This volume contains the proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Difference Equations and Applications, held at Osaka Prefecture University, Osaka, Japan, in July 2016. The conference brought together both experts and novices in the theory and applications of difference equations and discrete dynamical systems. The volume features papers in difference equations and discrete dynamical systems with applications to mathematical sciences and, in particular, mathematical biology and economics. This book will appeal to researchers, scientists, and educators who work in the fields of difference equations, discrete dynamical systems, and their applications.

The dream of mathematical modeling is of systems evolving in a continuous, deterministic, predictable way. Unfortunately continuity is lost whenever the `rules of the game' change, whether a change of behavioural regime, or a change of physical properties. From biological mitosis to seizures. From rattling machine parts to earthquakes. From individual decisions to economic crashes. Where discontinuities occur, determinacy is inevitably lost. Typically the physical laws of such change are poorly understood, and too ill-defined for standard mathematics. Discontinuities offer a way to make the bounds of scientific knowledge a part of the model, to analyse a system with detail and rigour, yet still leave room for uncertainty. This is done without recourse to stochastic modeling, instead retaining determinacy as far as possible, and focussing on the geometry of the many outcomes that become possible when it breaks down. In this book the foundations of `piecewise-smooth dynamics' theory are rejuvenated, given new life through the lens of modern nonlinear dynamics and asymptotics. Numerous examples and exercises lead the reader through from basic to advanced analytical methods, particularly new tools for studying stability and bifurcations. The book is aimed at scientists and engineers from any background with a basic grounding in calculus and linear algebra. It seeks to provide an invaluable resource for modeling discontinuous systems, but also to empower the reader to develop their own novel models and discover as yet unknown phenomena.

This book focuses on the nonlinear dynamics based on the vector fields with univariate quadratic functions. This book is a unique monograph for two-dimensional quadratic nonlinear systems. It provides different points of view about nonlinear dynamics and bifurcations of the quadratic dynamical systems. Such a two-dimensional dynamical system is one of simplest dynamical systems in nonlinear dynamics, but the local and global structures of equilibriums and flows in such two-dimensional quadratic systems help us understand other nonlinear dynamical systems, which is also a crucial step toward solving the Hilbert's sixteenth problem. Possible singular dynamics of the two-dimensional quadratic systems are discussed in detail. The dynamics of equilibriums and one-dimensional flows in two-dimensional systems are presented. Saddle-sink and saddle-source bifurcations are discussed, and saddle-center bifurcations are presented. The infinite-equilibrium states are switching bifurcations for nonlinear systems. From the first integral manifolds, the saddle-center networks are developed, and the networks of saddles, source, and sink are also presented. This book serves as a reference book on dynamical systems and control for researchers, students, and engineering in mathematics, mechanical, and electrical engineering.

This book deals with a systematic study of a dynamical system approach to investigate the symmetrization and stabilization properties of nonnegative solutions of nonlinear elliptic problems in asymptotically symmetric unbounded domains. The usage of infinite dimensional dynamical systems methods for elliptic problems in unbounded domains as well as finite dimensional reduction of their dynamics requires new ideas and tools. To this end, both a trajectory dynamical systems approach and new Liouville type results for the solutions of some class of elliptic equations are used. The work also uses symmetry and monotonicity results for nonnegative solutions in order to characterize an asymptotic profile of solutions and compares a pure elliptic partial differential equations approach and a dynamical systems approach. The new results obtained will be particularly useful for mathematical biologists.

This book reports on the latest advances in complex and nonlinear cardiovascular physiology aimed at obtaining reliable, effective markers for the assessment of heartbeat, respiratory, and blood pressure dynamics. The chapters describe in detail methods that have been previously defined in theoretical physics such as entropy, multifractal spectra, and Lyapunov exponents, contextualized within physiological dynamics of cardiovascular control, including autonomic nervous system activity. Additionally, the book discusses several application scenarios of these methods. The text critically reviews the current state-of-the-art research in the field that has led to the description of dedicated experimental protocols and ad-hoc models of complex physiology. This text is ideal for biomedical engineers, physiologists, and neuroscientists. This book also: Expertly reviews cutting-edge research, such as recent advances in measuring complexity, nonlinearity, and information-theoretic concepts applied to coupled dynamical systems Comprehensively describes applications of analytic technique to clinical scenarios such as heart failure, depression and mental disorders, atrial fibrillation, acute brain lesions, and more Broadens readers' understanding of cardiovascular signals, heart rate complexity, heart rate variability, and nonlinear analysis

