Abstract: A scale invariant model of statistical mechanics was recently applied to describe a modified statistical theory of turbulence and its quantum mechanical foundation. In the present study the implications of the results to a unified statistical theory of fields with applications to diverse physical systems in the fields of galacto-dynamics (cosmology), hydrodynamics, molecular-dynamics, electrodynamics, and quantum optics (dry-hydrodynamics) will be discussed. The comparisons between the predictions of the model and some of the available experimental observations over the entire range of spatial scales from cosmic to Planck will be examined. The connection between the cosmological constant and the vacuum energy and the concept of negative pressure will be discussed. In the field of optics, the implications of the important and central question: "Must the photon mass be zero?" asked by Bass and Schrodinger [Proc. Royal Soc. A 232, pp: 1-6 (1955)] will be further examined. Also, the implications of the invariant model of statistical mechanics to the classical theory of electrodynamics of Maxwell and Lorentz will be explored when the compressible nature of physical space, in accordance with Planck's compressible ether, is taken into account. In particular, the existence of longitudinal electromagnetic waves, L-waves, and their impact on the gravitational mass of photon will be discussed. Finally, the physical and quantum nature of time will be described and a scale-invariant definition of time will be presented and its physical significance to various systems as well as its relativistic behavior will be addressed.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Siavash H. Sohrab received his PhD in Engineering Physics in 1981 from University of California, San Diego, his MS degree in Mechanical Engineering from San Jose State University in 1975, and his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Davis in 1973. He then joined Northwestern University in 1982 as postdoctoral research assistant and became Visiting Assistant Professor in 1983, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 1984, and since 1990 he is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Northwestern University. From 1975-1978 he worked as a scientist doing research on fire protection and turbulent combustion at NASA Ames research center in California. His research interests have been on combustion, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and statistical and quantum mechanics.