Recent state-of-the-art technologies in fabricating low-loss optical and mechanical components have significantly motivated the study of quantum-limited measurements with optomechanical devices. Such research is the main subject of this thesis. In the first part, the author considers various approaches for surpassing the standard quantum limit for force measurements. In the second part, the author proposes different experimental protocols for using optomechanical interactions to explore quantum behaviors of macroscopic mechanical objects. Even though this thesis mostly focuses on large-scale laser interferometer gravitational-wave detectors and related experiments, the general approaches apply equally well for studying small-scale optomechanical devices.

The author is the winner of the 2010 Thesis prize awarded by the Gravitational Wave International Committee.

Effective and ef cient modelling of in nite media is important for the production of accurate and useful solutions for many scienti c and engineering problems invo- ing in nite domains (Bettess 1977, 1980; Chow and Smith 1981; Medina and Taylor 1983; Zhang and Zhao 1987; Zhao et al. 1989; Zhao and Valliappan 1993a, b, c, d; Astley 1996, 1998; Yang et al. 1996; Yang and Huang 2001; Yun et al. 2000, 2007; Wang et al. 2006). Some typical examples involving in nite domains are as follows: (1) earthquake wave propagation within the upper crust of the Earth in the elds of geophysics and seismology; (2) dynamic structure-foundation interaction in the elds of geotechnical, civil and dam engineering; and (3) transient pore- uid ow, heat transfer and mass transport within the interior of the Earth in the elds of g- science and geoenvironmental engineering. Although the solid Earth is viewed as a bounded domain at the terrestrial scale, it can be treated as an unbounded domain at the human scale. For instance, in the case of predicting possible property damages caused by an earthquake, only a limited region around the epicentre is of interest because the earthquake wave energy is signi cantly reduced as the distance from the epicentre is increased.

This book is written in a pedagogical style intelligible for graduate students. It reviews recent progress in black-hole and wormhole theory and in mathematical cosmology within the framework of Einstein's field equations and beyond, including quantum effects. This collection of essays, written by leading scientists of long standing reputation, should become an indispensable source for future research.

The aim of the book is to present, in a novel and unified fashion, the elements of Mechanics in Material Space or Configurational Mechanics, with applications to fracture and defect mechanics. This mechanics, in contrast to Newtonian mechanics in physical space, is concerned with defects such as cracks and dislocations, which are embedded in the material and might move in it. The level is kept accessible to any engineer, scientist or graduate student possessing some knowledge of calculus and partial differential equations, and working in the various areas where rational use of materials is essential.

Non-Newtonian properties on bubble dynamics and cavitation are fundamentally different from those of Newtonian fluids. The most significant effect arises from the dramatic increase in viscosity of polymer solutions in an extensional flow, such as that generated about a spherical bubble during its growth or collapse phase. In addition, many biological fluids, such as blood, synovial fluid, and saliva, have non-Newtonian properties and can display significant viscoelastic behaviour. This monograph elucidates general aspects of bubble dynamics and cavitation in non-Newtonian fluids and applies them to the fields of biomedicine and bioengineering. In addition it presents many examples from the process industries. The field is strongly interdisciplinary and the numerous disciplines involve have and will continue to overlook and reinvent each others' work. This book helps researchers to think intuitively about the diverse physics of these systems, to attempt to bridge the various communities involved, and to convey the interest, elegance, and variety of physical phenomena that manifest themselves on the micrometer and microsecond scales.