This volume highlights contributions of women mathematicians in the study of complex materials and includes both original research papers and reviews. The featured topics and methods draw on the fields of Calculus of Variations, Partial Differential Equations, Functional Analysis, Differential Geometry and Topology, as well as Numerical Analysis and Mathematical Modelling. Areas of applications include foams, fluid-solid interactions, liquid crystals, shape-memory alloys, magnetic suspensions, failure in solids, plasticity, viscoelasticity, homogenization, crystallization, grain growth, and phase-field models.

Advances in science and technology necessitate the use of increasingly-complicated dynamic control processes. Undoubtedly, sophisticated mathematical models are also concurrently elaborated for these processes. In particular, linear dynamic control systems iJ = Ay + Bu, y E M C ]Rn, U E ]RT, (1) where A and B are constants, are often abandoned in favor of nonlinear dynamic control systems (2) which, in addition, contain a large number of equations. The solution of problems for multidimensional nonlinear control systems en counters serious difficulties, which are both mathematical and technical in nature. Therefore it is imperative to develop methods of reduction of nonlinear systems to a simpler form, for example, decomposition into systems of lesser dimension. Approaches to reduction are diverse, in particular, techniques based on approxi mation methods. In this monograph, we elaborate the most natural and obvious (in our opinion) approach, which is essentially inherent in any theory of math ematical entities, for instance, in the theory of linear spaces, theory of groups, etc. Reduction in our interpretation is based on assigning to the initial object an isomorphic object, a quotient object, and a subobject. In the theory of linear spaces, for instance, reduction consists in reducing to an isomorphic linear space, quotient space, and subspace. Strictly speaking, the exposition of any mathemat ical theory essentially begins with the introduction of these reduced objects and determination of their basic properties in relation to the initial object."

This book starts with an introduction to the basic concepts of multistability, then illustrates how multistability arises in different systems and explains the main mechanisms of multistability emergence. A special attention is given to noise which can convert a multistable deterministic system to a monostable stochastic one. Furthermore, the most important applications of multistability in different areas of science, engineering and technology are given attention throughout the book, including electronic circuits, lasers, secure communication, and human perception. The book aims to provide a first approach to multistability for readers, who are interested in understanding its fundamental concepts and applications in several fields. This book will be useful not only to researchers and engineers focusing on interdisciplinary studies, but also to graduate students and technicians. Both theoreticians and experimentalists will rely on it, in fields ranging from mathematics and laser physics to neuroscience and astronomy. The book is intended to fill a gap in the literature, to stimulate new discussions and bring some fundamental issues to a deeper level of understanding of the mechanisms underlying self-organization of matter and world complexity.

This book provides an introduction to classical celestial mechanics. It is based on lectures delivered by the authors over many years at both Padua University (MC) and V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (EB). The book aims to provide a mathematical description of the gravitational interaction of celestial bodies. The approach to the problem is purely formal. It allows the authors to write equations of motion and solve them to the greatest degree possible, either exactly or by approximate techniques, when there is no other way. The results obtained provide predictions that can be compared with the observations. Five chapters are supplemented by appendices that review certain mathematical tools, deepen some questions (so as not to interrupt the logic of the mainframe with heavy technicalities), give some examples, and provide an overview of special functions useful here, as well as in many other fields of physics. The authors also present the original investigation of torus potential. This book is aimed at senior undergraduate students of physics or astrophysics, as well as graduate students undertaking a master's degree or Ph.D.

