In July 2009, many experts in the mathematical modeling of biological sciences gathered in Les Houches for a 4-week summer school on the mechanics and physics of biological systems. The goal of the school was to present to students and researchers an integrated view of new trends and challenges in physical and mathematical aspects of biomechanics. While the scope for such a topic is very wide, they focused on problems where solid and fluid mechanics play a central role. The school covered both the general mathematical theory of mechanical biology in the context of continuum mechanics but also the specific modeling of particular systems in the biology of the cell, plants, microbes, and in physiology.
These lecture notes are organized (as was the school) around five different main topics all connected by the common theme of continuum modeling for biological systems: Bio-fluidics, Bio-gels, Bio-mechanics, Bio-membranes, and Morphogenesis. These notes are not meant as a journal review of the topic but rather as a gentle tutorial introduction to the readers who want to understand the basic problematic in modeling biological systems from a mechanics perspective.

Thirty years' teaching experience have been condensed into this concise introductory book on Statistical Mechanics. Ideal for second and third year undergraduates in physics, applied mathematics, physical chemistry, chemical engineering, metallurgy, materials science and polymer science.
Provides a concise introduction to statistical mechanicsIdeal for second and third year undergraduates in physics, applied mathematics, physical chemistry, chemical engineering, metallurgy, materials science and polymer science

This book presents the SPH method (Smoothed-Particle Hydrodynamics) for fluid modelling from a theoretical and applied viewpoint. It comprises two parts that refer to each other. The first one, dealing with the fundamentals of Hydraulics, is based on the elementary principles of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics. The specific laws governing a system of macroscopic particles are built, before large systems involving dissipative processes are explained. The continua are discussed, and a fairly exhaustive account of turbulence is given. The second part discloses the bases of the SPH Lagrangian numerical method from the continuous equations, as well as from discrete variational principles, setting out the method's specific properties of conservativity and invariance. Various numerical schemes are compared, permanently referring to the physics as dealt with in the first part. Applications to schematic instances are discussed, and, ultimately, practical applications to the dimensioning of coastal and fluvial structures are considered.
Despite the rapid growth in the SPH field, this book is the first to present the method in a comprehensive way for fluids. It should serve as a rigorous introduction to SPH and a reference for fundamental mathematical fluid dynamics. This book is intended for scientists, doctoral students, teachers, and engineers, who want to enjoy a rather unified approach to the theoretical bases of Hydraulics or who want to improve their skills using the SPH method. It will inspire the reader with a feeling of unity, answering many questions without any detrimental formalism.

This hands-on guide is primarily intended to be used in undergraduate laboratories in the physical sciences and engineering. It assumes no prior knowledge of statistics. It introduces the necessary concepts where needed, with key points illustrated with worked examples and graphic illustrations. In contrast to traditional mathematical treatments it uses a combination of spreadsheet and calculus-based approaches, suitable as a quick and easy on-the-spot reference. The emphasis throughout is on practical strategies to be adopted in the laboratory.
Error analysis is introduced at a level accessible to school leavers, and carried through to research level. Error calculation and propagation is presented though a series of rules-of-thumb, look-up tables and approaches amenable to computer analysis. The general approach uses the chi-square statistic extensively. Particular attention is given to hypothesis testing and extraction of parameters and their uncertainties by fitting mathematical models to experimental data. Routines implemented by most contemporary data analysis packages are analysed and explained. The book finishes with a discussion of advanced fitting strategies and an introduction to Bayesian analysis.

Nonlinear Time Series Analysis with R provides a practical guide to emerging empirical techniques allowing practitioners to diagnose whether highly fluctuating and random appearing data are most likely driven by random or deterministic dynamic forces. It joins the chorus of voices recommending 'getting to know your data' as an essential preliminary evidentiary step in modelling. Time series are often highly fluctuating with a random appearance. Observed volatility is commonly attributed to exogenous random shocks to stable real-world systems. However, breakthroughs in nonlinear dynamics raise another possibility: highly complex dynamics can emerge endogenously from astoundingly parsimonious deterministic nonlinear models. Nonlinear Time Series Analysis (NLTS) is a collection of empirical tools designed to aid practitioners detect whether stochastic or deterministic dynamics most likely drive observed complexity. Practitioners become 'data detectives' accumulating hard empirical evidence supporting their modelling approach. This book is targeted to professionals and graduate students in engineering and the biophysical and social sciences. Its major objectives are to help non-mathematicians - with limited knowledge of nonlinear dynamics - to become operational in NLTS; and in this way to pave the way for NLTS to be adopted in the conventional empirical toolbox and core coursework of the targeted disciplines. Consistent with modern trends in university instruction, the book makes readers active learners with hands-on computer experiments in R code directing them through NLTS methods and helping them understand the underlying logic (please see www.marco.bittelli.com). The computer code is explained in detail so that readers can adjust it for use in their own work. The book also provides readers with an explicit framework - condensed from sound empirical practices recommended in the literature - that details a step-by-step procedure for applying NLTS in real-world data diagnostics.

