Fermi, Pasta, Ulam and a mysterious lady

Thierry Dauxois (1)

1 Phys-ENS - Laboratoire de Physique de l'ENS Lyon

It is reported that the numerical simulations of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem were performed by a young lady, Mary Tsingou. After 50 years of omission, it is time for a proper recognition of her decisive contribution to the first ever numerical experiment, central in the solitons and chaos theories, but also one of the very first out-of-equilibrium statistical mechanics study. Let us quote from now on the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou problem.

Mots clés: Fermi-Pasta-Ulam Problem; Soliton; Chaos

Domaines: Histoire de la Physique [physics.hist-ph]; Formation de Structures et Solitons [nlin.PS]; Dynamique Chaotique [nlin.CD]; Systèmes Solubles et Intégrables [nlin.SI]; Mécanique statistique [cond-mat.stat-mech]

Thierry Dauxois. Fermi, Pasta, Ulam and a mysterious lady. Physics today, 2008, 61, 1, pp.55-57. ⟨10.1063/1.2835154⟩. ⟨ensl-00202296⟩