There are numerous technological materials - such as metals, polymers, ceramics, concrete, and many others - that vary in properties and serviceability. However, the almost universal common theme to most real materials is that their properties depend on the scale at which the analysis or observation takes place and at each scale "probabilities" play an important role. Here the word "probabilities" is used in a wider than the classical sense. In order to increase the efficiency and serviceability of these materials, researchers from NATO, CP and other countries were brought together to exchange knowledge and develop avenues for progress and applications in the st 21 century. The workshop began by reviewing progress in the subject area over the past few years and by identifying key questions that remain open. One point was how to observe/measure material properties at different scales and whether a probabilistic approach, at each scale, was always applicable and advantageous. The wide range of materials, from wood to advanced metals and from concrete to complex advanced composites, and the diversity of applications, e.g. fatigue, fracture, deformation, etc., were recognized as "obstacles" in identifying a "universal" approach.

A rich variety of real-life physical problems which are still poorly understood are of a nonlinear nature. Examples include turbulence, granular flows, detonations and flame propagation, fracture dynamics, and a wealth of new biological and chemical phenomena which are being discovered. Particularly interesting among the manifestations of nonlinearity are coherent structures. This book contains reviews and contributions reporting on the state of the art regarding the role of coherent structures and patterns in nonlinear science.

From the reviews:

..".This book is a very useful addition to polymer literature, and it is a pleasure to recommend it to the polymer community." (J.E. Mark, University of Cincinnati, POLYMER NEWS)

Mesoscopic physics has made great strides in the last few years. It is an area of research that is attractive to many graduate students of theoretical condensed matter physics. The techniques that are needed to understand it go beyond the conventional perturbative approaches that still form the bulk of the graduate lectures that are given to students. Even when the non-perturbative techniques are presented, they often are presented within an abstract context. It is important to have lectures given by experts in the field, which present both theory and experiment in an illuminating and inspiring way, so that the impact of new methodology on novel physics is clear. It is an apt time to have such a volume since the field has reached a level of maturity. The pedagogical nature of the articles and the variety of topics makes it an important resource for newcomers to the field. The topics range from the newly emerging area of quantum computers and quantum information using Josephson junctions to the formal mathematical methods of conformal field theory which are applied to the understanding of Luttinger liquids.

Electrons which interact strongly can give rise to non-trivial ground states such as superconductivity, quantum Hall states and magnetism. Both their theory and application are discussed in a pedagogical way for quantum information in mesoscopic superconducting devices, skyrmions and magnetism in two dimensional electron gases, transport in quantum wires, metal-insulator transitions and spin electronics.

Properties of systems with long range interactions are still poorly understood despite being of importance in most areas of physics. The present volume introduces and reviews the effort of constructing a coherent thermodynamic treatment of such systems by combining tools from statistical mechanics with concepts and methods from dynamical systems. Analogies and differences between various systems are examined by considering a large range of applications, with emphasis on Bose--Einstein condensates. Written as a set of tutorial reviews, the book will be useful for both the experienced researcher as well as the nonexpert scientist or postgraduate student.

This book explores two important aspects of the optimal control of oscillatory systems: the initiation of optimal oscillatory regimes and control possibilities for random disturbances. The main content of the book is based upon assertions of the optimal control theory and the disturbance theory. All theoretical propositions are illustrated by examples with exact mechanical context. An appendix covers the necessary mathematical prerequisites.

This book is especially addressed to young researchers in theoretical physics with a basic background in Field Theory and Condensed Matter Physics. The topics were chosen so as to offer the largest possible overlap between the two expertises, selecting a few key problems in Condensed Matter Theory which have been recently revisited within a field-theoretic approach. The presentation of the material is aimed not only at providing the reader with an overview of this exciting frontier area of modern theoretical physics, but also at elucidating most of the tools needed for a technical comprehen sion of the many papers appearing in current issues of physics journals and, hopefully, to enable the reader to tackle research problems in this area of physics. This makes the material a live creature: while not pretending it to be exhaustive, it is tutorial enough to be useful to young researchers as a starting point in anyone of the topics covered in the book."

This book demonstrates the usefulness of tools from statistical mechanics for biology. It includes the new tendencies in topics like membranes, vesicles, microtubules, molecular motors, DNA, protein folding, phase transitions in biological systems, evolution, population dynamics, neural systems and biological oscillators, with special emphasis on the importance of statistical mechanics in their development. The book addresses researchers and graduate students.