This book contains an extensive illustration of use of finite difference method in solving the boundary value problem numerically. A wide class of differential equations has been numerically solved in this book. Starting with differential equations of elementary functions like hyperbolic, sine and cosine, we have solved those of special functions like Hermite, Laguerre and Legendre. Those of Airy function, of stationary localised wavepacket, of the quantum mechanical problem of a particle in a 1D box, and the polar equation of motion under gravitational interaction have also been solved. Mathematica 6.0 has been used to solve the system of linear equations that we encountered and to plot the numerical data. Comparison with known analytic solutions showed nearly perfect agreement in every case. On reading this book, readers will become adept in using the method.

This book is the seventh volume of review chapters on advanced problems of phase transitions and critical phenomena, the former six volumes appeared in 2004, 2007, 2012, 2015, 2018, and 2020. The aim of the book is to provide reviews in those aspects of criticality and related subjects that are currently attracting much attention due to essential new contributions.The book consists of five chapters. They discuss criticality of complex systems, where the new, emergent properties appear via collective behaviour of simple elements as well as historical aspects of studies in the field of critical phenomena. Since all complex systems involve cooperative behaviour between many interconnected components, the field of phase transitions and critical phenomena provides a very natural conceptual and methodological framework for their study.As the first six volumes, this book is based on the review lectures that were given in Lviv (Ukraine) at the 'Ising lectures' - a traditional annual workshop on complex systems, phase transitions and critical phenomena which aims to bring together experts in these fields with university students and those who are interested in the subject.

The book focuses on the study of the temporal behavior of complex many-particle systems. The phenomenon of time and its role in the temporal evolution of complex systems is a remaining mystery. The book presents the necessity of the interdisciplinary point of view regarding on the phenomenon of time.The aim of the present study is to summarize and formulate in a concise but clear form the trends and approaches to the concept of time from a broad interdisciplinary perspective exposing tersely the complementary approaches and theories of time in the context of thermodynamics, statistical physics, cosmology, theory of information, biology and biophysics, including the problem of time and aging. Various approaches to the problem show that time is an extraordinarily interdisciplinary and multifaceted underlying notion which plays an extremely important role in various natural complex processes.

This short textbook covers roughly 13 weeks of lectures on advanced statistical mechanics at the graduate level. It starts with an elementary introduction to the theory of ensembles from classical mechanics, and then goes on to quantum statistical mechanics with density matrix. These topics are covered concisely and briefly. The advanced topics cover the mean-field theory for phase transitions, the Ising models and their exact solutions, and critical phenomena and their scaling theory. The mean-field theories are discussed thoroughly with several different perspectives - focusing on a single degree, or using Feynman-Jensen-Bogoliubov inequality, cavity method, or Landau theory. The renormalization group theory is mentioned only briefly. As examples of computational and numerical approach, there is a chapter on Monte Carlo method including the cluster algorithms. The second half of the book studies nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, which includes the Brownian motion, the Langevin and Fokker-Planck equations, Boltzmann equation, linear response theory, and the Jarzynski equality. The book ends with a brief discussion of irreversibility. The topics are supplemented by problem sets (with partial answers) and supplementary readings up to the current research, such as heat transport with a Fokker-Planck approach.

