Felix Otto (Max-Planck-Institut für Mathematik in den Naturwissenschaften, Leipzig)
In engineering applications, heterogeneous media are often described in statistical terms. This partial knowledge is sufficient to determine the effective, i. e. large-scale behavior. This effective behavior may be inferred from the Representative Volume Element (RVE) method. I report on last years' progress on the quantitative understanding of what is called stochastic homogenization of elliptic partial differential equations: optimal error estimates of the RVE method, leading-order characterization of fluctuations, effective multipole expansions. Methods connect to elliptic regularity theory and to concentration of measure arguments.