This book offers a complete and detailed introduction to the theory of discrete dynamical systems, with special attention to stability of fixed points and periodic orbits. It provides a solid mathematical background and the essential basic knowledge for further developments such as, for instance, deterministic chaos theory, for which many other references are available (but sometimes, without an exhaustive presentation of preliminary notions). Readers will find a discussion of topics sometimes neglected in the research literature, such as a comparison between different predictions achievable by the discrete time model and the continuous time model of the same application. Another novel aspect of this book is an accurate analysis of the way a fixed point may lose stability, introducing and comparing several notions of instability: simple instability, repulsivity, and complete instability. To help the reader and to show the flexibility and potentiality of the discrete approach to dynamics, many examples, numerical simulations, and figures have been included. The book is used as a reference material for courses at a doctoral or upper undergraduate level in mathematics and theoretical engineering.

This book shows that evolutionary game theory can unravel how mutual cooperation, trust, and credit in a group emerge in organizations and institutions. Some organizations and institutions, such as insurance unions, credit unions, and banks, originated from very simple mutual-aid groups. Members in these early-stage mutual-aid groups help each other, making rules to promote cooperation, and suppressing free riders. Then, they come to "trust" not only each other but also the group they belong to, itself. The division of labor occurs when the society comes to have diversity and complexity in a larger group, and the division of labor also requires mutual cooperation and trust among different social roles. In a larger group, people cannot directly interact with each other, and the reputation of unknown people helps other decide who is a trustworthy person. However, if gossip spreads untruths about a reputation, trust and cooperation are destroyed. Therefore, how to suppress untrue gossip is also important for trust and cooperation in a larger group. If trustworthiness and credibility can be established, these groups are successfully sustainable. Some develop and evolve and then mature into larger organizations and institutions. Finally, these organizations and institutions become what they are now. Therefore, not only cooperation but also trust and credit are keys to understanding these organizations and institutions. The evolution of cooperation, a topic of research in evolutionary ecology and evolutionary game theory, can be applied to understanding how to make institutions and organizations sustainable, trustworthy, and credible. It provides us with the idea that evolutionary game theory is a good mathematical tool to analyze trust and credit. This kind of research can be applied to current hot topics such as microfinance and the sustainable use of ecosystems.

Recently, the subject of nonlinear control systems analysis has grown rapidly and this book provides a simple and self-contained presentation of their stability and feedback stabilization which enables the reader to learn and understand major techniques used in mathematical control theory. In particular: the important techniques of proving global stability properties are presented closely linked with corresponding methods of nonlinear feedback stabilization; a general framework of methods for proving stability is given, thus allowing the study of a wide class of nonlinear systems, including finite-dimensional systems described by ordinary differential equations, discrete-time systems, systems with delays and sampled-data systems; approaches to the proof of classical global stability properties are extended to non-classical global stability properties such as non-uniform-in-time stability and input-to-output stability; and new tools for stability analysis and control design of a wide class of nonlinear systems are introduced. The presentational emphasis of Stability and Stabilization of Nonlinear Systems is theoretical but the theory s importance for concrete control problems is highlighted with a chapter specifically dedicated to applications and with numerous illustrative examples. Researchers working on nonlinear control theory will find this monograph of interest while graduate students of systems and control can also gain much insight and assistance from the methods and proofs detailed in this book."

This volume results from the "Second International Conference on Dynamics of Disasters" held in Kalamata, Greece, June 29-July 2, 2015. The conference covered particular topics involved in natural and man-made disasters such as war, chemical spills, and wildfires. Papers in this volume examine the finer points of disasters through: Critical infrastructure protection Resiliency Humanitarian logistic Relief supply chains Cooperative game theory Dynamical systems Decision making under risk and uncertainty Spread of diseases Contagion Funding for disaster relief Tools for emergency preparedness Response, and risk mitigation Multi-disciplinary theories, tools, techniques and methodologies are linked with disasters from mitigation and preparedness to response and recovery. The interdisciplinary approach to problems in economics, optimization, government, management, business, humanities, engineering, medicine, mathematics, computer science, behavioral studies, emergency services, and environmental studies will engage readers from a wide variety of fields and backgrounds.

This thesis describes the first demonstration of a cooperative optical non-linearity based on Rydberg excitation. Whereas in conventional non-linear optics the non-linearity arises directly from the interaction between light and matter, in a cooperative process it is mediated by dipole-dipole interactions between light-induced excitations. For excitation to high Rydberg states where the electron is only weakly bound, the dipole-dipole interactions are extremely large and long range, enabling an enormous enhancement of the non-linear effect. Consequently, cooperative non-linear optics using Rydberg excitations opens a new era for quantum optics enabling large single photon non-linearity to be accessible in free space for the first time. The thesis describes the theoretical underpinnings of the non- linear effect, the pioneering experimental results and implications for experiments in the single photon regime.

