This book contains the elaborated and updated versions of the 24 lectures given at the 43rd Saas-Fee Advanced Course. Written by four eminent scientists in the field, the book reviews the physical processes related to star formation, starting from cosmological down to galactic scales. It presents a detailed description of the interstellar medium and its link with the star formation. And it describes the main numerical computational techniques designed to solve the equations governing self-gravitating fluids used for modelling of galactic and extra-galactic systems. This book provides a unique framework which is needed to develop and improve the simulation techniques designed for understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies. Presented in an accessible manner it contains the present day state of knowledge of the field. It serves as an entry point and key reference to students and researchers in astronomy, cosmology, and physics.

In accordance with the developments in computation, theoretical studies on numerical schemes are now fruitful and highly needed. In 1991 an article on the finite element method applied to evolutionary problems was published. Following the method, basically this book studies various schemes from operator theoretical points of view. Many parts are devoted to the finite element method, but other schemes and problems (charge simulation method, domain decomposition method, nonlinear problems, and so forth) are also discussed, motivated by the observation that practically useful schemes have fine mathematical structures and the converses are also true. This book has the following chapters: 1. Boundary Value Problems and FEM. 2. Semigroup Theory and FEM. 3. Evolution Equations and FEM. 4. Other Methods in Time Discretization. 5. Other Methods in Space Discretization. 6. Nonlinear Problems. 7. Domain Decomposition Method.

This book is devoted to describing theories for porous media where such pores have an inbuilt macro structure and a micro structure. For example, a double porosity material has pores on a macro scale, but additionally there are cracks or fissures in the solid skeleton. The actual body is allowed to deform and thus the underlying theory is one of elasticity. Various different descriptions are reviewed. Chapter 1 introduces the classical linear theory of elastodynamics together with uniqueness and continuous dependence results. Chapters 2 and 3 review developments of theories for double and triple porosity using a pressure-displacement structure and also using voids-displacement. Chapter 4 compares various aspects of the pressure-displacement and voids-displacement theories via uniqueness studies and wave motion analysis. Mathematical analyses of double and triple porosity materials are included concentrating on uniqueness and stability studies in chapters 5 to 7. In chapters 8 and 9 the emphasis is on wave motion in double porosity materials with special attention paid to nonlinear waves. The final chapter embraces a novel area where an elastic body with a double porosity structure is analyzed, but the thermodynamics allows for heat to travel as a wave rather than simply by diffusion. This book will be of value to mathematicians, theoretical engineers and other practitioners who are interested in double or triple porosity elasticity and its relevance to many diverse applications.

The study of network theory is a highly interdisciplinary field, which has emerged as a major topic of interest in various disciplines ranging from physics and mathematics, to biology and sociology. This book promotes the diverse nature of the study of complex networks by balancing the needs of students from very different backgrounds. It references the most commonly used concepts in network theory, provides examples of their applications in solving practical problems, and clear indications on how to analyse their results. In the first part of the book, students and researchers will discover the quantitative and analytical tools necessary to work with complex networks, including the most basic concepts in network and graph theory, linear and matrix algebra, as well as the physical concepts most frequently used for studying networks. They will also find instruction on some key skills such as how to proof analytic results and how to manipulate empirical network data. The bulk of the text is focused on instructing readers on the most useful tools for modern practitioners of network theory. These include degree distributions, random networks, network fragments, centrality measures, clusters and communities, communicability, and local and global properties of networks. The combination of theory, example and method that are presented in this text, should ready the student to conduct their own analysis of networks with confidence and allow teachers to select appropriate examples and problems to teach this subject in the classroom.

This unique collection of research papers offers a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to algebraic approaches to rough sets and reasoning with vagueness. It bridges important gaps, outlines intriguing future research directions, and connects algebraic approaches to rough sets with those for other forms of approximate reasoning. In addition, the book reworks algebraic approaches to axiomatic granularity. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers and teachers in the areas of rough sets and algebras of rough sets, algebraic logic, non classical logic, fuzzy sets, possibility theory, formal concept analysis, computational learning theory, category theory, and other formal approaches to vagueness and approximate reasoning. Consultants in AI and allied fields will also find the book to be of great practical value.

