This book presents an analytical theory of the electronic states in ideal low dimensional systems and finite crystals based on a differential equation theory approach. It provides precise and fundamental understandings on the electronic states in ideal low-dimensional systems and finite crystals, and offers new insights into some of the basic problems in low-dimensional systems, such as the surface states and quantum confinement effects, etc., some of which are quite different from what is traditionally believed in the solid state physics community. Many previous predictions have been confirmed in subsequent investigations by other authors on various relevant problems. In this new edition, the theory is further extended to one-dimensional photonic crystals and phononic crystals, and a general theoretical formalism for investigating the existence and properties of surface states/modes in semi-infinite one-dimensional crystals is developed. In addition, there are various revisions and improvements, including using the Kronig-Penney model to illustrate the analytical theory and make it easier to understand. This book is a valuable resource for solid-state physicists and material scientists.

We live in a world of waves. The Earth shakes to its foundations, the seas and oceans tremble incessantly, sounds reverberate through land, sea, and air. Beneath the skin, our brains and bodies are awash with waves of their own, and the Universe is filled by a vast spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, of which visible light is the narrowest sliver. Casting the net even wider, there are mechanical waves, quantum wave phenomena, and the now clearly detected gravitational waves. Look closer and deeper and more kinds of waves appear, down to the most fundamental level of reality. This Very Short Introduction looks at all the main kinds of wave, their sources, effects, and uses. Mike Goldsmith discusses how wave motion results in a range of phenomena, from reflection, diffraction, interference, and polarization in the case of light waves to beats and echoes for sound. All waves, however different, share many of the same features, and, as Goldsmith shows, for all their complexities many of their behaviours are fundamentally simple. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This textbook provides graduate and advanced undergraduate students with a comprehensive introduction to the application of basic principles and concepts for physical and engineering acoustics. Many of the chapters are independent, and all build from introductory to more sophisticated material. Written by a well-known textbook author with 39 years of experience performing research, teaching, and mentoring in the field, it is specially designed to provide maximum support for learning. Derivations are rigorous and logical, with thorough explanations of operations that are not obvious. Many of the derivations and examples have not previously appeared in print. Important concepts are discussed for their physical implications and implementation. Many of the 56 examples are mini case studies that address systems students will find to be interesting and motivating for continued study. The example solutions address both the significance of the example and the reasoning underlying the formulation. Tasks that require computational work are fully explained. This volume contains 168 homework exercises, accompanied by a detailed solutions manual for instructors. Building on the foundation provided in Volume I: Fundamentals, this text offers a knowledge base that will enable the reader to begin undertaking research and to work in the core areas of acoustics.

The book presents a state-of-art overview of numerical schemes efficiently solving the acoustic conservation equations (unknowns are acoustic pressure and particle velocity) and the acoustic wave equation (pressure of acoustic potential formulation). Thereby, the different equations model both vibrational- and flow-induced sound generation and its propagation. Latest numerical schemes as higher order finite elements, non-conforming grid techniques, discontinuous Galerkin approaches and boundary element methods are discussed. Main applications will be towards aerospace, rail and automotive industry as well as medical engineering. The team of authors are able to address these topics from the engineering as well as numerical points of view.

This textbook provides a detailed introduction to the use of software in combination with simple and economical hardware (a sound level meter with calibrated AC output and a digital recording system) to obtain sophisticated measurements usually requiring expensive equipment. It emphasizes the use of free, open source, and multiplatform software. Many commercial acoustical measurement systems use software algorithms as an integral component; however the methods are not disclosed. This book enables the reader to develop useful algorithms and provides insight into the use of digital audio editing tools to document features in the signal. Topics covered include acoustical measurement principles, in-depth critical study of uncertainty applied to acoustical measurements, digital signal processing from the basics, and metrologically-oriented spectral and statistical analysis of signals. The student will gain a deep understanding of the use of software for measurement purposes; the ability to implement software-based measurement systems; familiarity with the hardware necessary to acquire and store signals; an appreciation for the key issue of long-term preservation of signals; and a full grasp of the often neglected issue of uncertainty in acoustical measurements. Pedagogical features include in-text worked-out examples, end-of-chapter problems, a glossary of metrology terms, and extensive appendices covering statistics, proofs, additional examples, file formats, and underlying theory.