Philosophy of the Text This text presents an introductory survey of the basic concepts and applied mathematical methods of nonlinear science as well as an introduction to some simple related nonlinear experimental activities. Students in engineering, phys ics, chemistry, mathematics, computing science, and biology should be able to successfully use this book. In an effort to provide the reader with a cutting edge approach to one of the most dynamic, often subtle, complex, and still rapidly evolving, areas of modern research-nonlinear physics-we have made extensive use of the symbolic, numeric, and plotting capabilities of the Maple software sys tem applied to examples from these disciplines. No prior knowledge of Maple or computer programming is assumed, the reader being gently introduced to Maple as an auxiliary tool as the concepts of nonlinear science are developed. The CD-ROM provided with this book gives a wide variety of illustrative non linear examples solved with Maple. In addition, numerous annotated examples are sprinkled throughout the text and also placed on the CD. An accompanying set of experimental activities keyed to the theory developed in Part I of the book is given in Part II. These activities allow the student the option of "hands on" experience in exploring nonlinear phenomena in the REAL world. Although the experiments are easy to perform, they give rise to experimental and theoretical complexities which are not to be underestimated."

Thank heavens for Jens Wittenburg, of the University of Karlsruhe in Germany. Anyone who 's been laboring for years over equation after equation will want to give him a great big hug. It is common practice to develop equations for each system separately and to consider the labor necessary for deriving all of these as inevitable. Not so, says the author. Here, he takes it upon himself to describe in detail a formalism which substantially simplifies these tasks.

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.

This book explores recent developments in theoretical research and mathematical modelling of real-world complex systems, organized in four parts. The first part of the book is devoted to the mathematical tools for the design and analysis in engineering and social science study cases. We discuss the periodic evolutions in nonlinear chemical processes, vibro-compact systems and their behaviour, different types of metal-semiconductor self-assembled samples, made of silver nanowires and zinc oxide nanorods. The second part of the book is devoted to mathematical description and modelling of the critical events, climate change and robust emergency scales. In three chapters, we consider a climate-economy model with endogenous carbon intensity and the behaviour of Tehran Stock Exchange market under international sanctions. The third part of the book is devoted to fractional dynamic and fractional control problems. We discuss the novel operational matrix technique for variable-order fractional optimal control problems, the nonlinear variable-order time fractional convection-diffusion equation with generalized polynomials The fourth part of the book concerns solvability and inverse problems in differential and integro-differential equations. The book facilitates a better understanding of the mechanisms and phenomena in nonlinear dynamics and develops the corresponding mathematical theory to apply nonlinear design to practical engineering. It can be read by mathematicians, physicists, complex systems scientists, IT specialists, civil engineers, data scientists and urban planners.

Owing to the increased accuracy requirements in fields such as astrometry and geodesy the general theory of relativity must be taken into account for any mission requiring highly accurate orbit information and for practically all observation and measurement techniques. This book highlights the confluence of Applied Mathematics, Physics and Space Science as seen from Einstein's general theory of relativity and aims to bridge the gap between theoretical and applied domains. The book investigates three distinct areas of general relativity: Exact solutions of the Einstein field equations of gravitation. Dynamics of near-Earth objects and solar system bodies. Relativistic orbitography. This book is an updated and expanded version of the author's PhD thesis which was awarded the International Astronomical Union PhD prize in Division A: Fundamental Astronomy. Included is a new introduction aimed at graduate students of General Relativity and extended discussions and results on topics in post-Newtonian dynamics and general relativistic spacecraft propagation.

This book is mainly focused on the global impulsive synchronization of complex dynamical networks with different types of couplings, such as general state coupling, nonlinear state coupling, time-varying delay coupling, derivative state coupling, proportional delay coupling and distributed delay coupling. Studies on impulsive synchronization of complex dynamical networks have attracted engineers and scientists from various disciplines, such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, mathematics, network science, system engineering. Pursuing a holistic approach, the book establishes a fundamental framework for this topic, while emphasizing the importance of network synchronization and the significant influence of impulsive control in the design and optimization of complex networks. The primary audience for the book would be the scholars and graduate students whose research topics including the network science, control theory, applied mathematics, system science and so on.

