"Et moi, ..., si j'avait Sll comment en revenir. One sennce mathematics has rendered the human race. It has put common sense back je n'y serais point alle.' Jules Verne whe," it belongs, on the topmost shelf next to the dusty canister labelled 'discarded non- The series is divergent; therefore we may be smse'. able to do something with it. Eric T. Bell O. Heaviside Mathematics is a tool for thought. A highly necessary tool in a world where both feedback and non linearities abound. Similarly, all kinds of parts of mathematics serve as tools for other parts and for other sciences. Applying a simple rewriting rule to the quote on the right above one finds such statements as: 'One service topology has rendered mathematical physics .. .'; 'One service logic has rendered com puter science .. .'; 'One service category theory has rendered mathematics .. .'. All arguably true. And all statements obtainable this way form part of the raison d' ltre of this series."

Neuroscience is ripe for a paradigm change as Freeman and Mountcastle describe. Brain Oscillations provide an important key to this change. In this book the functional importance of the brain's multiple oscillations is treated with an integrative scope. According to the author, neurophysiology and cognition demand integrative approaches similar to those of Galilei and Newton in physics and of Darwin in biology. Not only the human brain but also lower brains and ganglia of invertebrates are treated with electrophysical methods. Experiments on sensory registration, perception, movement, and cognitive processes related to attention, learning, and memory are described. A synopsis on brain functions leads to a new "neuron assemblies doctrine," extending the concept of Sherrington, and new trends in this field. The book will appeal to scientists and graduate students.

Fuzzy Logic Foundations and Industrial Applications is an organized edited collection of contributed chapters covering basic fuzzy logic theory, fuzzy linear programming, and applications. Special emphasis has been given to coverage of recent research results, and to industrial applications of fuzzy logic. The chapters are new works that have been written exclusively for this book by many of the leading and prominent researchers (such as Ronald Yager, Ellen Hisdal, Etienne Kerre, and others) in this field. The contributions are original and each chapter is self-contained. The authors have been careful to indicate direct links between fuzzy set theory and its industrial applications. Fuzzy Logic Foundations and Industrial Applications is an invaluable work that provides researchers and industrial engineers with up-to-date coverage of new results on fuzzy logic and relates these results to their industrial use.

This volume is intended to be used as a textbook for a special topic course in computer science. It addresses contemporary research topics of interest such as intelligent control, genetic algorithms, neural networks, optimization techniques, expert systems, fractals, and computer vision. The work incorporates many new research ideas, and focuses on the role of continuous mathematics. Audience: This book will be valuable to graduate students interested in theoretical computer topics, algorithms, expert systems, neural networks, and software engineering.

The idea of supersymmetry was originally introduced in relativistic quantum field theories as a generalization of Poincare symmetry. In 1976 Nicolai sug gested an analogous generalization for non-relativistic quantum mechanics. With the one-dimensional model introduced by Witten in 1981, supersym metry became a major tool in quantum mechanics and mathematical, sta tistical, and condensed-IIll;l. tter physics. Supersymmetry is also a successful concept in nuclear and atomic physics. An underlying supersymmetry of a given quantum-mechanical system can be utilized to analyze the properties of the system in an elegant and effective way. It is even possible to obtain exact results thanks to supersymmetry. The purpose of this book is to give an introduction to supersymmet ric quantum mechanics and review some of the recent developments of vari ous supersymmetric methods in quantum and statistical physics. Thereby we will touch upon some topics related to mathematical and condensed-matter physics. A discussion of supersymmetry in atomic and nuclear physics is omit ted. However, the reader will find some references in Chap. 9. Similarly, super symmetric field theories and supergravity are not considered in this book. In fact, there exist already many excellent textbooks and monographs on these topics. A list may be found in Chap. 9. Yet, it is hoped that this book may be useful in preparing a footing for a study of supersymmetric theories in atomic, nuclear, and particle physics. The plan of the book is as follows."

This volume records papers given at the fourteenth international maximum entropy conference, held at St John's College Cambridge, England. It seems hard to believe that just thirteen years have passed since the first in the series, held at the University of Wyoming in 1981, and six years have passed since the meeting last took place here in Cambridge. So much has happened. There are two major themes at these meetings, inference and physics. The inference work uses the confluence of Bayesian and maximum entropy ideas to develop and explore a wide range of scientific applications, mostly concerning data analysis in one form or another. The physics work uses maximum entropy ideas to explore the thermodynamic world of macroscopic phenomena. Of the two, physics has the deeper historical roots, and much of the inspiration behind the inference work derives from physics. Yet it is no accident that most of the papers at these meetings are on the inference side. To develop new physics, one must use one's brains alone. To develop inference, computers are used as well, so that the stunning advances in computational power render the field open to rapid advance. Indeed, we have seen a revolution. In the larger world of statistics beyond the maximum entropy movement as such, there is now an explosion of work in Bayesian methods, as the inherent superiority of a defensible and consistent logical structure becomes increasingly apparent in practice.