This volume deals with topical problems concerning technology and design in construction of modern metamaterials. The authors construct the models of mechanical, electromechanical and acoustical behavior of the metamaterials, which are founded upon mechanisms existing on micro-level in interaction of elementary structures of the material. The empiric observations on the phenomenological level are used to test the created models. The book provides solutions, based on fundamental methods and models using the theory of wave propagation, nonlinear theories and composite mechanics for media with micro- and nanostructure. They include the models containing arrays of cracks, defects, with presence of micro- and nanosize piezoelectric elements and coupled physical-mechanical fields of different nature. The investigations show that the analytical, numerical and experimental methods permit evaluation of the qualitative and quantitative properties of the materials of this sort, with diagnosis of their effective characteristics, frequency intervals of effective energetic cutting and passing, as well as effective regimes of damage evaluation by the acoustic methods.

This volume collects the papers from the World Conference on Acoustic Emission 2015 (WCAE-2015) in Hawaii. The latest research and applications of Acoustic Emission (AE) are explored, with particular emphasis on detecting and processing of AE signals, development of AE instrument and testing standards, AE of materials, engineering structures and systems, including the processing of collected data and analytical techniques as well as experimental case studies.

What is a musical instrument? What are the musical instruments of the future? This anthology presents thirty papers selected from the fifteen year long history of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME). NIME is a leading music technology conference, and an important venue for researchers and artists to present and discuss their explorations of musical instruments and technologies. Each of the papers is followed by commentaries written by the original authors and by leading experts. The volume covers important developments in the field, including the earliest reports of instruments like the reacTable, Overtone Violin, Pebblebox, and Plank. There are also numerous papers presenting new development platforms and technologies, as well as critical reflections, theoretical analyses and artistic experiences. The anthology is intended for newcomers who want to get an overview of recent advances in music technology. The historical traces, meta-discussions and reflections will also be of interest for longtime NIME participants. The book thus serves both as a survey of influential past work and as a starting point for new and exciting future developments.

This book presents a technology to help speech-, hearing- and sight-impaired people. It explains how they will benefit from an enhancement in their ability to recognize and produce speech or to detect sounds in their surroundings. Additionally, it is considered how sound-based assistive technology might be applied to the areas of speech recognition, speech synthesis, environmental recognition, virtual reality and robots. The primary focus of this book is to provide an understanding of both the methodology and basic concepts of assistive technology rather than listing the variety of assistive devices developed. This book presents a number of different topics which are sufficiently independent from one another that the reader may begin at any chapter without lacking background information. Much of the research quoted in this book was conducted in the author's laboratories at Hokkaido University and University of Tokyo. This book offers the reader a better understanding of a number of unsolved problems that still persist in the field of sound-based assistive technology.

By exploring the many different types and forms of contemporary musical instruments, this book contributes to a better understanding of the conditions of instrumentality in the 21st century. Providing insights from science, humanities and the arts, authors from a wide range of disciplines discuss the following questions: * What are the conditions under which an object is recognized as a musical instrument? * What are the actions and procedures typically associated with musical instruments? * What kind of (mental and physical) knowledge do we access in order to recognize or use something as a musical instrument? * How is this knowledge being shaped by cultural conventions and temporal conditions? * How do algorithmic processes 'change the game' of musical performance, and as a result, how do they affect notions of instrumentality? * How do we address the question of instrumental identity within an instrument's design process? * What properties can be used to differentiate successful and unsuccessful instruments? Do these properties also contribute to the instrumentality of an object in general? What does success mean within an artistic, commercial, technological, or scientific context?

Sound is almost always around us, anywhere, at any time, reaching our ears and stimulating our brains for better or worse. Sound can be the disturbing noise of a drill, a merry little tune sung by a friend, the song of a bird in the morning or a clap of thunder at night. The science of sound, or acoustics, studies all types of sounds and therefore covers a wide range of scientific disciplines, from pure to applied acoustics. Research dealing with acoustics requires a sound to be recorded, analyzed, manipulated and, possibly, changed. This is particularly, but not exclusively, the case in bioacoustics and ecoacoustics, two life sciences disciplines that attempt to understand and to eavesdrop on the sound produced by animals. Sound analysis and synthesis can be challenging for students, researchers and practitioners who have few skills in mathematics or physics. However, deciphering the structure of a sound can be useful in behavioral and ecological research - and also very amusing. This book is dedicated to anyone who wants to practice acoustics but does not know much about sound. Acoustic analysis and synthesis are possible, with little effort, using the free and open-source software R with a few specific packages. Combining a bit of theory, a lot of step-by-step examples and a few cases studies, this book shows beginners and experts alike how to record, read, play, decompose, visualize, parametrize, change, and synthesize sound with R, opening a new way of working in bioacoustics and ecoacoustics but also in other acoustic disciplines.