While statistical mechanics describe the equilibrium state of systems with many degrees of freedom, and dynamical systems explain the irregular evolution of systems with few degrees of freedom, new tools are needed to study the evolution of systems with many degrees of freedom. This book presents the basic aspects of chaotic systems, with emphasis on systems composed by huge numbers of particles. Firstly, the basic concepts of chaotic dynamics are introduced, moving on to explore the role of ergodicity and chaos for the validity of statistical laws, and ending with problems characterized by the presence of more than one significant scale. Also discussed is the relevance of many degrees of freedom, coarse graining procedure, and instability mechanisms in justifying a statistical description of macroscopic bodies. Introducing the tools to characterize the non asymptotic behaviors of chaotic systems, this text will interest researchers and graduate students in statistical mechanics and chaos.

Integrable models have a fascinating history with many important discoveries that dates back to the famous Kepler problem of planetary motion. Nowadays it is well recognised that integrable systems play a ubiquitous role in many research areas ranging from quantum field theory, string theory, solvable models of statistical mechanics, black hole physics, quantum chaos and the AdS/CFT correspondence, to pure mathematics, such as representation theory, harmonic analysis, random matrix theory and complex geometry. Starting with the Liouville theorem and finite-dimensional integrable models, this book covers the basic concepts of integrability including elements of the modern geometric approach based on Poisson reduction, classical and quantum factorised scattering and various incarnations of the Bethe Ansatz. Applications of integrability methods are illustrated in vast detail on the concrete examples of the Calogero-Moser-Sutherland and Ruijsenaars-Schneider models, the Heisenberg spin chain and the one-dimensional Bose gas interacting via a delta-function potential. This book has intermediate and advanced topics with details to make them clearly comprehensible.

Science often deals with hard-to-see phenomena, and they only stand out and become real when viewed through the lens of complex statistical tools. This book is not a textbook about statistics applied to science - there are already many excellent books to choose from - rather, it tries to give an overview of the basic principles that physical scientists use to analyze their data and bring out the order of Nature from the fog of background noise.

Exploiting powerful techniques from physics and mathematics, this book studies animal movement in ecology, with a focus on epidemic spread. Pulmonary syndrome is not only feared in epidemics of recent times, such as COVID-19, but is also characteristic of epidemics studied earlier such as Hantavirus. The Hantavirus is one of the book's central topics. Correlations between epidemic outbreaks and precipitation events like El Nino are analyzed and spatial reservoirs of infection in off-period of the epidemic, known as refugia, are studied. Predicted traveling waves of infection are successfully compared to field observations. Territoriality in scent-marking animals is presented, with parallels drawn with the theory of melting. The flocking and herding of birds and mammals are described in terms of collective excitations. For scientists interested in movement ecology and epidemic spread, this book provides effective solutions to long-standing problems.

This book is a course in methods and models rooted in physics and used in modelling economic and social phenomena. It covers the discipline of econophysics, which creates an interface between physics and economics. Besides the main theme, it touches on the theory of complex networks and simulations of social phenomena in general.
After a brief historical introduction, the book starts with a list of basic empirical data and proceeds to thorough investigation of mathematical and computer models. Many of the models are based on hypotheses of the behaviour of simplified agents. These comprise strategic thinking, imitation, herding, and the gem of econophysics, the so-called minority game. At the same time, many other models view the economic processes as interactions of inanimate particles. Here, the methods of physics are especially useful. Examples of systems modelled in such a way include books of stock-market orders, and redistribution of wealth among individuals. Network effects are investigated in the interaction of economic agents. The book also describes how to model phenomena like cooperation and emergence of consensus.
The book will be of benefit to graduate students and researchers in both Physics and Economics.

This volume shares and makes accessible new research lines and recent results in several branches of theoretical and mathematical physics, among them Quantum Optics, Coherent States, Integrable Systems, SUSY Quantum Mechanics, and Mathematical Methods in Physics. In addition to a selection of the contributions presented at the "6th International Workshop on New Challenges in Quantum Mechanics: Integrability and Supersymmetry", held in Valladolid, Spain, 27-30 June 2017, several high quality contributions from other authors are also included. The conference gathered 60 participants from many countries working in different fields of Theoretical Physics, and was dedicated to Prof. Veronique Hussin-an internationally recognized expert in many branches of Mathematical Physics who has been making remarkable contributions to this field since the 1980s. The reader will find interesting reviews on the main topics from internationally recognized experts in each field, as well as other original contributions, all of which deal with recent applications or discoveries in the aforementioned areas.

