In a knowledge-based society, research into fundamental physics plays a vital role not only in the enhancement of human knowledge but also in the development of new technology that affects everyday life.The international symposium series Frontiers of Fundamental Physics (FFP) regularly brings together eminent scholars and researchers working in various areas in physics to exchange expertise, ideas, results, and new research perspectives. The twelfth such symposium, FFP12, took place at the University of Udine, Italy, and covered diverse fields of research: astrophysics, high energy physics and particle physics, theoretical physics, gravitation and cosmology, condensed matter physics, statistical physics, computational physics, and mathematical physics. Importantly, it also devoted a great deal of attention to physics education research, teacher training in modern physics, and popularization of physics. The high scientific level of FFP12 was guaranteed by the careful selection made by scientific coordinators from among 250 submissions from 28 countries across the world. During the three days of the conference, nine general talks were delivered in plenary sessions, 29 invited talks were given in specific topic areas, and 59 oral presentations were made. This book presents a selection of the best contributions at FFP12 with the aim of acquainting readers with the most important recent advances in fundamental physics and in physics education and teacher development.

The history of artificial cold has been a rather intriguing interdisciplinary subject (physics, chemistry, technology, sociology, economics, anthropology, consumer studies) which despite some excellent monographs and research papers, has not been systematically exploited. It is a subject with all kinds of scientific, technological as well as cultural dimensions. For example, the common home refrigerator has brought about unimaginably deep changes to our everyday lives changing drastically eating habits and shopping mentalities. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st, issues related to the production and exploitation of artificial cold have never stopped to provide us with an incredibly interesting set of phenomena, novel theoretical explanations, amazing possibilities concerning technological applications and all encompassing cultural repercussions. The discovery of the unexpected and "bizarre" phenomena of superconductivity and superfluidity, the necessity to incorporate macroscopic quantum phenomena to the framework of quantum mechanics, the discovery of Bose-Einstein condensation and high temperature superconductivity, the use of superconducting magnets for high energy particle accelerators, the construction of new computer hardware, the extensive applications of cryomedicine, and the multi billion industry of frozen foods, are some of the more dramatic instances in the history of artificial cold.

This monograph discusses recent advances in ergodic theory and dynamical systems. As a mixture of survey papers of active research areas and original research papers, this volume attracts young and senior researchers alike. Contents: Duality of the almost periodic and proximal relations Limit directions of a vector cocycle, remarks and examples Optimal norm approximation in ergodic theory The iterated Prisoner's Dilemma: good strategies and their dynamics Lyapunov exponents for conservative twisting dynamics: a survey Takens' embedding theorem with a continuous observable

The present book includes a set of selected papers from the tenth "International Conference on Informatics in Control Automation and Robotics" (ICINCO 2013), held in Reykjavik, Iceland, from 29 to 31 July 2013. The conference was organized in four simultaneous tracks: "Intelligent Control Systems and Optimization", "Robotics and Automation", "Signal Processing, Sensors, Systems Modeling and Control" and "Industrial Engineering, Production and Management". The book is based on the same structure. ICINCO 2013 received 255 paper submissions from 50 countries, in all continents. After a double blind paper review performed by the Program Committee only 30% were published and presented orally. A further refinement was made after the conference, based also on the assessment of presentation quality, so that this book includes the extended and revised versions of the very best papers of ICINCO 2013.

Due to their high stiffness and strength and their good processing properties short fibre reinforced thermoplastics are well-established construction materials. Up to now, simulation of engineering parts consisting of short fibre reinforced thermoplastics has often been based on macroscopic phenomenological models, but deformations, damage and failure of composite materials strongly depend on their microstructure. The typical modes of failure of short fibre thermoplastics enriched with glass fibres are matrix failure, rupture of fibres and delamination, and pure macroscopic consideration is not sufficient to predict those effects. The typical predictive phenomenological models are complex and only available for very special failures. A quantitative prediction on how failure will change depending on the content and orientation of the fibres is generally not possible, and the direct involvement of the above effects in a numerical simulation requires multi-scale modelling. One the one hand, this makes it possible to take into account the properties of the matrix material and the fibre material, the microstructure of the composite in terms of fibre content, fibre orientation and shape as well as the properties of the interface between fibres and matrix. On the other hand, the multi-scale approach links these local properties to the global behaviour and forms the basis for the dimensioning and design of engineering components. Furthermore, multi-scale numerical simulations are required to allow efficient solution of the models when investigating three-dimensional problems of dimensioning engineering parts. Bringing together mathematical modelling, materials mechanics, numerical methods and experimental engineering, this book provides a unique overview of multi-scale modelling approaches, multi-scale simulations and experimental investigations of short fibre reinforced thermoplastics. The first chapters focus on two principal subjects: the mathematical and mechanical models governing composite properties and damage description. The subsequent chapters present numerical algorithms based on the Finite Element Method and the Boundary Element Method, both of which make explicit use of the composite's microstructure. Further, the results of the numerical simulations are shown and compared to experimental results. Lastly, the book investigates deformation and failure of composite materials experimentally, explaining the applied methods and presenting the results for different volume fractions of fibres. This book is a valuable resource for applied mathematics, theoretical and experimental mechanical engineers as well as engineers in industry dealing with modelling and simulation of short fibre reinforced composites.