This monograph introduces the basic concepts of the theory of causal fermion systems, a recent approach to the description of fundamental physics. The theory yields quantum mechanics, general relativity and quantum field theory as limiting cases and is therefore a candidate for a unified physical theory. From the mathematical perspective, causal fermion systems provide a general framework for describing and analyzing non-smooth geometries and "quantum geometries". The dynamics is described by a novel variational principle, called the causal action principle. In addition to the basics, the book provides all the necessary mathematical background and explains how the causal action principle gives rise to the interactions of the standard model plus gravity on the level of second-quantized fermionic fields coupled to classical bosonic fields. The focus is on getting a mathematically sound connection between causal fermion systems and physical systems in Minkowski space. The book is intended for graduate students entering the field, and is furthermore a valuable reference work for researchers in quantum field theory and quantum gravity.

This book presents the signal processing algorithms that have been developed to process the signals acquired by a spherical microphone array. Spherical microphone arrays can be used to capture the sound field in three dimensions and have received significant interest from researchers and audio engineers. Algorithms for spherical array processing are different to corresponding algorithms already known in the literature of linear and planar arrays because the spherical geometry can be exploited to great beneficial effect. The authors aim to advance the field of spherical array processing by helping those new to the field to study it efficiently and from a single source, as well as by offering a way for more experienced researchers and engineers to consolidate their understanding, adding either or both of breadth and depth. The level of the presentation corresponds to graduate studies at MSc and PhD level. This book begins with a presentation of some of the essential mathematical and physical theory relevant to spherical microphone arrays, and of an acoustic impulse response simulation method, which can be used to comprehensively evaluate spherical array processing algorithms in reverberant environments. The chapter on acoustic parameter estimation describes the way in which useful descriptions of acoustic scenes can be parameterized, and the signal processing algorithms that can be used to estimate the parameter values using spherical microphone arrays. Subsequent chapters exploit these parameters including in particular measures of direction-of-arrival and of diffuseness of a sound field. The array processing algorithms are then classified into two main classes, each described in a separate chapter. These are signal-dependent and signal-independent beamforming algorithms. Although signal-dependent beamforming algorithms are in theory able to provide better performance compared to the signal-independent algorithms, they are currently rarely used in practice. The main reason for this is that the statistical information required by these algorithms is difficult to estimate. In a subsequent chapter it is shown how the estimated acoustic parameters can be used in the design of signal-dependent beamforming algorithms. This final step closes, at least in part, the gap between theory and practice.

This book provides comprehensive, graduate-level treatment of analog and digital signal analysis suitable for course use and self-guided learning. This expert text guides the reader from the basics of signal theory through a range of application tools for use in acoustic analysis, geophysics, and data compression. Each concept is introduced and explained step by step, and the necessary mathematical formulae are integrated in an accessible and intuitive way. The first part of the book explores how analog systems and signals form the basics of signal analysis. This section covers Fourier series and integral transforms of analog signals, Laplace and Hilbert transforms, the main analog filter classes, and signal modulations. Part II covers digital signals, demonstrating their key advantages. It presents z and Fourier transforms, digital filtering, inverse filters, deconvolution, and parametric modeling for deterministic signals. Wavelet decomposition and reconstruction of non-stationary signals are also discussed. The third part of the book is devoted to random signals, including spectral estimation, parametric modeling, and Tikhonov regularization. It covers statistics of one and two random variables and the principles and methods of spectral analysis. Estimation of signal properties is discussed in the context of ergodicity conditions and parameter estimations, including the use of Wiener and Kalman filters. Two appendices cover the basics of integration in the complex plane and linear algebra. A third appendix presents a basic Matlab toolkit for computer signal analysis. This expert text provides both a solid theoretical understanding and tools for real-world applications.

This book focuses on the study of heavy quarkonium production at high-energy colliders as a useful tool to explain both the perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of quantum choromodynamics. It provides the first comprehensive comparison between the theory and recent experiments and clarifies some longstanding puzzles in the heavy quarkonium production mechanism. In addition, it describes in detail a new framework for implementing precise computations of the physical observables in quantum field theories based on recently developed techniques. It can be used to simulate the complicated collider environment of the Large Hadron Collider at the Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire (CERN). Its accomplishment implies that the Monte Carlo simulations for high-energy physics experiments have reached the limits of precision. It offers readers a wealth of valuable information on the relevant techniques.