Fundamental unsolved problems of stellar astrophysics include the effects of angular momentum on stellar structure and evolution, the nature and efficiency of the processes by which angular momentum is redistributed within and lost from stars, and the role that stellar rotation plays in enhancing or driving stellar mass loss. There appears to be a qualitative change in the nature and efficiency of these mechanisms near spectral type FO: hotter (more massive) stars typically retain more angular momentum at least until they reach the main sequence, while cooler stars typically spin down quickly. For the hotter stars, recent work suggests a strong link between the type of pulsation behavior, the mass loss rates, and the rotation velocity. If the same mechanisms are able to drive mass loss from the main sequence A stars, as has recently been proposed, then the current interpretations of a number of observations will be drastically affected: e. g. the ages of clusters may be incorrect by up to a factor of two, and the surface abundances of isotopes of He, Li and Be may no longer give constraints on cosmological nucleosynthesis. There are also effects on the evolution of the abundances of elements in the interstellar medium and on the general evolution of populations of stars. Thus the questions of the mechanisms of angular momentum and mass loss of stars more massive than the sun is important not only for stellar studies but for the foundations of much of modern astrophysics.

The book reports an extended version of the lectures given by distinguished scholars at the workshop "Fault diagnosis and fault tolerance for dynamic systems" held in conjunction with the 2002 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control in Vancouver, Canada, from 27-30 October 2002. The book collects some of the most recent results in fault diagnosis and fault tolerant systems with particular emphasis on mechatronic systems. Each chapter focuses on either theoretical aspects or applications to different fields of interest in mechatronics such as industrial robotics, underwater vehicles, hydraulic systems, and flight control.

The reader will find in this volume the Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Maratea-Acquafredda, Italy, between June 29 and July 12, 1997, entitledTHE DYNAMICS OF SMALL BODIES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM: A MAJOR KEY TO SOLAR SYSTEM STUDIES . This Advanced Study Institute was the latest in the 'Cortina' series of NATO ASI's begun in the early 1970's firstly under the directorship of Professor Victor Szebehely and subsequently under Professor Archie Roy. All, except the latest, were held at the Antonelli Institute, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Many of those now active in the field made their first international contacts at these Institutes. The Institutes bring together many of the brightest of our young people working in dynamical astronomy, celestial mechanics and space science, enabling them to obtain an up-to-date synoptic view of their subjects delivered by lecturers of high international reputation. The proceedings from these institutes have been well-received in the internationalcommunity of research workers in the disciplines studied. The present institute included 15 series of lectures given by invited speakers and some 45 presentations made by the other participants. The majority of these contributions are includedinthese proceedings.

The book presents a synopsis of the main results achieved during the 3 year EU-project "Advanced Inflight Measurement Techniques (AIM)" which applied advanced image based measurement techniques to industrial flight testing. The book is intended to be not only an overview on the AIM activities but also a guide on the application of advanced optical measurement techniques for future flight testing. Furthermore it is a useful guide for engineers in the field of experimental methods and flight testing who face the challenge of a future requirement for the development of highly accurate non-intrusive in-flight measurement techniques.

The book gathers the invited talks to the XIII JENAM conference, organized this time by the European Astronomical Society (EAS) and the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA), and hosted by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (CSIC). All branches of astrophysics are encompassed from the largest scales and cosmology to the solar system and the Sun, through the galaxies and the stars, including a section on astronomical instrumentation. Very relevant experts from all over the world speak in a single book about the most recent, exciting results from their fields in a way which is useful for both researchers in these fields and colleagues working in other disciplines. The book is accompanied by a CD-ROM including the remaining contributions of the meeting in PDF format, hence opening a wide panorama of what is going on in astrophysics nowadays.

Self-focusing has been an area of active scientific investigation for nearly 50 years. This book presents a comprehensive treatment of this topic and reviews both theoretical and experimental investigations of self-focusing. This book should be of interest to scientists and engineers working with lasers and their applications. From a practical point of view, self-focusing effects impose a limit on the power that can be transmitted through a material medium. Self-focusing also can reduce the threshold for the occurrence of other nonlinear optical processes. Self-focusing often leads to damage in optical materials and is a limiting factor in the design of high-power laser systems. But it can be harnessed for the design of useful devices such as optical power limiters and switches. At a formal level, the equations for self-focusing are equivalent to those describing Bose-Einstein condensates and certain aspects of plasma physics and hydrodynamics. There is thus a unifying theme between nonlinear optics and these other disciplines. One of the goals of this book is to connect the extensive early literature on self-focusing, filament-ation, self-trapping, and collapse with more recent studies aimed at issues such as self-focusing of fs pulses, white light generation, and the generation of filaments in air with lengths of more than 10 km. It also describes some modern advances in self-focusing theory including the influence of beam nonparaxiality on self-focusing collapse. This book consists of 24 chapters. Among them are three reprinted key landmark articles published earlier. It also contains the first publication of the 1964 paper that describes the first laboratory observation of self-focusing phenomena with photographic evidence.

