This thesis presents a systematic discussion of experimental approaches to investigating the nonlinear interaction of ultrashort visible strong fields with dielectrics directly in the time domain. The key finding is the distinctly different peak-intensity dependence of the light-matter energy transfer dynamics on the one hand, and the observed transient optical and electronic modifications on the other. As the induced electron dynamics evolve on sub-femtosecond timescales, real-time spectroscopy requires attosecond temporal resolution. This allows a range of parameters to be identified where the optical properties of the samples exposed to ultrashort light fields suffer dramatic changes allowing signal metrology while real absorption leading to dissipation is essentially absent. These findings indicate the feasibility of efficient optical switching at frequencies several orders of magnitude faster than current state-of-the-art electronics and thus have far-reaching technological consequences.

The key attribute of a Fault Tolerant Control (FTC) system is its ability to maintain overall system stability and acceptable performance in the face of faults and failures within the feedback system. In this book Integral Sliding Mode (ISM) Control Allocation (CA) schemes for FTC are described, which have the potential to maintain close to nominal fault-free performance (for the entire system response), in the face of actuator faults and even complete failures of certain actuators. Broadly an ISM controller based around a model of the plant with the aim of creating a nonlinear fault tolerant feedback controller whose closed-loop performance is established during the design process. The second approach involves retro-fitting an ISM scheme to an existing feedback controller to introduce fault tolerance. This may be advantageous from an industrial perspective, because fault tolerance can be introduced without changing the existing control loops. A high fidelity benchmark model of a large transport aircraft is used to demonstrate the efficacy of the FTC schemes. In particular a scheme based on an LPV representation has been implemented and tested on a motion flight simulator.

This book presents up-to-date research developments and novel methodologies on semi-Markovian jump systems (S-MJS). It presents solutions to a series of problems with new approaches for the control and filtering of S-MJS, including stability analysis, sliding mode control, dynamic output feedback control, robust filter design, and fault detection. A set of newly developed techniques such as piecewise analysis method, positively invariant set approach, event-triggered method, and cone complementary linearization approaches are presented. Control and Filtering for Semi-Markovian Jump Systems is a comprehensive reference for researcher and practitioners working in control engineering, system sciences and applied mathematics, and is also a useful source of information for senior undergraduates and graduates in these areas. The readers will benefit from some new concepts, new models and new methodologies with practical significance in control engineering and signal processing.

This guide is designed for systems researchers - emerging and seasoned - searching for holistic approaches of inquiry into complexity, which the Systems Sciences provide. The authors share insight into the foundations of research that are not only systematic in terms of rigor, but systemic in perspective, analysis, design, development, implementation, reporting, and evaluation. This guide also explores researcher competencies necessary to conduct sound systems research. Researchers using this guide will gain understanding of what distinguishes systems research from other types of research and why it is important in research today.

This book highlights cutting-edge research in the field of network science, offering scientists, researchers and graduate students a unique opportunity to catch up on the latest advances in theory and a multitude of applications. It presents the peer-reviewed proceedings of the fifth International Workshop on Complex Networks & their Applications (COMPLEX NETWORKS 2016), which took place in Milan during the last week of November 2016. The carefully selected papers are divided into 11 sections reflecting the diversity and richness of research areas in the field. More specifically, the following topics are covered: Network models; Network measures; Community structure; Network dynamics; Diffusion, epidemics and spreading processes; Resilience and control; Network visualization; Social and political networks; Networks in finance and economics; Biological and ecological networks; and Network analysis.

This volume reflects "New Trends in Shape Optimization" and is based on a workshop of the same name organized at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nurnberg in September 2013. During the workshop senior mathematicians and young scientists alike presented their latest findings. The format of the meeting allowed fruitful discussions on challenging open problems, and triggered a number of new and spontaneous collaborations. As such, the idea was born to produce this book, each chapter of which was written by a workshop participant, often with a collaborator. The content of the individual chapters ranges from survey papers to original articles; some focus on the topics discussed at the Workshop, while others involve arguments outside its scope but which are no less relevant for the field today. As such, the book offers readers a balanced introduction to the emerging field of shape optimization.

The book presents nonlinear, chaotic and fractional dynamics, complex systems and networks, together with cutting-edge research on related topics. The fifteen chapters - written by leading scientists working in the areas of nonlinear, chaotic, and fractional dynamics, as well as complex systems and networks - offer an extensive overview of cutting-edge research on a range of topics, including fundamental and applied research. These include but are not limited to, aspects of synchronization in complex dynamical systems, universality features in systems with specific fractional dynamics, and chaotic scattering. As such, the book provides an excellent and timely snapshot of the current state of research, blending the insights and experiences of many prominent researchers.