The apparent contradiction of the results of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam experiment conducted in 1953 and 1954 with the hypothesis that essentially any nonlinearity would lead to a system exhibiting ergodic behaviour has become known as the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam Problem. This volume reviews the current understanding of this paradox without trying to force coherence on differing perspectives on the same problem by various groups or approaches. The contributions comprise studies of one-dimensional chains, descriptions of numerical methods, heuristic theories, addressing the long standing and controversial problem of distinguishing chaos from noise in signal analysis, metastability, the relation of the FPU motions with the integrable equations, approaches using methods of perturbation theory and the proof of the applicability of KAM theory in FPU chains with energy very close to a minimum. For the convenience of the reader the original work of FPU is reprinted in an appendix. The order of the contributions reflects the aim of leading the interested but inexperienced reader through gradual understanding, starting from general analysis, and proceeding towards more specialized topics."

This monograph addresses the systematic representation of the methods of analysis developed by the authors as applied to such systems. Particular features of dynamic processes in such systems are studied. Special attention is given to an analysis of different resonant phenomena taking unusual and diverse forms.

Complexity, Cognition and the City aims at a deeper understanding of urbanism, while invoking, on an equal footing, the contributions both the hard and soft sciences have made, and are still making, when grappling with the many issues and facets of regional planning and dynamics. In this work, the author goes beyond merely seeing the city as a self-organized, emerging pattern of some collective interaction between many stylized urban "agents" - he makes the crucial step of attributing cognition to his agents and thus raises, for the first time, the question on how to deal with a complex system composed of many interacting complex agents in clearly defined settings. Accordingly, the author eventually addresses issues of practical relevance for urban planners and decision makers. The book unfolds its message in a largely nontechnical manner, so as to provide a broad interdisciplinary readership with insights, ideas, and other stimuli to encourage further research - with the twofold aim of further pushing back the boundaries of complexity science and emphasizing the all-important interrelation of hard and soft sciences in recognizing the cognitive sciences as another necessary ingredient for meaningful urban studies.

Half a century ago, S. Chandrasekhar wrote these words in the preface to his 1 celebrated and successful book: In this monograph an attempt has been made to present the theory of stellar dy namics as a branch of classical dynamics - a discipline in the same general category as celestial mechanics. [ ... ] Indeed, several of the problems of modern stellar dy namical theory are so severely classical that it is difficult to believe that they are not already discussed, for example, in Jacobi's Vorlesungen. Since then, stellar dynamics has developed in several directions and at var ious levels, basically three viewpoints remaining from which to look at the problems encountered in the interpretation of the phenomenology. Roughly speaking, we can say that a stellar system (cluster, galaxy, etc.) can be con sidered from the point of view of celestial mechanics (the N-body problem with N" 1), fluid mechanics (the system is represented by a material con tinuum), or statistical mechanics (one defines a distribution function for the positions and the states of motion of the components of the system).

We read in order to know we are not alone, I once heard, and perhaps it could also be suggested that we write in order not to be alone, to endorse, to promote continuity. The idea for this book took about 10 years to materialize, and it is the author's hope that its content will constitute the beginning of further explorations beyond current horizons. More speci cally, this book appeals to the reader to engage upon and persevere with a journey, moving through the less well explored territories in the evolution of the very early universe, and pushing towards new landscapes. P- haps, during or after consulting this book, this attitude and this willingness will be embraced by someone, somewhere, and this person will go on to enrich our quantum cosmological description of the early universe, by means of a clearer supersymm- ric perspective. It is to these creative and inquisitive 'young minds' that the book is addressed. The reader will not therefore nd in this book all the answers to all the problems regarding a supersymmetric and quantum description of the early universe, and this remark is substantiated in the book by a list of unresolved and challenging problems, itself incomplete.

This book is drawn from across many active fields of mathematics and physics. It has connections to atmospheric dynamics, spherical codes, graph theory, constrained optimization problems, Markov Chains, and Monte Carlo methods. It addresses how to access interesting, original, and publishable research in statistical modeling of large-scale flows and several related fields. The authors explicitly reach around the major branches of mathematics and physics, showing how the use of a few straightforward approaches can create a cornucopia of intriguing questions and the tools to answer them.

Half a century ago, S. Chandrasekhar wrote these words in the preface to his l celebrated and successful book: In this monograph an attempt has been made to present the theory of stellar dy namics as a branch of classical dynamics - a discipline in the same general category as celestial mechanics. [ ... J Indeed, several of the problems of modern stellar dy namical theory are so severely classical that it is difficult to believe that they are not already discussed, for example, in Jacobi's Vorlesungen. Since then, stellar dynamics has developed in several directions and at var ious levels, basically three viewpoints remaining from which to look at the problems encountered in the interpretation of the phenomenology. Roughly speaking, we can say that a stellar system (cluster, galaxy, etc.) can be con sidered from the point of view of celestial mechanics (the N-body problem with N " 1), fluid mechanics (the system is represented by a material con tinuum), or statistical mechanics (one defines a distribution function for the positions and the states of motion of the components of the system).