During the last decade there has been a renewed interest in research on supramolecular assemblies in solutions, such as micelles and microemulsions, not only because of their extensive applications in industries dealing with catalysts, detergency, biotechnology, and enhanced oil recovery, but also due to the development of new and more powerful experimental and theoretical tools for probing the microscopic behavior of these systems. Prominent among the array of the newly available experimental techniques are photon correlation spectroscopy, small-angle neutron and X-ray scattering, and neutron spin-echo and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies. On the theoretical side, the traditionally emphasized thermodynamic approach to the study of the phase behavior of self-assembled systems in solutions is gradually being replaced by statistical mechanical studies of semi-micro scopic and microscopic models of the assemblies. Since the statistical mechanical approach demands as its starting point the microscopic struc tural information of the self-assembled system, the experimental determina tion of the structures of micelles and microemulsions becomes of paramount interest. In this regard the scattering techniques mentioned above have played an important role in recent years and will continue to do so in the future. In applying the scattering techniques to the supramolecular species in solution, one cannot often regard the solution to be ideal. This is because the inter-aggregate interaction is often long-ranged since it is coulombic in nature and the interparticle correlations are thus appreciable."

Solving a longstanding problem in the physical sciences, this text and reference generalizes Gaussian error intervals to situations in which the data follow distributions other than Gaussian. The text is written at introductory level, with many examples and exercises.

Quantum and chaos, key concepts in contemporary science, are incompatible by nature. This volume presents an investigation into quantum transport in mesoscopic or nanoscale systems which are classically chaotic and shows the success and failure of quantal, semiclassical, and random matrix theories in dealing with questions emerging from the mesoscopic cosmos. These traditional theories are critically analysed, and this leads to a new direction. To reconcile quantum with chaos and to restore genuine temporal chaos in quantum systems, a time-discrete variant of quantum dynamics is proposed. Audience: This book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in physics, chemistry and mathematics, whose work involves fundamental questions of quantum mechanics in chaotic systems.

Speech by Toyosaburo Taniguchi Dr. Kubo, Chairman, Distinguished Guests, and Friends, I am very happy, pleased and honored to be here this evening with so many distinguished guests, friends, and scholars from within this country and from different parts of the world. The Taniguchi Foundation wishes to extend a warm and sincere welcome to the many participants of the Ninth International Symposium on the Theory of Condensed Matter, which se ries was inaugurated eight years ago through the strenuous efforts of Dr. Ryogo Kubo, who is gracing us today with his presence. We are deeply indebted to Dr. Kubo, Dr. Suzuki, and their associates, who havE' spent an enormous amount of time and effort to make this particular symposium possible. We are convinced that the foundation should not be considered as what makes our symposium a success. The success is entirely due, I feel, to the continuous efforts of the Organizing Committee and of all those who have lent their support to this program. In this sense, your words of praise about the symposium, if any, should be directed to all of them. So far, I have met in person a total of 62 participants in this Division from 12 countries: Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Ireland, Israel, Rumania, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, with 133 participants from Japan. Those friends I have been privileged to make, I shall always treasure."

Many phenomena in physics, chemistry, and biology can be modelled by spatial random processes. One such process is continuum percolation, which is used when the phenomenon being modelled is made up of individual events that overlap, for example, the way individual raindrops eventually make the ground evenly wet. This is a systematic rigorous account of continuum percolation. Two models, the Boolean model and the random connection model, are treated in detail, and related continuum models are discussed. All important techniques and methods are explained and applied to obtain results on the existence of phase transitions, equality and continuity of critical densities, compressions, rarefaction, and other aspects of continuum models. This self-contained treatment, assuming only familiarity with measure theory and basic probability theory, will appeal to students and researchers in probability and stochastic geometry.

1.1 Overview We are living in a decade recently declared as the "Decade of the Brain." Neuroscientists may soon manage to work out a functional map of the brain, thanks to technologies that open windows on the mind. With the average human brain consisting of 15 billion neurons, roughly equal to the number of stars in our milky way, each receiving signals through as many as 10,000 synapses, it is quite a view. "The brain is the last and greatest biological frontier," says James Weston codiscoverer of DNA, considered to be the most complex piece of biological machinery on earth. After many years of research by neuroanatomists and neurophys iologists, the overall organization of the brain is well understood, but many of its detailed neural mechanisms remain to be decoded. In order to understand the functioning of the brain, neurobiologists have taken a bottom-up approach of studying the stimulus-response characteristics of single neurons and networks of neurons, while psy chologists have taken a top-down approach of studying brain func tions from the cognitive and behavioral level. While these two ap proaches are gradually converging, it is generally accepted that it may take another fifty years before we achieve a solid microscopic, intermediate, and macroscopic understanding of brain."