If our eyes were radio rather than optical wide-band detectors it is well known that for us the brightest object in the sky would still be the Sun; that planets, stars and the Milky Way would still shine feebly (and that we would still occasionally be blinded by man-made sources). What is less well known is that quite a different earthbound overcast would hover about us, with its climatic zones, its seasonal changes, its unpredictable storms and scintillating transparence. To be sure, we can get a sort of glimpse of this peculiar type of weather when we tune our receiver to radio broad casting from some remote spot, or photograph the Earth from space at certain specific wavelengths. Nevertheless no one has ever looked at the ionized shroud of the Earth without the help of sophisticated apparatus, and this is one of the reasons why in this domain the phenomena are not easily abstracted from the use of specific techniques. For generations, the study of the ionosphere has been deeply interwoven with the practice of radio communication and detection. Today however, ionospheric physics is best thought of as a branch of space physics; that part of physics which deals with processes at work in the solar system and methods developed for its exploration."

China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC) 2015 Proceedings presents selected research papers from CSNC2015, held during 13th-15th May in Xian, China. The theme of CSNC2015 is Opening-up, Connectivity and Win-win. These papers discuss the technologies and applications of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and the latest progress made in the China BeiDou System (BDS) especially. They are divided into 10 topics to match the corresponding sessions in CSNC2015, which broadly covered key topics in GNSS. Readers can learn about the BDS and keep abreast of the latest advances in GNSS techniques and applications. SUN Jiadong is the Chief Designer of the Compass/ BDS, and the academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); LIU Jingnan is a professor at Wuhan University. FAN Shiwei is a researcher at China Satellite Navigation Office; LU Xiaochun is an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

This book is an introduction to the dynamics of reaction-diffusion systems, with a focus on fronts and stationary spatial patterns. Emphasis is on systems that are non-standard in the sense that either the transport is not simply classical diffusion (Brownian motion) or the system is not homogeneous. A important feature is the derivation of the basic phenomenological equations from the mesoscopic system properties. Topics addressed include transport with inertia, described by persistent random walks and hyperbolic reaction-transport equations and transport by anomalous diffusion, in particular subdiffusion, where the mean square displacement grows sublinearly with time. In particular reaction-diffusion systems are studied where the medium is in turn either spatially inhomogeneous, compositionally heterogeneous or spatially discrete. Applications span a vast range of interdisciplinary fields and the systems considered can be as different as human or animal groups migrating under external influences, population ecology and evolution, complex chemical reactions, or networks of biological cells. Several chapters treat these applications in detail.

The 37th Annual Denver Conference on Applications of X-Ray Analysis was held August 1-5, 1988, at the Sheraton Steamboat Resort and Conference Center, Steamboat Springs, Colorado. As usual, alternating with x-ray diffraction, the emphasis this year was x-ray fluorescence, but as has been the pattern for several occasions over the last few years, the Plenary Session did not deal with that subject, specifically. In an attempt to introduce the audience to one of the new developments in x-ray analysis, the title of the session was "High Brilliance Sources/Applications," and dealt exclusively with synchrotron radiation, a topic which has made a very large impact on the x-ray community over the last decade. As the organizer and co-chairman of the Plenary Session (with Paul Predecki), it is my responsibility to report on that session here. The Conference had the privilege of obtaining the services of some of the preeminent practitioners of research using this remarkable x-ray source; they presented the audience with unusually lucid descriptions of the work which has been accomplished in the development and application of the continuous, high intensity, tunable, polarized and collimated x-rays available from no facility other than these specialized storage rings. The opening lecture (and I use that term intentionally) was an enthusiastic description of "What is Synchrotron Radiation?" by Professor Boris Batterman of Cornell University and the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Sourc(! (CHESS).

