinetic theory. Second edition. Plenum Press, New York, 1990. xii+252 pp. 

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C.Cercignani, R.Illner, M.Pulvirenti , The mathematical theory of dilute gases. SpringerVerlag, New York, 1994. viii+347 pp. C.Cercignani, V.Gerasimenko, D.Petrina, Many-particle dynamics and kinetic equations. Translated from the Russian manuscript by K. Petrina andV.Gredzhuk. Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, Dordrecht, 1997. viii+244 pp. C.Cercignani, Boltzmann e la meccanica statistica , Pavia, 1997. x+274 pp. C.Cercignani, D.H.Sattinger, Scaling limits and models in physical processes. DMV Seminar, 28. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 1998. vi+191 pp. C.Cercignani, Ludwig Boltzmann. The man who trusted atoms. With a foreword by Roger Penrose. OxfordUniversity Press, Oxford, 1998. xviii+329 pp. C.Cercignani, Rarefied gas dynamics. From basic concepts to actual calculations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000. xviii+320 pp. C.Cercignani, G.M.Kremer, The relativistic Boltzmann equation: theory and applications. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 2002. x+384 pp. C.Cercignani, Slow rarefied flows. Theory and application to micro-electro-mechanical systems. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 2006. xii+166 pp.



In the transport theory community, Carlo Cercignani has been one of the most active participants.

11th ICTT – Blacksburg, 1989



Carlo Cercignani



11th ICTT – Blacksburg, 1989

Carlo Cercignani and Vinicio Boffi

Mountain Lake Resort, May 1989


Carlo Cercignani




ICTT15 – Goteborg (Sweden), 1997

Carlo Cercignani



The presence of Carlo Cercignani in ICTT was always vital and incisive. The void he leaves behind is deep, since he represented a praiseworthy example of enthusiasm, tenacity, versatility and productivity. His courage and his devotion to scientific research will always remain alive in us, and will be an incentive for everyone.

We are happy to remember him as in the photo on this page - the smiling, uncontested leader of the Italian contingent of transport theorists.



Thanks for your attention !

Cercignani Memoriam Ictt 2011

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