Dry granular materials, such as sand, sugar and powders, can be poured into a container like a liquid and can also form a pile, resisting gravity like a solid, which is why they can be regarded as a fourth state of matter, neither solid nor liquid. This book focuses on defining the physics of dry granular media in a systematic way, providing a collection of articles written by recognised experts. The physics of this field is new and full of challenges, but many questions (such as kinetic theories, plasticity, continuum and discrete modelling) also require the strong participation of mechanical and chemical engineers, soil mechanists, geologists and astrophysicists. The book gathers into a single volume the relevant concepts from all these disciplines, enabling the reader to gain a rapid understanding of the foundations, as well as the open questions, of the physics of granular materials. The contributors have been chosen particularly for their ability to explain new concepts, making the book attractive to students or researchers contemplating a foray into the field. The breadth of the treatment, on the other hand, makes the book a useful reference for scientists who are already experienced in the subject.

When comparing conventional computing architectures to the architectures of biological neural systems, we find several striking differences. Conventional computers use a low number of high performance computing elements that are programmed with algorithms to perform tasks in a time sequenced way; they are very successful in administrative applications, in scientific simulations, and in certain signal processing applications. However, the biological systems still significantly outperform conventional computers in perception tasks, sensory data processing and motory control. Biological systems use a completely dif ferent computing paradigm: a massive network of simple processors that are (adaptively) interconnected and operate in parallel. Exactly this massively parallel processing seems the key aspect to their success. On the other hand the development of VLSI technologies provide us with technological means to implement very complicated systems on a silicon die. Especially analog VLSI circuits in standard digital technologies open the way for the implement at ion of massively parallel analog signal processing systems for sensory signal processing applications and for perception tasks. In chapter 1 the motivations behind the emergence of the analog VLSI of massively parallel systems is discussed in detail together with the capabilities and imitations of VLSI technologies and the required research and developments. Analog parallel signal processing drives for the development of very com pact, high speed and low power circuits. An important technologicallimitation in the reduction of the size of circuits and the improvement of the speed and power consumption performance is the device inaccuracies or device mismatch."

Applications of Neural Networks gives a detailed description of 13 practical applications of neural networks, selected because the tasks performed by the neural networks are real and significant. The contributions are from leading researchers in neural networks and, as a whole, provide a balanced coverage across a range of application areas and algorithms. The book is divided into three sections. Section A is an introduction to neural networks for nonspecialists. Section B looks at examples of applications using Supervised Training'. Section C presents a number of examples of Unsupervised Training'. For neural network enthusiasts and interested, open-minded sceptics. The book leads the latter through the fundamentals into a convincing and varied series of neural success stories -- described carefully and honestly without over-claiming. Applications of Neural Networks is essential reading for all researchers and designers who are tasked with using neural networks in real life applications.

At what level of physical existence does "quantum behavior" begin? How does it develop from classical mechanics? This book addresses these questions and thereby sheds light on fundamental conceptual problems of quantum mechanics. It elucidates the problem of quantum-classical correspondence by developing a procedure for quantizing stochastic systems (e.g. Brownian systems) described by Fokker-Planck equations. The logical consistency of the scheme is then verified by taking the classical limit of the equations of motion and corresponding physical quantities. Perhaps equally important, conceptual problems concerning the relationship between classical and quantum physics are identified and discussed. Graduate students and physical scientists will find this an accessible entr e to an intriguing and thorny issue at the core of modern physics.

Nonextensive statistical mechanics is now a rapidly growing field and a new stream in the research of the foundations of statistical mechanics. This generalization of the well-known Boltzmann--Gibbs theory enables the study of systems with long-range interactions, long-term memories or multi-fractal structures. This book consists of a set of self-contained lectures and includes additional contributions where some of the latest developments -- ranging from astro- to biophysics -- are covered. Addressing primarily graduate students and lecturers, this book will also be a useful reference for all researchers working in the field.

Numbers ... , natural, rational, real, complex, p-adic .... What do you know about p-adic numbers? Probably, you have never used any p-adic (nonrational) number before now. I was in the same situation few years ago. p-adic numbers were considered as an exotic part of pure mathematics without any application. I have also used only real and complex numbers in my investigations in functional analysis and its applications to the quantum field theory and I was sure that these number fields can be a basis of every physical model generated by nature. But recently new models of the quantum physics were proposed on the basis of p-adic numbers field Qp. What are p-adic numbers, p-adic analysis, p-adic physics, p-adic probability? p-adic numbers were introduced by K. Hensel (1904) in connection with problems of the pure theory of numbers. The construction of Qp is very similar to the construction of (p is a fixed prime number, p = 2,3,5, ... ,127, ... ). Both these number fields are completions of the field of rational numbers Q. But another valuation 1 . Ip is introduced on Q instead of the usual real valuation 1 . I* We get an infinite sequence of non isomorphic completions of Q : Q2, Q3, ... , Q127, ... , IR = Qoo* These fields are the only possibilities to com plete Q according to the famous theorem of Ostrowsky.