The appearance of weakly wandering (ww) sets and sequences for ergodic transformations over half a century ago was an unexpected and surprising event. In time it was shown that ww and related sequences reflected significant and deep properties of ergodic transformations that preserve an infinite measure. This monograph studies in a systematic way the role of ww and related sequences in the classification of ergodic transformations preserving an infinite measure. Connections of these sequences to additive number theory and tilings of the integers are also discussed. The material presented is self-contained and accessible to graduate students. A basic knowledge of measure theory is adequate for the reader.

This book deals with the computational analysis of thin-walled structures such as aircraft, ships, and containment vessels. Building on the author's earlier book Static and Dynamic Analysis of Structures, it shows how to use computational methods to tackle some of the fundamental problems of structural mechanics, with particular emphasis on nonlinear phenomena. Where the earlier book dealt with linear systems, the central theme running through this volume is the notion that unstable equilibria are associated with motions and large displacements and therefore require a full nonlinear analysis. The discussion begins with an overview of the basic mechanics of deformable bodies, including variational formulations, and then considers the large deflection behavior of shell and frame structures using a finite-element analysis. The second part of the book begins with a summary of linear vibrations of structures, including an introduction to modal analysis; it continues with computational formulations of nonlinear dynamic analyses of structures and refines the concept of dynamic equilibrium in the context of large deflections. The book concludes with a discussion of stability, including the difficult problem of stability of motions in the large. By describing the methods on which commercial software pakckages are based, this book allows an engineer to evaluate the results these computations produce. It therefore should be useful to practicing engineers and graduate students.

This book presents the emerging regime of zero refractive index photonics, involving metamaterials that exhibit effectively zero refractive index. Metamaterials are artificial structures whose optical properties can be tailored at will. With metamaterials, intriguing and spellbinding phenomena like negative refraction and electromagnetic cloaking could be realized, which otherwise seem unnatural or straight out of science fiction. Zero index metamaterials are also seen as a means of boosting nonlinear properties and are believed to have strong prospects for being useful in nonlinear optical applications. In summary, this book highlights almost everything currently available on zero index metamaterials and is useful for professionally interested and motivated readers.

The book focuses on the nonlinear dynamics based on the vector fields with bivariate quadratic functions. This book is a unique monograph for two-dimensional quadratic nonlinear systems based on bivariate vector fields. Such a book provides different points of view about nonlinear dynamics and bifurcations of the quadratic dynamical systems on linear and nonlinear bivariate manifolds. Possible singular dynamics of the two-dimensional quadratic systems is discussed in detail. The dynamics of equilibriums and one-dimensional flows on bivariate manifolds are presented. Saddle-focus bifurcations are discussed, and switching bifurcations based on infinite-equilibriums are presented. Saddle-focus networks on bivariate manifolds are demonstrated. This book will serve as a reference book on dynamical systems and control for researchers, students and engineering in mathematics, mechanical and electrical engineering.

This book is about algebraic and differential methods, as well as fractional calculus, applied to diagnose and reject faults in nonlinear systems, which are of integer or fractional order. This represents an extension of a very important and widely studied problem in control theory, namely fault diagnosis and rejection (using differential algebraic approaches), to systems presenting fractional dynamics, i.e. systems whose dynamics are represented by derivatives and integrals of non-integer order. The authors offer a thorough overview devoted to fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant control applied to fractional-order and integer-order dynamical systems, and they introduce new methodologies for control and observation described by fractional and integer models, together with successful simulations and real-time applications. The basic concepts and tools of mathematics required to understand the methodologies proposed are all clearly introduced and explained. Consequently, the book is useful as supplementary reading in courses of applied mathematics and nonlinear control theory. This book is meant for engineers, mathematicians, physicists and, in general, to researchers and postgraduate students in diverse areas who have a minimum knowledge of calculus. It also contains advanced topics for researchers and professionals interested in the area of states and faults estimation.