Education
Ph.D., Duke University
B.S., Louisiana State University
Professor Ruppeiner’s theoretical research has focused on using curved space geometry to represent physical situations in which many atoms cooperate to produce a few independent average properties, i.e., those in thermodynamics. Although the laws of thermodynamics make no reference to atoms, thermodynamics nevertheless yields information at length scales below the macroscopic through fluctuation theory. Fluctuation theory leads to the interplay between the macroscopic and the mesoscopic, which yields much useful information. The curved space thermodynamic information geometry is an essential tool in analyzing this interplay between the two size scales. Professor Ruppeiner has applied these ideas to fluids, spin systems, and black holes.
Recent Courses
Descriptive Astronomy
Classical Mechanics
Honors Physics I
Honors Physics II
Thermal Physics
Selected Publications
“Solid-like features in dense vapors near the fluid critical point,” G. Ruppeiner, N. Dyjack*, A. McAloon*, and J. Stoops*, Journal of Chemical Physics 146, 224501 (2017). arXiv:1704.04325
“Some Early Ideas on the Metric Geometry of Thermodynamics,” G. Ruppeiner, Journal of Low Temperature Physics 185, 246 (2016).
“Unitary thermodynamics from thermodynamic geometry II: fit to a local density approximation,” G. Ruppeiner, Journal of Low Temperature Physics 181, 77-97 (2015).
“Thermodynamic curvature of supercooled water,” H-O. May, P. Mausbach, and G. Ruppeiner, Phys. Rev. E 91, 032141 (2015).
“Thermodynamic R-diagrams reveal solid-like fluid states,” G. Ruppeiner, P. Mausbach, and H.-O. May, Phys. Lett. A 379, 646 (2015).
“Thermodynamic curvature for a two-parameter spin model with frustration,” G. Ruppeiner and S. Bellucci, Phys. Rev. E 91, 012116 (2015).
“Thermodynamic curvature and black holes,” G. Ruppeiner, “Breaking of Supersymmetry and Ultraviolet Divergences in Extended Supergravity,” Springer Proceedings in Physics 153, 179-203 (2014).
“Unitary thermodynamics from thermodynamic geometry,” G. Ruppeiner, Journal of Low Temperature Physics 174, 13-34 (2014).
“Thermodynamic curvature for attractive and repulsive intermolecular forces,” H.-O. May, P. Mausbach, and G. Ruppeiner, Phys. Rev. E 88, 032123 (2013).
“Thermodynamic curvature: pure fluids to black holes,” G. Ruppeiner, J. Phys.: Conf. Series 410, 012138 (2013). arXiv:1210.2011
“Thermodynamic Geometry, Phase Transitions, and the Widom Line,” G. Ruppeiner, A. Sahay, T. Sarkar, and G. Sengupta, Phys. Rev. E 86, 052103 (2012). arXiv:1106.2270v2 (2011).
“Thermodynamic curvature from the critical point to the triple point,” G. Ruppeiner, Phys. Rev. E 86, 021130 (2012). arXiv:1208.3265