In this text, a theory for general linear parabolic partial differential equations is established which covers equations with inhomogeneous symbol structure as well as mixed-order systems. Typical applications include several variants of the Stokes system and free boundary value problems. We show well-posedness in "Lp-Lq"-Sobolev spaces in time and space for the linear problems (i.e., maximal regularity) which is the key step for the treatment of nonlinear problems. The theory is based on the concept of the Newton polygon and can cover equations which are not accessible by standard methods as, e.g., semigroup theory. Results are obtained in different types of non-integer "Lp"-Sobolev spaces as Besov spaces, Bessel potential spaces, and Triebel Lizorkin spaces. The last-mentioned class appears in a natural way as traces of "Lp-Lq"-Sobolev spaces. We also present a selection of applications in the whole space and on half-spaces. Among others, we prove well-posedness of the linearizations of the generalized thermoelastic plate equation, the two-phase Navier Stokes equations with Boussinesq Scriven surface, and the "Lp-Lq" two-phase Stefan problem with Gibbs Thomson correction. "

This proceedings volume highlights a selection of papers presented at the Sixth International Conference on High Performance Scientific Computing, which took place in Hanoi, Vietnam on March 16-20, 2015. The conference was jointly organized by the Heidelberg Institute of Theoretical Studies (HITS), the Institute of Mathematics of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR) at Heidelberg University, and the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics, Ministry of Education The contributions cover a broad, interdisciplinary spectrum of scientific computing and showcase recent advances in theory, methods, and practical applications. Subjects covered numerical simulation, methods for optimization and control, parallel computing, and software development, as well as the applications of scientific computing in physics, mechanics, biomechanics and robotics, material science, hydrology, biotechnology, medicine, transport, scheduling, and industry.

This book begins with a brief account of matrices and matrix algebra, and derives the theory of determinants by the aid of matrix notation, in an order suggested by a naturally alternating development of both subjects.

This graduate level text covers an exciting and active area of research at the crossroads of several different fields in mathematics and physics. In mathematics it involves Differential Geometry, Complex Algebraic Geometry, Symplectic Geometry, and in physics String Theory and Mirror Symmetry. Drawing extensively on the author's previous work, the text explains the advanced mathematics involved simply and clearly to both mathematicians and physicists. Starting with the basic geometry of connections, curvature, complex and Kahler structures suitable for beginning graduate students, the text covers seminal results such as Yau's proof of the Calabi Conjecture, and takes the reader all the way to the frontiers of current research in calibrated geometry, giving many open problems.

Volume I: A low-dimensional magnet is key to the next-generation of electronic devices. In some aspects, low dimensional magnets refer to nanostructured magnets or single-molecule magnets. They are widely used in biomedicine, technology, industries, and environmental remediation. Emerging Applications of Low Dimensional Magnets covers current state-of-the-art progress in ferromagnetic materials, experimental studies of nanomaterials-based spintronics, and directions for future approaches, applications, and devices. Experts from a variety of areas such as biomedical engineering, materials science, nanotechnology, and electronic engineering have contributed to this handbook making it the most up-to-date and interdisciplinary reference of its kind in the field of low dimensional magnets. Volume II: Low-dimensional magnetic materials find their wide applications in many areas, including spintronics, memory devices, catalysis, biomedical, sensors, electromagnetic shielding, aerospace, and energy. This book provides a comprehensive discussion on magnetic nanomaterials for emerging applications. Fundamentals along with applications of low-dimensional magnetic materials in spintronics, catalysis, memory, biomedicals, toxic waste removal, aerospace, telecommunications, batteries, supercapacitors, flexible electronics, and many more are covered in detail to provide a full spectrum of their advanced applications. This book offers fresh aspects of nanomagnetic materials and innovative directions to scientists, researchers, and students. It will be of particular interest to materials scientists, engineers, physicists, chemists, and researchers in electronic and spintronic industries, and is suitable as a textbook for undergraduate and graduate studies.

