Soft Condensed Matter, Biological Physics Experiment & Statistical Physics Seminars

A shock is a change in density over a distance which is on the scale of the consitutents of the flow. So for example the rear end of a traffic jam is a shock between the high density of cars in the traffic jam and the low density of cars in the freely flowing region behind. I shall review the Lighthill and Whitham (Proc. Roy. Sco. A vol. 229, p281 1955) theory of such flows and show how it predicts kinematic waves which move through flow. I will then discuss how things are modified when there is creation and annihilation of the constituent particles of the flow and discuss the relevance to molecular motors.