Theoretical advances in dynamical-systems theory and their applications to pattern-forming processes in the sciences and engineering are discussed in this volume that resulted from the conference Patterns in Dynamics held in honor of Bernold Fiedler, in Berlin, July 25-29, 2016.The contributions build and develop mathematical techniques, and use mathematical approaches for prediction and control of complex systems. The underlying mathematical theories help extract structures from experimental observations and, conversely, shed light on the formation, dynamics, and control of spatio-temporal patterns in applications. Theoretical areas covered include geometric analysis, spatial dynamics, spectral theory, traveling-wave theory, and topological data analysis; also discussed are their applications to chemotaxis, self-organization at interfaces, neuroscience, and transport processes.

The book deals with applications of the AdS/CFT correspondence to strongly coupled condensed matter systems. In particular, it concerns with the study of thermo-electric transport properties of holographic models exhibiting momentum dissipation and their possible applications to the transport properties of strange metals. The present volume constitutes one of the few examples in the literature in which the topic is carefully reviewed both from the experimental and theoretical point of view, including not only holographic results but also standard condensed matter achievements developed in the past decades. This work might be extremely useful both for scientific and pedagogical purposes.

This monograph bridges the gap between the nonlinear predictor as a concept and as a practical tool, presenting a complete theory of the application of predictor feedback to time-invariant, uncertain systems with constant input delays and/or measurement delays. It supplies several methods for generating the necessary real-time solutions to the systems' nonlinear differential equations, which the authors refer to as approximate predictors. Predictor feedback for linear time-invariant (LTI) systems is presented in Part I to provide a solid foundation on the necessary concepts, as LTI systems pose fewer technical difficulties than nonlinear systems. Part II extends all of the concepts to nonlinear time-invariant systems. Finally, Part III explores extensions of predictor feedback to systems described by integral delay equations and to discrete-time systems. The book's core is the design of control and observer algorithms with which global stabilization, guaranteed in the previous literature with idealized (but non-implementable) predictors, is preserved with approximate predictors developed in the book. An applications-driven engineer will find a large number of explicit formulae, which are given throughout the book to assist in the application of the theory to a variety of control problems. A mathematician will find sophisticated new proof techniques, which are developed for the purpose of providing global stability guarantees for the nonlinear infinite-dimensional delay system under feedback laws employing practically implementable approximate predictors. Researchers working on global stabilization problems for time-delay systems will find this monograph to be a helpful summary of the state of the art, while graduate students in the broad field of systems and control will advance their skills in nonlinear control design and the analysis of nonlinear delay systems.

Algebraic Identification and Estimation Methods in Feedback Control Systems presents a model-based algebraic approach to online parameter and state estimation in uncertain dynamic feedback control systems. This approach evades the mathematical intricacies of the traditional stochastic approach, proposing a direct model-based scheme with several easy-to-implement computational advantages. The approach can be used with continuous and discrete, linear and nonlinear, mono-variable and multi-variable systems. The estimators based on this approach are not of asymptotic nature, and do not require any statistical knowledge of the corrupting noises to achieve good performance in a noisy environment. These estimators are fast, robust to structured perturbations, and easy to combine with classical or sophisticated control laws. This book uses module theory, differential algebra, and operational calculus in an easy-to-understand manner and also details how to apply these in the context of feedback control systems. A wide variety of examples, including mechanical systems, power converters, electric motors, and chaotic systems, are also included to illustrate the algebraic methodology. Key features: * Presents a radically new approach to online parameter and state estimation. * Enables the reader to master the use and understand the consequences of the highly theoretical differential algebraic viewpoint in control systems theory. * Includes examples in a variety of physical applications with experimental results. * Covers the latest developments and applications. Algebraic Identification and Estimation Methods in Feedback Control Systems is a comprehensive reference for researchers and practitioners working in the area of automatic control, and is also a useful source of information for graduate and undergraduate students.