This book sheds light on the large-scale engineering systems that shape and guide our everyday lives. It does this by bringing together the latest research and practice defining the emerging field of Complex Engineered Systems. Understanding, designing, building and controlling such complex systems is going to be a central challenge for engineers in the coming decades. This book is a step toward addressing that challenge.

Large Eddy Simulation is a relatively new and still evolving computatio nal strategy for predicting turbulent flows. It is now widely used in research to elucidate fundamental interactions in physics of turbulence, to predict phe nomena which are closely linked to the unsteady features of turbulence and to create data bases against which statistical closure models can be asses sed. However, its applicability to complex industrial flows, to which statisti cal models are applied routinely, has not been established with any degree of confidence. There is, in particular, a question mark against the prospect of LES becoming an economically tenable alternative to Reynolds-averaged N avier-Stokes methods at practically high Reynolds numbers and in complex geometries. Aerospace flows pose particularly challenging problems to LES, because of the high Reynolds numbers involved, the need to resolve accura tely small-scale features in the thin and often transitional boundary layers developing on aerodynamic surfaces. When the flow also contains a separated region - due to high incidence, say - the range and disparity of the influen tial scales to be resolved is enormous, and this substantially aggravates the problems of resolution and cost. It is just this combination of circumstances that has been at the heart of the project LESFOIL to which this book is devoted. The project combined the efforts, resources and expertise of 9 partner organisations, 4 universities, 3 industrial companies and 2 research institu tes."

Geophysics, or physics modelling of geological phenomena, is as old and as - tablished as geoscience itself. The statistical physics modelling of various g- physical phenomena, earthquake in particular, is comparatively recent. This bookintendstocovertheserecentdevelopmentsinmodellingvariousgeoph- ical phenomena, including the imposing classic phenomenon of earthquakes, employing various statistical physical ideas and techniques. This ?rst book on statistical physics modelling of geophysical phenomena contains extensive - viewsbyalmostalltheleadingexpertsinthe?eldandshouldbewidelyuseful to the graduate students and researchers in geoscience and statistical physics. It grew out of the lecture notes from a workshop on "Models of Earthquakes: Physics Approaches," held in Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, - der the auspices of its Centre for Applied Mathematics and Computational Science in December 2005. The book is divided in four parts. In the ?rst part, tutorial materials are introduced. Chakrabarti introduces the fracture nucleation processes, their (extreme) statistics in disordered solids, in ?bre bundle models and in the two fractal overlap models of earthquakes. In the next two chapters, Hemmer et al. and Kun et al. review the avalanche or quake statistics and the bre- ing dynamics in simple (mean-?eld like) ?bre bundle models and in their extended versions, respectively. Hansen and Mathiesen discuss the scale - variance properties of the random and fractured surfaces.

The International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS) creates a unique atmosphere for scientists of all fields, engineers, physicians, executives, and a host of other professionals to explore common themes and applications of complex system science. With this new volume, Unifying Themes in Complex Systems continues to build common ground between the wide-ranging domains of complex system science.

For most cases of interest, exact solutions to nonlinear equations describing stochastic dynamical systems are not available. This book details the relatively simple and popular linearization techniques available, covering theory as well as application. It examines models with continuous external and parametric excitations, those that cover the majority of known approaches.

Written for an interdisciplinary readership, this book is a practical guide to the fascinating world of solitons. The author approaches the subject from the standpoint of applications in optics, hydrodynamics, and electrical and chemical engineering. This third edition has been thoroughly revised and updated.

Molecular Theory of Solvation presents the recent progress in the statistical mechanics of molecular liquids applied to the most intriguing problems in chemistry today, including chemical reactions, conformational stability of biomolecules, ion hydration, and electrode-solution interface. The continuum model of "solvation" has played a dominant role in describing chemical processes in solution during the last century. This book discards and replaces it completely with molecular theory taking proper account of chemical specificity of solvent.

The main machinery employed here is the reference-interaction-site-model (RISM) theory, which is combined with other tools in theoretical chemistry and physics: the ab initio and density functional theories in quantum chemistry, the generalized Langevin theory, and the molecular simulation techniques.

This book will be of benefit to graduate students and industrial scientists who are struggling to find a better way of accounting and/or predicting "solvation" properties.