The aim of this book is to present Classical Thermodynamics in a unified way, from the most fundamental principles to non-uniform systems, thereby requiring the introduction of coarse graining methods, leading for instance to phase field methods. Solutions thermodynamics and temperature-concentration phase diagrams are covered, plus also a brief introduction to statistical thermodynamics and topological disorder. The Landau theory is included along with a general treatment of multicomponent instabilities in various types of thermodynamic applications, including phase separation and order-disorder transitions. Nucleation theory and spinodal decomposition are presented as extreme cases of a single approach involving the all-important role of fluctuations.In this way, it is hoped that this coverage will reconcile in a unified manner techniques generally presented separately in physics and materials texts.

In recent years, the study of neutron stars and black holes has become increasingly important, and rigorous mathematical analysis needs to be applied in order to understand their basic physics. This book treats the classical problem of gravitational physics within Einstein's theory of general relativity. It presents basic principles and equations needed to describe rotating fluid bodies, as well as black holes in equilibrium. It then goes on to deal with a number of analytically tractable limiting cases, placing particular emphasis on the rigidly rotating disc of dust. The book concludes by considering the general case using powerful numerical methods that are applied to various models, including the classical example of equilibrium figures of constant density. Researchers in general relativity, mathematical physics, and astrophysics will find this a valuable reference book on the topic. A related website containing codes for calculating various figures of equilibrium is available at www.cambridge.org/9780521863834.

This volume gathers selected contributions from the participants of the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) workshop Coupled Mathematical Models for Physical and Biological Nanoscale Systems and their Applications, who explore various aspects of the analysis, modeling and applications of nanoscale systems, with a particular focus on low dimensional nanostructures and coupled mathematical models for their description. Due to the vastness, novelty and complexity of the interfaces between mathematical modeling and nanoscience and nanotechnology, many important areas in these disciplines remain largely unexplored. In their efforts to move forward, multidisciplinary research communities have come to a clear understanding that, along with experimental techniques, mathematical modeling and analysis have become crucial to the study, development and application of systems at the nanoscale. The conference, held at BIRS in autumn 2016, brought together experts from three different communities working in fields where coupled mathematical models for nanoscale and biosystems are especially relevant: mathematicians, physicists (both theorists and experimentalists), and computational scientists, including those dealing with biological nanostructures. Its objectives: summarize the state-of-the-art; identify and prioritize critical problems of major importance that require solutions; analyze existing methodologies; and explore promising approaches to addressing the challenges identified. The contributions offer up-to-date introductions to a range of topics in nano and biosystems, identify important challenges, assess current methodologies and explore promising approaches. As such, this book will benefit researchers in applied mathematics, as well as physicists and biologists interested in coupled mathematical models and their analysis for physical and biological nanoscale systems that concern applications in biotechnology and medicine, quantum information processing and optoelectronics.

In a comprehensive treatment of Statistical Mechanics from thermodynamics through the renormalization group, this book serves as the core text for a full-year graduate course in statistical mechanics at either the Masters or Ph.D. level. Each chapter contains numerous exercises, and several chapters treat special topics which can be used as the basis for student projects. The concept of scaling is introduced early and used extensively throughout the text. At the heart of the book is an extensive treatment of mean field theory, from the simplest decoupling approach, through the density matrix formalism, to self-consistent classical and quantum field theory as well as exact solutions on the Cayley tree. Proceeding beyond mean field theory, the book discusses exact mappings involving Potts models, percolation, self-avoiding walks and quenched randomness, connecting various athermal and thermal models. Computational methods such as series expansions and Monte Carlo simulations are discussed, along with exact solutions to the 1D quantum and 2D classical Ising models. The renormalization group formalism is developed, starting from real-space RG and proceeding through a detailed treatment of Wilson's epsilon expansion. Finally the subject of Kosterlitz-Thouless systems is introduced from a historical perspective and then treated by methods due to Anderson, Kosterlitz, Thouless and Young. Altogether, this comprehensive, up-to-date, and engaging text offers an ideal package for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses or for use in self study.