This book introduces Meaningful Purposive Interaction Analysis (MPIA) theory, which combines social network analysis (SNA) with latent semantic analysis (LSA) to help create and analyse a meaningful learning landscape from the digital traces left by a learning community in the co-construction of knowledge. The hybrid algorithm is implemented in the statistical programming language and environment R, introducing packages which capture - through matrix algebra - elements of learners' work with more knowledgeable others and resourceful content artefacts. The book provides comprehensive package-by-package application examples, and code samples that guide the reader through the MPIA model to show how the MPIA landscape can be constructed and the learner's journey mapped and analysed. This building block application will allow the reader to progress to using and building analytics to guide students and support decision-making in learning.

This book focuses on bifurcation theory for autonomous and nonautonomous differential equations with discontinuities of different types - those with jumps present either in the right-hand side, or in trajectories or in the arguments of solutions of equations. The results obtained can be applied to various fields, such as neural networks, brain dynamics, mechanical systems, weather phenomena and population dynamics. Developing bifurcation theory for various types of differential equations, the book is pioneering in the field. It presents the latest results and provides a practical guide to applying the theory to differential equations with various types of discontinuity. Moreover, it offers new ways to analyze nonautonomous bifurcation scenarios in these equations. As such, it shows undergraduate and graduate students how bifurcation theory can be developed not only for discrete and continuous systems, but also for those that combine these systems in very different ways. At the same time, it offers specialists several powerful instruments developed for the theory of discontinuous dynamical systems with variable moments of impact, differential equations with piecewise constant arguments of generalized type and Filippov systems.

Parallel CFD 2000, the Twelfth in an International series of meetings featuring computational fluid dynamics research on parallel computers, was held May 22-25, 2000 in Trondheim, Norway.
Following the trend of the past conferences, areas such as numerical schemes and algorithms, tools and environments, load balancing, as well as interdisciplinary topics and various kinds of industrial applications were all well represented in the work presented. In addition, for the first time in the Parallel CFD conference series, the organizing committee chose to draw special attention to certain subject areas by organizing a number of special sessions.
We feel the emphasis of the papers presented at the conference reflect the direction of the research within parallel CFD at the beginning of the new millennium. It seems to be a clear tendency towards increased industrial exploitation of parallel CFD. Several presentations also demonstrated how new insight is being achieved from complex simulations, and how powerful parallel computers now make it possible to use CFD within a broader interdisciplinary setting.
Obviously, successful application of parallel CFD still rests on the underlying fundamental principles. Therefore, numerical algorithms, development tools, and parallelization techniques are still as important as when parallel CFD was in is infancy. Furthermore, the novel concepts of affordable parallel computing as well as metacomputing show that exciting developments are still taking place.
As is often pointed out however, the real power of parallel CFD comes from the combination of all the disciplines involved: Physics, mathematics, and computer science. This is probably one of the principal reasons for the continued popularity of the Parallel CFD Conferences series, as well as the inspiration behind much of the excellent work carried out on the subject. We hope that the papers in this book, both on an individual basis and as a whole, will contribute to that inspiration. Further details of Parallel CFD'99, as well as other conferences in this series, are available at http: //www.parcfd.org

This book - specifically developed as a novel textbook on elementary classical mechanics - shows how analytical and numerical methods can be seamlessly integrated to solve physics problems. This approach allows students to solve more advanced and applied problems at an earlier stage and equips them to deal with real-world examples well beyond the typical special cases treated in standard textbooks. Another advantage of this approach is that students are brought closer to the way physics is actually discovered and applied, as they are introduced right from the start to a more exploratory way of understanding phenomena and of developing their physical concepts. While not a requirement, it is advantageous for the reader to have some prior knowledge of scientific programming with a scripting-type language. This edition of the book uses Python, and a chapter devoted to the basics of scientific programming with Python is included. A parallel edition using Matlab instead of Python is also available. Last but not least, each chapter is accompanied by an extensive set of course-tested exercises and solutions.