This book focuses on the assembly, organization and resultant collective dynamics of soft matter systems maintained away from equilibrium by an energy flux. Living matter is the ultimate example of such systems, which are comprised of different constituents on very different scales (ions, nucleic acids, proteins, cells). The result of their diverse interactions, maintained using the energy from physiological processes, is a fantastically well-organized and dynamic whole. This work describes results from minimal, biomimetic systems and primarily investigates membranes and active emulsions, as well as key aspects of both soft matter and non-equilibrium phenomena. It is shown that these minimal reconstitutions are already capable of a range of complex behaviour such as nonlinear electric responses, chemical communication and locomotion. These studies will bring us closer to a fundamental understanding of complex systems by reconstituting key aspects of their form and function in simple model systems. Further, they may also serve as the first technological steps towards artificial soft functional matter.

This volume - like the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on which it is based - addresses the fundamental science that contributes to our understanding of the potential risks from ecological terrorism, i.e. dirty bombs, atomic explosions, intentional release of radionuclides into water or air. Both effects on human health (DNA and systemic effects) and on ecosystems are detailed, with particular focus on environmentally relevant low-dose ranges. The state-of-the-art contributions to the book are authored by leading experts; they tackle the relevant questions from the perspectives of radiation genetics, radiobiology, radioecology, radiation epidemiology and risk assessment.

These are the proceedings of international conference on Numerical As trophysics 1998 (NAP98), held at National Olympic Memorial Youth Cen ter, in Tokyo, Japan in the period of March 10 - 13, 1998, and hosted by the National Astronomical Observatory, Japan (NAOJ). In the last decade numerical simulations have grown up as a major tool for astrophysics. Numerical simulations give us invaluable informa tion on complex systems and physical processes under extreme conditions which can be neither realized by experiments nor directly observed. Super computers and special purpose computers may work as very large telescopes and special purpose telescopes for theoretical astrophysics, respectively. Nu merical astrophysics ranks with other tool-oriented astronomy such as ra dio astronomy, infrared astronomy, ultraviolet astronomy, X-ray astronomy, and ')'-ray astronomy. This conference, NAP98, was planned to explore recent advances in astrophysics aided by numerical simulations. The subjects of the confer ence included the large-scale structure formation, galaxy formation and evolution, star and planets formation, accretion disks, jets, gravitational wave emission, and plasma physics. NAP98 had also sessions on numerical methods and computer science. The conference was attended by 184 sci entists from 21 countries. We enjoyed excellent talks, posters, videos, and discussions: there are 40 oral presentations, 96 posters and 16 video pre sentations. We hope that these proceedings and accompanying CD-ROM replay the friendly but inspiring atmosphere of the conference."

In this book, the author draws on his broad experience to describe both the theory and the applications of wave propagations. The contents are presented in four parts and the sequence of these parts reflect the development of ionospheric and propagational research in areas such as space research geophysics and communications. The first part of the book presents an outline of the theory of electromagnetic waves propagating in a cold electron plasma. For reference, vector analysis, dyadics and eigenvalues introduced in this part are presented in the appendices. Practical aspects of radio wave propagation are the subject of the second part. The typical conditions in different frequency ranges are discussed and the irregular features of the ionospheric structure such as sound and gravity waves are also considered. Warm plasma and the effects of ions are considered in the third part, which includes a discussion of sound-like waves in electron and ion plasmas. Nonlinear effects and instabilities are described in the fourth part.

Physics of Planetary Rings describes striking structures of the planetary rings of Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter, and Neptune: Narrow ringlets, spiral waves, and a chain of clumps. The author has contributed essential ideas to the full understanding of planetary rings via the stability analysis of dynamical systems. The combination of a high-quality description, the set of interesting illustrations, as well as the fascinating and natural presentation will make this book of considerable interest to astronomers, physicists, and mathematicians as well as students. There is no competing text for this book so far.