This book offers an introduction to the physics of nonlinear phenomena through two complementary approaches: bifurcation theory and catastrophe theory. Readers will be gradually introduced to the language and formalisms of nonlinear sciences, which constitute the framework to describe complex systems. The difficulty with complex systems is that their evolution cannot be fully predicted because of the interdependence and interactions between their different components. Starting with simple examples and working toward an increasing level of universalization, the work explores diverse scenarios of bifurcations and elementary catastrophes which characterize the qualitative behavior of nonlinear systems. The study of temporal evolution is undertaken using the equations that characterize stationary or oscillatory solutions, while spatial analysis introduces the fascinating problem of morphogenesis. Accessible to undergraduate university students in any discipline concerned with nonlinear phenomena (physics, mathematics, chemistry, geology, economy, etc.), this work provides a wealth of information for teachers and researchers in these various fields. Chaouqi Misbah is a senior researcher at the CNRS (National Centre of Scientific Research in France). His work spans from pattern formation in nonlinear science to complex fluids and biophysics. In 2002 he received a major award from the French Academy of Science for his achievements and in 2003 Grenoble University honoured him with a gold medal. Leader of a group of around 40 scientists, he is a member of the editorial board of the French Academy of Science since 2013 and also holds numerous national and international responsibilities.

This thesis presents the first comprehensive analysis of quantum cascade laser nonlinear dynamics and includes the first observation of a temporal chaotic behavior in quantum cascade lasers. It also provides the first analysis of optical instabilities in the mid-infrared range. Mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers are unipolar semiconductor lasers, which have become widely used in applications such as gas spectroscopy, free-space communications or optical countermeasures. Applying external perturbations such as optical feedback or optical injection leads to a strong modification of the quantum cascade laser properties. Optical feedback impacts the static properties of mid-infrared Fabry-Perot and distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers, inducing power increase; threshold reduction; modification of the optical spectrum, which can become either single- or multimode; and enhanced beam quality in broad-area transverse multimode lasers. It also leads to a different dynamical behavior, and a quantum cascade laser subject to optical feedback can oscillate periodically or even become chaotic. A quantum cascade laser under external control could therefore be a source with enhanced properties for the usual mid-infrared applications, but could also address new applications such as tunable photonic oscillators, extreme events generators, chaotic Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), chaos-based secured communications or unpredictable countermeasures.

This book deals with a combination of two main problems for the first time. They are saturation on control and on the rate (or increment) of the control, and the solution of unsymmetrical saturation on the control by LMIs. It treats linear systems in state space form, in both the continuous- and discrete-time domains. Necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for autonomous linear systems with constrained state increment or rate, such that the system evolves respecting incremental or rate constraints if any. A pole assignment technique is then used to solve the problem, giving stabilizing state feedback controllers that respect non-symmetrical constraints on control alone or on both control and its increment or rate. Illustrative examples show the application of these methods on academic examples or on such real plant models as the double integrator system. This problem is then extended to various others including: systems with constraints and perturbations; singular systems with constrained control; systems with unsymmetrical saturations; saturated systems with delay, and 2-D systems with saturations. The solutions obtained are of two types: necessary and sufficient conditions solved with linear programming techniques; and sufficient conditions under LMIs. A new approach extends existing techniques for dealing with symmetrical saturations to take direct account of unsymmetrical saturations into account with LMIs. This tool enables the authors to obtain new results on continuous- and discrete-time systems. The book uses illustrative examples and figures and provides many comparisons with existing results. Systems theoreticians interested in multidimensional systems and practitioners working with saturated and constrained controllers will find the research and background presented in Saturated Control of Linear Systems to be of considerable interest in helping them overcome problems with their plant and in stimulating further research.

This introductory text presents the basic aspects and most important features of various types of resonances and anti-resonances in dynamical systems. In particular, for each resonance, it covers the theoretical concepts, illustrates them with case studies, and reviews the available information on mechanisms, characterization, numerical simulations, experimental realizations, possible quantum analogues, applications and significant advances made over the years. Resonances are one of the most fundamental phenomena exhibited by nonlinear systems and refer to specific realizations of maximum response of a system due to the ability of that system to store and transfer energy received from an external forcing source. Resonances are of particular importance in physical, engineering and biological systems - they can prove to be advantageous in many applications, while leading to instability and even disasters in others. The book is self-contained, providing the details of mathematical derivations and techniques involved in numerical simulations. Though primarily intended for graduate students, it can also be considered a reference book for any researcher interested in the dynamics of resonant phenomena.