In this book, recent developments in our understanding of fundamental vortex ring and jet dynamics will be discussed, with a view to shed light upon their near-field behaviour which underpins much of their far-field characteristics. The chapters provide up-to-date research findings by their respective experts and seek to link near-field flow physics of vortex ring and jet flows with end-applications in mind. Over the past decade, our knowledge on vortex ring and jet flows has grown by leaps and bounds, thanks to increasing use of high-fidelity, high-accuracy experimental techniques and numerical simulations. As such, we now have a much better appreciation and understanding on the initiation and near-field developments of vortex ring and jet flows under many varied initial and boundary conditions. Chapter 1 outlines the vortex ring pinch-off phenomenon and how it relates to the initial stages of jet formations and subsequent jet behaviour, while Chapter 2 takes a closer look at the behaviour resulting from vortex ring impingement upon solid boundaries and how the use of a porous surface alters the impingement process. Chapters 3 and 4 focus upon the formation of synthetic jets from vortex ring structures experimentally and numerically, the challenges in understanding the relationships between their generation parameters and how they can be utilized in flow separation control problems. Chapter 5 looks at the use of imposing selected nozzle trailing-edge modifications to effect changes upon the near-field dynamics associated with circular, noncircular and coaxial jets, with a view to control their mixing behaviour. And last but not least, Chapter 6 details the use of unique impinging jet configurations and how they may lend themselves towards greater understanding and operating efficacies in heat transfer problems. This book will be useful to postgraduate students and researchers alike who wish to get up to speed regarding the latest developments in vortex ring and jet flow behaviour and how their interesting flow dynamics may be put into good use in their intended applications.

This monograph studies optimization problems for rigid punches in elastic media and for high-speed penetration of rigid strikers into deformed elastoplastic, concrete, and composite media using variational calculations, tools from functional analysis, and stochastic and min-max (guaranteed) optimization approaches with incomplete data. The book presents analytical and numerical results developed by the authors during the last ten years.

Quantum Field Theory has become the universal language of most modern theoretical physics. This introductory textbook shows how this beautiful theory offers the correct mathematical framework to describe and understand the fundamental interactions of elementary particles. The book begins with a brief reminder of basic classical field theories, electrodynamics and general relativity, as well as their symmetry properties, and proceeds with the principles of quantisation following Feynman's path integral approach. Special care is used at every step to illustrate the correct mathematical formulation of the underlying assumptions. Gauge theories and the problems encountered in their quantisation are discussed in detail. The last chapters contain a full description of the Standard Model of particle physics and the attempts to go beyond it, such as grand unified theories and supersymmetry. Written for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in physics and mathematics, the book could also serve as a reference for active researchers in the field.

Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) is a relatively new research area which describes the methods and approaches used to supply quantitative descriptions of the effects of uncertainty, variability and errors in simulation problems and models. It is rapidly becoming a field of increasing importance, with many real-world applications within statistics, mathematics, probability and engineering, but also within the natural sciences. Literature on the topic has up until now been largely based on polynomial chaos, which raises difficulties when considering different types of approximation and does not lead to a unified presentation of the methods. Moreover, this description does not consider either deterministic problems or infinite dimensional ones. This book gives a unified, practical and comprehensive presentation of the main techniques used for the characterization of the effect of uncertainty on numerical models and on their exploitation in numerical problems. In particular, applications to linear and nonlinear systems of equations, differential equations, optimization and reliability are presented. Applications of stochastic methods to deal with deterministic numerical problems are also discussed. Matlab (R) illustrates the implementation of these methods and makes the book suitable as a textbook and for self-study.