Both the high level of activity in worldwide space exploration programmes and the discovery of extra-solar planets have spurred renewed interest in the physics and evolution dynamics of solar systems. The present book has grown out of a set of lectures by leading experts in the field within the framework of the well-known EADN summer schools. It addresses primarily graduate students and young researchers but will be equally useful for scientists in search of a comprehensive tutorial account that goes beyond the material found in standard textbooks.

The NATO ARW in Irkutsk was an excellent occasion for the coming together of Eastern and Western scientists who are involved in tropospheric science; the workshop has greatly contributed to the scientific and social understanding among the participants from the many different countries. Many new personal contacts were made which will help to strengthen future collaborations. In particular, the Lake Baikal area and the Limnological Institute offer splendid opportunities for environmental research which, in part, is already on going. For most participants it was the first time to see the impressive nature of the Lake Baikal region. Hopefully, there will be a chance for a follow-up event in Siberia where researchers from the East and West can again meet and engage in fruitful scientific dialogue. The book contains extended abstracts of the lectures and the poster presentations presented at the NATO ARW "Global Atmospheric Change and its Impact on Regional Air Quality" Irkutsk, Lake Baikal, Russian Federation, August 21-27, 2001. The ARW was composed of 22 oral presentations by key lecturers and 6 additional shorter oral presentations from participants. In a special poster session the 36 poster contributions were presented and discussed. Unfortunately not all contributors submitted extended abstracts, however, to compensate two contributions have been added from 2 participants who were originally invited but were unable to attend.

An up-to-date progress report on the current status of solar-terrestrial relation studies with an emphasis on observations by the Russian Interball spacecraft and the Czech Magion subsatellites. Papers in the volume describe the various spacecraft in the International Solar-Terrestrial Program and the research questions that they are being used to address. The emphasis is on correlative studies employing multiple instruments and multiple spacecraft. The book begins with a description of each spacecraft active in 1998 and describes the roles they can play in correlative studies. This is followed by an up-to-date status report concerning ongoing studies of the solar wind, foreshock, bow shock, magnetopause, magnetotail, and ionosphere, with an emphasis on the observations made by the four Interball spacecraft. Readership Researchers and graduate students of space physics and astrophysics.

The evolution of life on Earth during the last four billion years has not been uniform. Several distinct periods of mass extinction are known, the last led to the extinction of the dinosaurs some 60 million years ago. The causes for these mass extinctions are, at least in some cases, cosmic catastrophes, such as impacts of asteroid sized bodies, nearby supernova explosions etc. It is also well known that the last ice ages are triggered by variations of different parameters of the Earth'r orbit about the Sun. Cosmic catastrophes therefore have to be considered when evolution of life on planets are discussed, especially the question of habitability on them.
In this book we first discuss habitability not only on planets (in the solar system as well in extrasolar planetary systems) but also on satellites of giant planets. Life needs some energy source which is provided either by the central star of a planetary system or by tidal forces exerted by a giant planet on a large satellite of it. On Earth it took about four billion years for intelligent life to evolve. Such a long time span (which is about 1/3 of the total age of the universe) requires rather stable conditions. We therefore investigate in detail how cosmic catastrophes may destroy life, and at the same time lead to the evolution of new species. Catastrophes therefore seem to be essential for evolution to higher lifeforms.
With the recent advances of biology, the detection of extrasolar planetary systems, the great advancement of our knowledge about the chemical and physical processes that enable life, these questions can be answered in much more detail than several years ago. The reader is provided with an introduction into the various topics and for further details recent literature is cited. It will be also stressed that the evolution of life on Earth is not only connected with the existence of a stable long-lived star, the Sun, but also depends on conditions and distribution of mass in the planetary system (the existence of giant planets at a certain distance from the Sun), the existence of the Moon (which stabilizes the Earth's rotational axis), the location of the solar system in the galaxy and other factors. Primitive forms of life, however, may require less stringent environmental conditions as the detection of extremophiles has proven.