MERCREDI 2 JUIN 2010 14 heures Salle Séminaire 5 Centre de Physique Théorique Marseille-Luminy P. J. Morrison Department of Physics and Institute for Fusion Studies The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~morrison/ Title: Hamiltonian-Dirac Simulated Annealing: Application to the Calculation of Vortex States Abstract: A simulated annealing method for calculating stationary states for models that describe continuous media is proposed. The method is based on the noncanonical Hamiltonian or Poisson bracket (Poisson manifold) formulation of media, which is used to construct Dirac brackets with desired constraints, and symmetric brackets that cause metriplectic relaxation obeying the desired constraints. The method is applied to two-dimensional vortex dynamics and a variety of numerical examples are given, including the calculation of monopole and dipole vortex states. Joint work with G. R. Flierl of MIT.