This book introduces the basic fundamentals, models, emulators and analyses of mem-elements in the circuit theory with applications. The book starts reviewing the literature on mem-elements, models and their recent applications. It presents mathematical models, numerical results, circuit simulations, and experimental results for double-loop hysteresis behavior of mem-elements. The authors introduce a generalized memristor model in the fractional-order domain under different input and different designs for emulator-based mem-elements, with circuit and experimental results. The basic concept of memristive-based relaxation-oscillators in the circuit theory is also covered. The reader will moreover find in this book information on memristor-based multi-level digital circuits, memristor-based multi-level multiplier and memcapacitor-based oscillators and synaptic circuits.

The papers collected in this volume focus on new perspectives on individuals, society, and science, specifically in the field of socio-economic systems. The book is the result of a scientific collaboration among experts from "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi (Romania), "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy), "University of Defence" of Brno (Czech Republic), and "Pablo de Olavide" University of Sevilla (Spain). The heterogeneity of the contributions presented in this volume reflects the variety and complexity of social phenomena. The book is divided in four Sections as follows. The first Section deals with recent trends in social decisions. Specifically, it aims to understand which are the driving forces of social decisions. The second Section focuses on the social and public sphere. Indeed, it is oriented on recent developments in social systems and control. Trends in quantitative theories and models are described in Section 3, where many new formal, mathematical-statistical tools for modelling complex social phenomena are presented. Finally, Section 4 shows integrative theories and models; particularly, it deals with the ethical, cultural and political approaches to social science, the pedagogical methods, and the relationship between literature, politics, religion and society. The book is addressed to sociologists, philosophers, mathematicians, statisticians, people interested in ethics, and specialists in the fields of communication, social, and political sciences.

The goal of this book is to present Stochastic Calculus at an introductory level and not at its maximum mathematical detail. The author aims to capture as much as possible the spirit of elementary deterministic Calculus, at which students have been already exposed. This assumes a presentation that mimics similar properties of deterministic Calculus, which facilitates understanding of more complicated topics of Stochastic Calculus.

This book presents a collection of selected papers that represent the current variety of research on the teaching and learning of probability. The respective chapters address a diverse range of theoretical, empirical and practical aspects underpinning the teaching and learning of probability, curricular issues, probabilistic reasoning, misconceptions and biases, as well as their pedagogical implications. These chapters are divided into THREE main sections, dealing with: TEACHING PROBABILITY, STUDENTS' REASONING AND LEARNING AND EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. In brief, the papers presented here include research dealing with teachers and students at different levels and ages (from primary school to university) and address epistemological and curricular analysis, as well as the role of technology, simulations, language and visualisation in teaching and learning probability. As such, it offers essential information for teachers, researchers and curricular designers alike.

This work is concerned with combinatorial aspects arising in the theory of exactly solvable models and representation theory. Recent developments in integrable models reveal an unexpected link between representation theory and statistical mechanics through combinatorics. For example, Young tableaux, which describe the basis of irreducible representations, appear in the Bethe Ansatz method in quantum spin chains as labels for the eigenstates for Hamiltonians.

Taking into account the various criss-crossing among mathematical subject, Physical Combinatorics presents new results and exciting ideas from three viewpoints; representation theory, integrable models, and combinatorics.

This volume will be of interest to mathematical physicists and graduate students in the the above-mentioned fields.

Contributors to the volume: T.H. Baker, O. Foda, G. Hatayama, Y. Komori, A. Kuniba, T. Nakanishi, M. Okado, A. Schilling, J. Suzuki, T. Takagi, D. Uglov, O. Warnaar, T.A. Welsh, A. Zabrodin

This book offers a timely overview of fractional calculus applications, with a special emphasis on fractional derivatives with Mittag-Leffler kernel. The different contributions, written by applied mathematicians, physicists and engineers, offers a snapshot of recent research in the field, highlighting the current methodological frameworks together with applications in different fields of science and engineering, such as chemistry, mechanics, epidemiology and more. It is intended as a timely guide and source of inspiration for graduate students and researchers in the above-mentioned areas.