This book reflects the latest developments in variable structure systems (VSS) and sliding mode control (SMC), highlighting advances in various branches of the VSS/SMC field, e.g., from conventional SMC to high-order SMC, from the continuous-time domain to the discrete-time domain, from theories to applications, etc. The book consists of three parts and 16 chapters: in the first part, new VSS/SMC algorithms are proposed and their properties are analyzed, while the second focuses on the use of VSS/SMC techniques to solve a variety of control problems; the third part examines the applications of VSS/SMC to real-time systems. The book introduces postgraduates and researchers to the state-of-the-art in VSS/SMC field, including the theory, methodology, and applications. Relative academic disciplines include Automation, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Instrument Science and Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Computer Science and Technology, Transportation Engineering, Energy and Power Engineering, etc.

This book focuses on modelling and simulation, control and optimization, signal processing, and forecasting in selected nonlinear dynamical systems, presenting both literature reviews and novel concepts. It develops analytical or numerical approaches, which are simple to use, robust, stable, flexible and universally applicable to the analysis of complex nonlinear dynamical systems. As such it addresses key challenges are addressed, e.g. efficient handling of time-varying dynamics, efficient design, faster numerical computations, robustness, stability and convergence of algorithms. The book provides a series of contributions discussing either the design or analysis of complex systems in sciences and engineering, and the concepts developed involve nonlinear dynamics, synchronization, optimization, machine learning, and forecasting. Both theoretical and practical aspects of diverse areas are investigated, specifically neurocomputing, transportation engineering, theoretical electrical engineering, signal processing, communications engineering, and computational intelligence. It is a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in nonlinear dynamics and synchronization with applications in selected areas.

This comprehensive work explores interfacial instability and pattern formation in dynamic systems away from the equilibrium state in solidification and crystal growth. Further, this significantly expanded 2nd edition introduces and reviews the progress made during the last two decades. In particular, it describes the most prominent pattern formation phenomena commonly observed in material processing and crystal growth in the framework of the previously established interfacial wave theory, including free dendritic growth from undercooled melt, cellular growth and eutectic growth in directional solidification, as well as viscous fingering in Hele-Shaw flow. It elucidates the key problems, systematically derives their mathematical solutions by pursuing a unified, asymptotic approach, and finally carefully examines these results by comparing them with the available experimental results. The asymptotic approach described here will be useful for the investigation of pattern formation phenomena occurring in a much broader class of inhomogeneous dynamical systems. In addition, the results on global stability and selection mechanisms of pattern formation will be of particular interest to researchers working on material processing and crystal growth. The stability mechanisms of a curved front and the pattern formation have been fundamental subjects in the areas of condensed-matter physics, materials science, crystal growth, and fluid mechanics for some time now. This book offers a stimulating and insightful introduction for all physicists, engineers and applied mathematicians working in the fields of soft condensed-matter physics, materials science, mechanical and chemical engineering, fluid dynamics, and nonlinear sciences.

This book is devoted to the modeling and understanding of complex urban systems. This second volume of Understanding Complex Urban Systems focuses on the challenges of the modeling tools, concerning, e.g., the quality and quantity of data and the selection of an appropriate modeling approach. It is meant to support urban decision-makers-including municipal politicians, spatial planners, and citizen groups-in choosing an appropriate modeling approach for their particular modeling requirements. The contributors to this volume are from different disciplines, but all share the same goal: optimizing the representation of complex urban systems. They present and discuss a variety of approaches for dealing with data-availability problems and finding appropriate modeling approaches-and not only in terms of computer modeling. The selection of articles featured in this volume reflect a broad variety of new and established modeling approaches such as: - An argument for using Big Data methods in conjunction with Agent-based Modeling; - The introduction of a participatory approach involving citizens, in order to utilize an Agent-based Modeling approach to simulate urban-growth scenarios; - A presentation of semantic modeling to enable a flexible application of modeling methods and a flexible exchange of data; - An article about a nested-systems approach to analyzing a city's interdependent subsystems (according to these subsystems' different velocities of change); - An article about methods that use Luhmann's system theory to characterize cities as systems that are composed of flows; - An article that demonstrates how the Sen-Nussbaum Capabilities Approach can be used in urban systems to measure household well-being shifts that occur in response to the resettlement of urban households; - A final article that illustrates how Adaptive Cycles of Complex Adaptive Systems, as well as innovation, can be applied to gain a better understanding of cities and to promote more resilient and more sustainable urban futures.