Disordered magnetic systems enjoy non-trivial properties which are different and richer than those observed in their pure, non-disordered counterparts. These properties dramatically affect the thermodynamic behaviour and require specific theoretical treatment. This 2006 book deals with the theory of magnetic systems in the presence of frozen disorder, in particular paradigmatic and well-known spin models such as the Random Field Ising Model and the Ising Spin Glass. This is a unified presentation using a field theory language which covers mean field theory, dynamics and perturbation expansion within the same theoretical framework. Particular emphasis is given to the connections between different approaches such as statics vs. dynamics, microscopic vs. phenomenological models. The book introduces some useful and little-known techniques in statistical mechanics and field theory. This book will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers in statistical physics and basic field theory.

This book presents the theory and practical applications of the Master equation approach, which provides a powerful general framework for model building in a variety of disciplines. The aim of the book is to not only highlight different mathematical solution methods, but also reveal their potential by means of practical examples. Part I of the book, which can be used as a toolbox, introduces selected statistical fundamentals and solution methods for the Master equation. In Part II and Part III, the Master equation approach is applied to important applications in the natural and social sciences. The case studies presented mainly hail from the social sciences, including urban and regional dynamics, population dynamics, dynamic decision theory, opinion formation and traffic dynamics; however, some applications from physics and chemistry are treated as well, underlining the interdisciplinary modelling potential of the Master equation approach. Drawing upon the author's extensive teaching and research experience and consulting work, the book offers a valuable guide for researchers, graduate students and professionals alike.

This book presents the statistical theory of complex wave scattering and quantum transport in physical systems which have chaotic classical dynamics, as in the case of microwave cavities and quantum dots, or which possess quenched randomness, as in the case of disordered conductors - with an emphasis on mesoscopic fluctuations. The statistical regularity of the phenomena is revealed in a natural way by adopting a novel maximum-entropy approach. Shannon's information entropy is maximised, subject to the symmetries and constraints which are physically relevant, within the powerful and non-perturbative theory of random matrices; this is a most distinctive feature of the book. Aiming for a self-contained presentation, the quantum theory of scattering, set in the context of quasi-one-dimensional, multichannel systems, and related directly to scattering problems in mesoscopic physics, is introduced in chapters two and three. The linear-response theory of quantum electronic transport, adapted to the context of mesoscopic systems, is discussed in chapter four. These chapters, together with chapter five on the maximum-entropy approach and chapter eight on weak localization, have been written in a most pedagogical style, suitable for use on graduate courses. In chapters six and seven, the problem of electronic transport through classically chaotic cavities and quasi-one-dimensional disordered systems is discussed. Many exercises are included, most of which are worked through in detail, aiding graduate students, teachers, and research scholars interested in the subject of quantum transport through disordered and chaotic systems.

This volume contains papers based on presentations at the "Nagoya Winter Workshop 2015: Reality and Measurement in Algebraic Quantum Theory (NWW 2015)", held in Nagoya, Japan, in March 2015. The foundations of quantum theory have been a source of mysteries, puzzles, and confusions, and have encouraged innovations in mathematical languages to describe, analyze, and delineate this wonderland. Both ontological and epistemological questions about quantum reality and measurement have been placed in the center of the mysteries explored originally by Bohr, Heisenberg, Einstein, and Schroedinger. This volume describes how those traditional problems are nowadays explored from the most advanced perspectives. It includes new research results in quantum information theory, quantum measurement theory, information thermodynamics, operator algebraic and category theoretical foundations of quantum theory, and the interplay between experimental and theoretical investigations on the uncertainty principle. This book is suitable for a broad audience of mathematicians, theoretical and experimental physicists, and philosophers of science.

This classic text provides an excellent introduction to a new and rapidly developing field of research. Now well established as a textbook in this rapidly developing field of research, the new edition is much enlarged and covers a host of new results.

Starting from a broad overview of heat transport based on the Boltzmann Transport Equation, this book presents a comprehensive analysis of heat transport in bulk and nanomaterials based on a kinetic-collective model (KCM). This has become key to understanding the field of thermal transport in semiconductors, and represents an important stride. The book describes how heat transport becomes hydrodynamic at the nanoscale, propagating very much like a viscous fluid and manifesting vorticity and friction-like behavior. It introduces a generalization of Fourier's law including a hydrodynamic term based on collective behavior in the phonon ensemble. This approach makes it possible to describe in a unifying way recent experiments that had to resort to unphysical assumptions in order to uphold the validity of Fourier's law, demonstrating that hydrodynamic heat transport is a pervasive type of behavior in semiconductors at reduced scales.