This monograph provides a new account of justified inference as a cognitive process. In contrast to the prevailing tradition in epistemology, the focus is on low-level inferences, i.e., those inferences that we are usually not consciously aware of and that we share with the cat nearby which infers that the bird which she sees picking grains from the dirt, is able to fly. Presumably, such inferences are not generated by explicit logical reasoning, but logical methods can be used to describe and analyze such inferences.

Part 1 gives a purely system-theoretic explication of belief and inference. Part 2 adds a reliabilist theory of justification for inference, with a qualitative notion of reliability being employed. Part 3 recalls and extends various systems of deductive and nonmonotonic logic and thereby explains the semantics of absolute and high reliability. In Part 4 it is proven that qualitative neural networks are able to draw justified deductive and nonmonotonic inferences on the basis of distributed representations. This is derived from a soundness/completeness theorem with regard to cognitive semantics of nonmonotonic reasoning. The appendix extends the theory both logically and ontologically, and relates it to A. Goldman's reliability account of justified belief.

This text will be of interest to epistemologists and logicians, to all computer scientists who work on nonmonotonic reasoning and neural networks, and to cognitive scientists.

This book provides a comprehensive presentation of the basics of statistical physics. The first part explains the essence of statistical physics and how it provides a bridge between microscopic and macroscopic phenomena, allowing one to derive quantities such as entropy. Here the author avoids going into details such as Liouville's theorem or the ergodic theorem, which are difficult for beginners and unnecessary for the actual application of the statistical mechanics. In the second part, statistical mechanics is applied to various systems which, although they look different, share the same mathematical structure. In this way readers can deepen their understanding of statistical physics. The book also features applications to quantum dynamics, thermodynamics, the Ising model and the statistical dynamics of free spins.

The study of phase transitions is among the most fascinating fields in physics. Originally limited to transition phenomena in equilibrium systems, this field has outgrown its classical confines during the last two decades. The behavior of far from equilibrium systems has received more and more attention and has been an extremely active and productive subject of research for physicists, chemists and biologists. Their studies have brought about a more unified vision of the laws which govern self-organization processes of physico-chemical and biological sys tems. A major achievement has been the extension of the notion of phase transi tion to instabilities which occur only in open nonlinear systems. The notion of phase transition has been proven fruitful in apphcation to nonequilibrium ins- bihties known for about eight decades, like certain hydrodynamic instabilities, as well as in the case of the more recently discovered instabilities in quantum optical systems such as the laser, in chemical systems such as the Belousov-Zhabotinskii reaction and in biological systems. Even outside the realm of natural sciences, this notion is now used in economics and sociology. In this monograph we show that the notion of phase transition can be extend ed even further. It apphes also to a new class of transition phenomena which occur only in nonequilibrium systems subjected to a randomly fluctuating en vironment."

The 1960s were perhaps a decade of confusion, when scientists faced d- culties in dealing with imprecise information and complex dynamics. A new set theory and then an in?nite-valued logic of Lot? A. Zadeh were so c- fusing that they were called fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic; a deterministic system found by E. N. Lorenz to have random behaviours was so unusual that it was lately named a chaotic system. Just like irrational and imaginary numbers, negative energy, anti-matter, etc., fuzzy logic and chaos were gr- ually and eventually accepted by many, if not all, scientists and engineers as fundamental concepts, theories, as well as technologies. In particular, fuzzy systems technology has achieved its maturity with widespread applications in many industrial, commercial, and technical ?elds, ranging from control, automation, and arti?cial intelligence to image/signal processing, patternrecognition, andelectroniccommerce.Chaos, ontheother hand, wasconsideredoneofthethreemonumentaldiscoveriesofthetwentieth century together with the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. As a very special nonlinear dynamical phenomenon, chaos has reached its current outstanding status from being merely a scienti?c curiosity in the mid-1960s to an applicable technology in the late 1990s. Finding the intrinsic relation between fuzzy logic and chaos theory is certainlyofsigni?cantinterestandofpotentialimportance.Thepast20years have indeed witnessed some serious explorations of the interactions between fuzzylogicandchaostheory, leadingtosuchresearchtopicsasfuzzymodeling of chaotic systems using Takagi-Sugeno models, linguistic descriptions of chaotic systems, fuzzy control of chaos, and a combination of fuzzy control technology and chaos theory for various engineering pract

"Nonlinear Oscillations in Mechanical Engineering" explores the effects of nonlinearities encountered in applications in that field. Since the nonlinearities are caused, first of all, by contacts between different mechanical parts, the main part of this book is devoted to oscillations in mechanical systems with discontinuities caused by dry friction and collisions. Another important source of nonlinearity which is covered is that caused by rotating unbalanced parts common in various machines as well as variable inertias occurring in all kinds of crank mechanisms. This book is written for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, but it may be also helpful and interesting for both theoreticians and practitioners working in the area of mechanical engineering at universities, in research labs or institutes and especially in the R and D departments within industrial firms.