Poincaré recurrence theorem in the context of "Henri Poincaré"

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⭐ Core Definition: Poincaré recurrence theorem

In mathematics and physics, the Poincaré recurrence theorem states that certain dynamical systems will, after a sufficiently long but finite time, return to a state arbitrarily close to (for continuous state systems), or exactly the same as (for discrete state systems), their initial state.

The Poincaré recurrence time is the length of time elapsed until the recurrence. This time may vary greatly depending on the exact initial state and required degree of closeness. The result applies to isolated mechanical systems subject to some constraints, e.g., all particles must be bound to a finite volume. The theorem is commonly discussed in the context of ergodic theory, dynamical systems and statistical mechanics. Systems to which the Poincaré recurrence theorem applies are called conservative systems.

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👉 Poincaré recurrence theorem in the context of Henri Poincaré

Jules Henri Poincaré (UK: /ˈpwæ̃kɑːr/, US: /ˌpwæ̃kɑːˈr/; French: [ɑ̃ʁi pwɛ̃kaʁe] ; 29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912) was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The Last Universalist", since he excelled in all fields of the discipline as it existed during his lifetime. He has further been called "the Gauss of modern mathematics". Due to his success in science, along with his influence and philosophy, he has further been called "the philosopher par excellence of modern science".

As a mathematician and physicist, he made many original fundamental contributions to pure and applied mathematics, mathematical physics, and celestial mechanics. In his research on the three-body problem, Poincaré became the first person to discover a chaotic deterministic system which laid the foundations of modern chaos theory. Poincaré is regarded as the creator of the field of algebraic topology, and is further credited with introducing automorphic forms. He also made important contributions to algebraic geometry, number theory, complex analysis and Lie theory. He famously introduced the concept of the Poincaré recurrence theorem, which states that a state will eventually return arbitrarily close to its initial state after a sufficiently long time, which has far-reaching consequences. Early in the 20th century he formulated the Poincaré conjecture, which became, over time, one of the famous unsolved problems in mathematics. It was eventually solved in 2002–2003 by Grigori Perelman. Poincaré popularized the use of non-Euclidean geometry in mathematics as well.

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