This thesis sheds important new light on the puzzling properties of Strontium Ruthenate. Using a sophisticated weak-coupling approach, exact within certain limits, it shows that proper treatment of spin-orbit and multi-band effects is crucial to the physics. Based on the results of these calculations, it resolves a crucial, long-standing puzzle in the field: It demonstrates why the experimentally observed time-reversal breaking is not incompatible with the observed lack of measurable edge currents. Lastly, the thesis makes predictions for the properties of the material under uniaxial strain, which are in good agreement with recent experiments -resolving the mystery of the so-called 3K phase, and suggesting the intriguing possibility that under strain the superconductor may become conventional.

Roger Penrose, one of the most accomplished scientists of our time, presents the only comprehensive and comprehensible account of the physics of the universe. From the very first attempts by the Greeks to grapple with the complexities of our known world to the latest application of infinity in physics, "The Road to Reality" carefully explores the movement of the smallest atomic particles and reaches into the vastness of intergalactic space. Here, Penrose examines the mathematical foundations of the physical universe, exposing the underlying beauty of physics and giving us one the most important works in modern science writing.

Introduction to Laser Spectroscopy is a well-written, easy-to-read guide to understanding the fundamentals of lasers, experimental methods of modern laser spectroscopy and applications. It provides a solid grounding in the fundamentals of many aspects of laser physics, nonlinear optics, and molecular spectroscopy. In addition, by comprehensively combining theory and experimental techniques it explicates a variety of issues that are essential to understanding broad areas of physical, chemical and biological science. Topics include key laser types - gas, solid state, and semiconductor - as well as the rapidly evolving field of ultrashort laser phenomena for femtochemistry applications. The examples used are well researched and clearly presented.

Introduction to Laser Spectroscopy is strongly recommended to newcomers as well as researchers in physics, engineering, chemistry and biology.
* A comprehensive course that combines theory and practice
* Includes a systematic and comprehensive description for key laser types
* Written for students and professionals looking to gain a thorough understanding of modern laser spectroscopy

The methods considered in the 7th conference on "Finite Volumes for Complex Applications" (Berlin, June 2014) have properties which offer distinct advantages for a number of applications. The second volume of the proceedings covers reviewed contributions reporting successful applications in the fields of fluid dynamics, magnetohydrodynamics, structural analysis, nuclear physics, semiconductor theory and other topics.

The finite volume method in its various forms is a space discretization technique for partial differential equations based on the fundamental physical principle of conservation. Recent decades have brought significant success in the theoretical understanding of the method. Many finite volume methods preserve further qualitative or asymptotic properties, including maximum principles, dissipativity, monotone decay of free energy, and asymptotic stability. Due to these properties, finite volume methods belong to the wider class of compatible discretization methods, which preserve qualitative properties of continuous problems at the discrete level. This structural approach to the discretization of partial differential equations becomes particularly important for multiphysics and multiscale applications.

Researchers, PhD and masters level students in numerical analysis, scientific computing and related fields such as partial differential equations will find this volume useful, as will engineers working in numerical modeling and simulations.

Recent advances in pure and applied physics are explored by award-winning author David E. Newton. Among the topics covered are the top quark, carbon nanotubes, updates on black holes, and single molecule studies of DNA. Many of the topics covered are strongly interdisciplinary, reflecting the nature of much scientific research today.

This book describes an effective framework for setting the right process parameters and new mold design to reduce the current plastic defects in injection molding. It presents a new approach for the optimization of injection molding process via (i) a new mold runner design which leads to 20 percent reduction in scrap rate, 2.5 percent reduction in manufacturing time, and easier ejection of injected part, (ii) a new mold gate design which leads to less plastic defects; and (iii) the introduction of a number of promising alternatives with high moldability indices. Besides presenting important developments of relevance academic research, the book also includes useful information for people working in the injection molding industry, especially in the green manufacturing field.