This thesis focuses on the manipulation of sound properties by artificial materials. It elaborates on the fundamental design of acoustic metasurfaces and metastructures as the extension of metamaterials, and their functionality in the manipulation of sound properties. A broad and comprehensive guideline of designing acoustic metasurfaces and metastructures is also provided. Based on the proposed subwavelength metasurfaces and the metastructures with a simplified layout, multiple potential applications are demonstrated. This thesis will appeal to acoustic engineers and researchers who are interested in designing acoustic artificial structures.

This improved and updated second edition covers the theory, development, and design of electro-acoustic transducers for underwater applications. This highly regarded text discusses the basics of piezoelectric and magnetostrictive transducers that are currently being used as well as promising new designs. It presents the basic acoustics as well as the specific acoustics data needed in transducer design and evaluation. A broad range of designs of projectors and hydrophones are described in detail along with methods of modeling, evaluation, and measurement. Analysis of projector and hydrophone transducer arrays, including the effects of mutual radiation impedance and numerical models for elements and arrays, are also covered. The book includes new advances in transducer design and transducer materials and has been completely reorganized to be suitable for use as a textbook, as well as a reference or handbook. The new edition contains corrections to the first edition, end-of-chapter exercises, and solutions to selected exercises. Each chapter includes a short introduction, end-of-chapter summary, and an extensive reference list offering the reader more detailed information and historical context. A glossary of key terms is also included at the end.

This thesis presents the first experimental calibration of the top-quark Monte-Carlo mass. It also provides the top-quark mass-independent and most precise top-quark pair production cross-section measurement to date. The most precise measurements of the top-quark mass obtain the top-quark mass parameter (Monte-Carlo mass) used in simulations, which are partially based on heuristic models. Its interpretation in terms of mass parameters used in theoretical calculations, e.g. a running or a pole mass, has been a long-standing open problem with far-reaching implications beyond particle physics, even affecting conclusions on the stability of the vacuum state of our universe. In this thesis, this problem is solved experimentally in three steps using data obtained with the compact muon solenoid (CMS) detector. The most precise top-quark pair production cross-section measurements to date are performed. The Monte-Carlo mass is determined and a new method for extracting the top-quark mass from theoretical calculations is presented. Lastly, the top-quark production cross-sections are obtained - for the first time - without residual dependence on the top-quark mass, are interpreted using theoretical calculations to determine the top-quark running- and pole mass with unprecedented precision, and are fully consistently compared with the simultaneously obtained top-quark Monte-Carlo mass.

This thesis covers several important topics relevant to our understanding of quark-gluon plasma. It describes measurement of the third-order harmonic flow using two-particle correlations and isolation of flow and non-flow contributions to particle correlations in gold-gold collisions. The work also investigates long-range longitudinal correlations in small systems of deuteron-gold collisions. The former is related to the hydrodynamic transport properties of the quark-gluon plasma created in gold-gold collisions. The latter pertains to the question whether hydrodynamics is applicable to small systems, such as deuteron-gold collisions, and whether the quark-gluon plasma can be formed in those small-system collisions. The work presented in this thesis was conducted with the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where the center-of-mass energy of both collision systems was a factor of 100 larger than the rest mass of the colliding nuclei. The results contained in this thesis are highly relevant to our quest for deeper understanding of quantum chromodynamics. The results obtained challenge the interpretation of previous works from several other experiments on small systems, and provoke a fresh look at the physics of hydrodynamics and particle correlations pertinent to high energy nuclear collisions.

This doctoral thesis focuses on the search for new phenomena in top-antitop quark (tt) final states with additional b-quark jets at the LHC. It uses the full Run 1 dataset collected by the ATLAS experiment in proton-proton collisions at s=8 TeV. The final state of interest consists of an isolated lepton, a neutrino and at least six jets with at least four b-tagged jets, a challenging experimental signature owing to the large background from tt+heavy-flavor production. This final state is characteristic of ttH production, with the Higgs boson decaying into bb, a process that allows direct probing of the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling. This signature is also present in many extensions of the Standard Model that have been proposed as solutions to the hierarchy problem, such as supersymmetry or composite Higgs models, which predict the pair production of bosonic or fermionic top quark partners, or the anomalous production of four-top-quark events. All these physics processes have been searched for using an ambitious search strategy that has been developed on the basis of a combination of state-of-art theoretical predictions and a sophisticated statistical analysis to constrain in-situ the large background uncertainties. As a result, the most restrictive bounds to date on the above physics processes have been obtained.