The book conclusively solves problems associated with the control and estimation of nonlinear and chaotic dynamics in financial systems when these are described in the form of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. It then addresses problems associated with the control and estimation of financial systems governed by partial differential equations (e.g. the Black-Scholes partial differential equation (PDE) and its variants). Lastly it an offers optimal solution to the problem of statistical validation of computational models and tools used to support financial engineers in decision making. The application of state-space models in financial engineering means that the heuristics and empirical methods currently in use in decision-making procedures for finance can be eliminated. It also allows methods of fault-free performance and optimality in the management of assets and capitals and methods assuring stability in the functioning of financial systems to be established. Covering the following key areas of financial engineering: (i) control and stabilization of financial systems dynamics, (ii) state estimation and forecasting, and (iii) statistical validation of decision-making tools, the book can be used for teaching undergraduate or postgraduate courses in financial engineering. It is also a useful resource for the engineering and computer science community

This book on advanced optoisolation circuits for nonlinearity applications in engineering addresses two separate engineering and scientific areas, and presents advanced analysis methods for optoisolation circuits that cover a broad range of engineering applications. The book analyzes optoisolation circuits as linear and nonlinear dynamical systems and their limit cycles, bifurcation, and limit cycle stability by using Floquet theory. Further, it discusses a broad range of bifurcations related to optoisolation systems: cusp-catastrophe, Bautin bifurcation, Andronov-Hopf bifurcation, Bogdanov-Takens (BT) bifurcation, fold Hopf bifurcation, Hopf-Hopf bifurcation, Torus bifurcation (Neimark-Sacker bifurcation), and Saddle-loop or Homoclinic bifurcation. Floquet theory helps as to analyze advance optoisolation systems. Floquet theory is the study of the stability of linear periodic systems in continuous time. Another way to describe Floquet theory, it is the study of linear systems of differential equations with periodic coefficients. The optoisolation system displays a rich variety of dynamical behaviors including simple oscillations, quasi-periodicity, bi-stability between periodic states, complex periodic oscillations (including the mixed-mode type), and chaos. The route to chaos in this optoisolation system involves a torus attractor which becomes destabilized and breaks up into a fractal object, a strange attractor. The book is unique in its emphasis on practical and innovative engineering applications. These include optocouplers in a variety of topological structures, passive components, conservative elements, dissipative elements, active devices, etc. In each chapter, the concept is developed from the basic assumptions up to the final engineering outcomes. The scientific background is explained at basic and advanced levels and closely integrated with mathematical theory. The book is primarily intended for newcomers to linear and nonlinear dynamics and advanced optoisolation circuits, as well as electrical and electronic engineers, students and researchers in physics who read the first book "Optoisolation Circuits Nonlinearity Applications in Engineering". It is ideally suited for engineers who have had no formal instruction in nonlinear dynamics, but who now desire to bridge the gap between innovative optoisolation circuits and advanced mathematical analysis methods.

The book is the first book on complex matrix equations including the conjugate of unknown matrices. The study of these conjugate matrix equations is motivated by the investigations on stabilization and model reference tracking control for discrete-time antilinear systems, which are a particular kind of complex system with structure constraints. It proposes useful approaches to obtain iterative solutions or explicit solutions for several types of complex conjugate matrix equation. It observes that there are some significant differences between the real/complex matrix equations and the complex conjugate matrix equations. For example, the solvability of a real Sylvester matrix equation can be characterized by matrix similarity; however, the solvability of the con-Sylvester matrix equation in complex conjugate form is related to the concept of con-similarity. In addition, the new concept of conjugate product for complex polynomial matrices is also proposed in order to establish a unified approach for solving a type of complex matrix equation.

