Deterministic Chaos and the Foundations of the Kinetic Theory of Gases

Recent work in dynamical systems theory has shown that many properties that are associated with irreversible processes in fluids can be understood in terms of the dynamical properties of reversible, Hamiltonian systems. That is, stochastic-like behavior is possible for these systems. Here we review the basic theory for this stochastic-like behavior and show how it may be used to obtain an understanding of irreversible processes in gases and fluids. Recent, closely related, work on the use of kinetic theory to calculate dynamical quantities such as Lyapunov exponents is also discussed.