This extensively revised and updated second edition of a widely read classic presents the use of ultrasound in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) inspections. Retaining the first edition's use of wave propagation /scattering theory and linear system theory, this volume also adds significant new material including: the introduction of MATLAB (R) functions and scripts that evaluate key results involving beam propagation and scattering, flaw sizing, and the modeling of ultrasonic systems. elements of Gaussian beam theory and a multi-Gaussian ultrasonic beam model for bulk wave transducers. a new chapter on the connection between ultrasonic modeling and probability of detection (POD) and reliability models. new and improved derivations of ultrasonic measurement models. updated coverage of ultrasonic simulators that have been developed around the world. Students, engineers, and researchers working in the ultrasonic NDE field will find a wealth of information on the modeling of ultrasonic inspections and the fundamental ultrasonic experiments that support those models in this new edition.

This graduate and advanced undergraduate textbook systematically addresses all core topics in physical and engineering acoustics. Written by a well-known textbook author with 39 years of experience performing research, teaching, and mentoring in the field, it is specially designed to provide maximum support for learning. Presentation begins from a foundation that does not assume prior study of acoustics and advanced mathematics. Derivations are rigorous, thoroughly explained, and often innovative. Important concepts are discussed for their physical implications and their implementation. Many of the examples are mini case studies that address systems students will find to be interesting and motivating for continued study. Step-by-step explanations accompany example solutions. They address both the significance of the example and the strategy for approaching it. Wherever techniques arise that might be unfamiliar to the reader, they are explained in full. Volume I contains 186 homework exercises, accompanied by a detailed solutions manual for instructors. This text, along with its companion, Volume II: Applications, provides a knowledge base that will enable the reader to begin undertaking research and to work in core areas of acoustics.

This second edition provides comprehensive information on electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs), from the theory and physical principles of EMATs to the construction of systems and their applications to scientific and industrial ultrasonic measurements on materials. The original version has been complemented with selected ideas on ultrasonic measurement that have emerged since the first edition was released. The book is divided into four parts: PART I offers a self-contained description of the basic elements of coupling mechanisms along with the practical designing of EMATs for various purposes. Several implementations to compensate for EMATs' low transfer efficiency are provided, along with useful tips on how to make an EMAT. PART II describes the principle of electromagnetic acoustic resonance (EMAR), which makes the most of EMATs' contactless nature and is the most successful amplification mechanism for precise measurements of velocity and attenuation. PART III applies EMAR to studying physical acoustics. New measurements have emerged with regard to four major subjects: in situ monitoring of dislocation behavior, determination of anisotropic elastic constants, pointwise elasticity mapping (RUM), and acoustic nonlinearity evolution. PART IV deals with a variety of individual issues encountered in industrial applications, for which the EMATs are believed to be the best solutions. This is proven by a number of field applications.

This book comprises twelve articles which cover a range of topics from musical instrument acoustics to issues in psychoacoustics and sound perception as well as neuromusicology. In addition to experimental methods and data acquisition, modeling (such as FEM or wave field synthesis) and numerical simulation plays a central role in studies addressing sound production in musical instruments as well as interaction of radiated sound with the environment. Some of the studies have a focus on psychoacoustic aspects in regard to virtual pitch and timbre as well as apparent source width (for techniques such as stereo or ambisonics) in music production. Since musical acoustics imply subjects playing instruments or singing in order to produce sound according to musical structures, this area is also covered including a study that presents an artificial intelligent agent capable to interact with a real ('analog') player in musical genres such as traditional and free jazz.

This book provides current, comprehensive, and clear explanations of the physics behind medical and biomedical applications of shock waves. Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy is one of the greatest medical advances of our time, and its techniques and clinical devices are continuously evolving. Further research continues to improve the understanding of calculi fragmentation and tissue-damaging mechanisms. Shock waves are also used in orthopedics and traumatology. Possible applications in oncology, cardiology, dentistry, gene therapy, cell transfection, transformation of fungi and bacteria, as well as the inactivation of microorganisms are promising approaches for clinical treatment, industrial applications and research. Medical and Biomedical Applications of Shock Waves is useful as a guide for students, technicians and researchers working in universities and laboratories. Chemists, biologists, physicians and veterinarians, involved in research or clinical practice will find useful advice, but also engineers and physicists may benefit from the overview of current research endeavors and future directions. Furthermore, it may also serve to direct manufacturers towards the design of more efficient and safer clinical, industrial and laboratory equipment.