This thesis explores several interdisciplinary topics at the border of theoretical physics and biology, presenting results that demonstrate the power of methods from statistical physics when applied to neighbouring disciplines. From birth-death processes in switching environments to discussions on the meaning of quasi-potential landscapes in high-dimensional spaces, this thesis is a shining example of the efficacy of interdisciplinary research. The fields advanced in this work include game theory, the dynamics of cancer, and invasion of mutants in resident populations, as well as general contributions to the theory of stochastic processes. The background material provides an intuitive introduction to the theory and applications of stochastic population dynamics, and the use of techniques from statistical physics in their analysis. The thesis then builds on these foundations to address problems motivated by biological phenomena.

The biennial CONTROLO conferences are the main events promoted by The CONTROLO 2016 - 12th Portuguese Conference on Automatic Control, Guimaraes, Portugal, September 14th to 16th, was organized by Algoritmi, School of Engineering, University of Minho, in partnership with INESC TEC, and promoted by the Portuguese Association for Automatic Control - APCA, national member organization of the International Federation of Automatic Control - IFAC. The seventy-five papers published in this volume cover a wide range of topics. Thirty-one of them, of a more theoretical nature, are distributed among the first five parts: Control Theory; Optimal and Predictive Control; Fuzzy, Neural and Genetic Control; Modeling and Identification; Sensing and Estimation. The papers go from cutting-edge theoretical research to innovative control applications and show expressively how Automatic Control can be used to increase the well being of people.

Our world is composed of systems within systems-the machines we build, the information we share, the organizations we form, and elements of nature that surround us. Therefore, nearly every field of study and practice embodies behaviors stemming from system dynamics. Yet the study of systems has remained somewhat fragmented based on philosophies, methodologies, and intentions. Many methodologies for analyzing complex systems extend far beyond the traditional framework of deduction evaluation and may, thus, appear mysterious to the uninitiated. This book seeks to dispel the mysteries of systems analysis by holistically explaining the philosophies, methodologies, and intentions in the context of understanding how all types of systems in our world form and how these systems break. This presentation is made at the level of conceptual understanding, with plenty of figures but no mathematical formulas, for the beginning student and interested readers new to studying systems. Through the conceptual understanding provided, students are given a powerful capability to see the hidden behaviors and unexplained consequences in the world around us.

This volume collects ten surveys on the modeling, simulation, and applications of active particles using methods ranging from mathematical kinetic theory to nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. The contributing authors are leading experts working in this challenging field, and each of their chapters provides a review of the most recent results in their areas and looks ahead to future research directions. The approaches to studying active matter are presented here from many different perspectives, such as individual-based models, evolutionary games, Brownian motion, and continuum theories, as well as various combinations of these. Applications covered include biological network formation and network theory; opinion formation and social systems; control theory of sparse systems; theory and applications of mean field games; population learning; dynamics of flocking systems; vehicular traffic flow; and stochastic particles and mean field approximation. Mathematicians and other members of the scientific community interested in active matter and its many applications will find this volume to be a timely, authoritative, and valuable resource.

This book reports on an outstanding research devoted to modeling and control of dynamic systems using fractional-order calculus. It describes the development of model-based control design methods for systems described by fractional dynamic models. More than 300 years had passed since Newton and Leibniz developed a set of mathematical tools we now know as calculus. Ever since then the idea of non-integer derivatives and integrals, universally referred to as fractional calculus, has been of interest to many researchers. However, due to various issues, the usage of fractional-order models in real-life applications was limited. Advances in modern computer science made it possible to apply efficient numerical methods to the computation of fractional derivatives and integrals. This book describes novel methods developed by the author for fractional modeling and control, together with their successful application in real-world process control scenarios.

This volume collects a selected number of papers presented at the International Workshop on Operator Theory and its Applications (IWOTA) held in July 2014 at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Main developments in the broad area of operator theory are covered, with special emphasis on applications to science and engineering. The volume also presents papers dedicated to the eightieth birthday of Damir Arov and to the sixty-fifth birthday of Leiba Rodman, both leading figures in the area of operator theory and its applications, in particular, to systems theory.

This book examines discrete dynamical systems with memory-nonlinear systems that exist extensively in biological organisms and financial and economic organizations, and time-delay systems that can be discretized into the memorized, discrete dynamical systems. It book further discusses stability and bifurcations of time-delay dynamical systems that can be investigated through memorized dynamical systems as well as bifurcations of memorized nonlinear dynamical systems, discretization methods of time-delay systems, and periodic motions to chaos in nonlinear time-delay systems. The book helps readers find analytical solutions of MDS, change traditional perturbation analysis in time-delay systems, detect motion complexity and singularity in MDS; and determine stability, bifurcation, and chaos in any time-delay system.