The present book has been written by two mathematicians and one physicist: a pure mathematician specializing in Finsler geometry (Makoto Matsumoto), one working in mathematical biology (Peter Antonelli), and a mathematical physicist specializing in information thermodynamics (Roman Ingarden). The main purpose of this book is to present the principles and methods of sprays (path spaces) and Finsler spaces together with examples of applications to physical and life sciences. It is our aim to write an introductory book on Finsler geometry and its applications at a fairly advanced level. It is intended especially for graduate students in pure mathemat ics, science and applied mathematics, but should be also of interest to those pure "Finslerists" who would like to see their subject applied. After more than 70 years of relatively slow development Finsler geometry is now a modern subject with a large body of theorems and techniques and has math ematical content comparable to any field of modern differential geometry. The time has come to say this in full voice, against those who have thought Finsler geometry, because of its computational complexity, is only of marginal interest and with prac tically no interesting applications. Contrary to these outdated fossilized opinions, we believe "the world is Finslerian" in a true sense and we will try to show this in our application in thermodynamics, optics, ecology, evolution and developmental biology. On the other hand, while the complexity of the subject has not disappeared, the modern bundle theoretic approach has increased greatly its understandability."

The lectures that comprise this volume constitute a comprehensive survey of the many and various aspects of integrable dynamical systems. The present edition is a streamlined, revised and updated version of a 1997 set of notes that was published as Lecture Notes in Physics, Volume 495. This volume will be complemented by a companion book dedicated to discrete integrable systems. Both volumes address primarily graduate students and nonspecialist researchers but will also benefit lecturers looking for suitable material for advanced courses and researchers interested in specific topics.

This two-volume work provides a comprehensive study of the statistical mechanics of lattice models. It introduces readers to the main topics and the theory of phase transitions, building on a firm mathematical and physical basis. Volume 1 contains an account of mean-field and cluster variation methods successfully used in many applications in solid-state physics and theoretical chemistry, as well as an account of exact results for the Ising and six-vertex models and those derivable by transformation methods.

Flux quantization experiments indicate that the carriers, Cooper pairs (pairons), in the supercurrent have charge magnitude 2e, and that they move independently. Josephson interference in a Superconducting Quantum Int- ference Device (SQUID) shows that the centers of masses (CM) of pairons move as bosons with a linear dispersion relation. Based on this evidence we develop a theory of superconductivity in conventional and mate- als from a unified point of view. Following Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer (BCS) we regard the phonon exchange attraction as the cause of superc- ductivity. For cuprate superconductors, however, we take account of both optical- and acoustic-phonon exchange. BCS started with a Hamiltonian containing "electron" and "hole" kinetic energies and a pairing interaction with the phonon variables eliminated. These "electrons" and "holes" were introduced formally in terms of a free-electron model, which we consider unsatisfactory. We define "electrons" and "holes" in terms of the cur- tures of the Fermi surface. "Electrons" (1) and "holes" (2) are different and so they are assigned with different effective masses: Blatt, Schafroth and Butler proposed to explain superconductivity in terms of a Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) of electron pairs, each having mass M and a size. The system of free massive bosons, having a quadratic dispersion relation: and moving in three dimensions (3D) undergoes a BEC transition at where is the pair density.

This book contains the courses given at the Fifth School on Complex Systems held at Santiago, Chile, from 9th .to 13th December 1996. At this school met researchers working on areas related with recent trends in Complex Systems, which include dynamical systems, cellular automata, symbolic dynamics, spatial systems, statistical physics and thermodynamics. Scientists working in these subjects come from several areas: pure and applied mathematics, physics, biology, computer science and electrical engineering. Each contribution is devoted to one of the above subjects. In most cases they are structured as surveys, presenting at the same time an original point of view about the topic and showing mostly new results. The paper of Bruno Durand presents the state of the art on the relationships between the notions of surjectivity, injectivity and reversibility in cellular automata when finite, infinite or periodic configurations are considered, also he discusses decidability problems related with the classification of cellular automata as well as global properties mentioned above. The paper of Eric Goles and Martin Matamala gives a uniform presentation of simulations of Turing machines by cellular automata. The main ingredient is the encoding function which must be fixed for all Turing machine. In this context known results are revised and new results are presented.