Molecularly small confined phases play an important role in many scientific and engineering disciplines. For instance, the confining membrane of a living cell is known to affect the structure and transport of cellular water, which mediates the cell's metabolism and other biochemical processes. Transport of hazardous waste through the soil is strongly influenced by the adsorption of bulk phase molecules on the confining mineral _surfaces. Finally, molecularly thin confined fluid films play a prominent part in lubrication. These examples illustrate the broad range of natural and commercial processes to which the present subject pertains. Much experimental effort has been devoted to molecularly small confined phases, revealing the intriguing nature of such systems. Several sections of this book are therefore devoted to descriptions of experimental techniques. To date even the most refined experiments do not yield direct information about structure and processes on the molecular scale. Computer simulations, on the other hand, do give such information and therefore complement real laboratory experiments. Several sections of this book discuss the link between experiments and the corre sponding simulations."

In this book, a number of the world's leading researchers in quantum, classical and atomic physics cooperate to present an up-to-date account of the recent progress in the field. The first part highlights the latest advances in semiclassical theory, whilst the second one is devoted to applications to atomic systems. The authors present the material in pedagogical form to make it easy reading for non-specialists, too. Among the topics treated, the reader will find a new quasiclassical quantization scheme for Hamiltonian dynamics, an application of the semiclassical formalism to photodissociation of small molecules and to the Lorentz gas and discussions of tunneling corrections. Furthermore, one finds papers on chaotic ionization, on the behaviour of hydrogen atoms in external fields, e.g. magnetic or microwave fields.

- Models of vibro-impact systems are widely used in machine dynamics, vibration engineering, and structural mechanics. - Only monograph on this subject in English language. - Systematically presents the theory of vibro-impact systems by analysis of typical engineering applications. - Experimental data and computer simulations are presented. - Targeted to engineers and researchers in design and investigation of mechanical systems as well as to lecturers and advanced students.

In this book the concept of indistinguishability is defined for identical particles by the symmetry of the state. It applies, therefore, to both the classical and the quantum framework. The author describes symmetric statistical operators and classifies these by means of extreme points. For the description of infinitely extendible interchangeable random variables de Finetti's theorem is derived and generalizations covering the Poisson limit and the central limit are presented. A characterization and interpretation of the integral representations of classical photon states in quantum optics are derived in abelian subalgebras. Unextendible indistinguishable particles are analyzed in the context of nonclassical photon states. The book addresses mathematical physicists and philosophers of science.

Rotor dynamics is an important branch of dynamics that deals with behavior of rotating machines ranging from very large systems like power plant rotors, for example, a turbogenerator, to very small systems like a tiny dentist's drill, with a variety of rotors such as pumps, compressors, steam/gas turbines, motors, turbopumps etc. as used for example in process industry, falling in between. The speeds of these rotors vary in a large range, from a few hundred RPM to more than a hundred thousand RPM. Complex systems of rotating shafts depending upon their specific requirements, are supported on different types of bearings. There are rolling element bearings, various kinds of fluid film bearings, foil and gas bearings, magnetic bearings, to name but a few. The present day rotors are much lighter, handle a large amount of energy and fluid mass, operate at much higher speeds, and therefore are most susceptible to vibration and instability problems. This have given rise to several interesting physical phenomena, some of which are fairly well understood today, while some are still the subject of continued investigation. Research in rotor dynamics started more than one hundred years ago. The progress of the research in the early years was slow. However, with the availability of larger computing power and versatile measurement technologies, research in all aspects of rotor dynamics has accelerated over the past decades. The demand from industry for light weight, high performance and reliable rotor-bearing systems is the driving force for research, and new developments in the field of rotor dynamics.

The symposium proceedings contain papers on various important aspects of rotor dynamics such as, modeling, analytical, computational and experimental methods, developments in bearings, dampers, seals including magnetic bearings, rub, impact and foundation effects, turbomachine blades, active and passive vibration control strategies including control of instabilities, nonlinear and parametric effects, fault diagnostics and condition monitoring, and cracked rotors.

This volume is of immense value to teachers, researchers in educational institutes, scientists, researchers in R&D laboratories and practising engineers in industry. "

This book is concerned with Artificial Intelligence (AI) concepts and techniques as applied to industrial decision making, control and automation problems. The field of AI has been expanded enormously during the last years due to that solid theoretical and application results have accumulated. During the first stage of AI development most workers in the field were content with illustrations showing ideas at work on simple problems. Later, as the field matured, emphasis was turned to demonstrations that showed the capability of AI techniques to handle problems of practical value. Now, we arrived at the stage where researchers and practitioners are actually building AI systems that face real-world and industrial problems. This volume provides a set of twenty four well-selected contributions that deal with the application of AI to such real-life and industrial problems. These contributions are grouped and presented in five parts as follows: Part 1: General Issues Part 2: Intelligent Systems Part 3: Neural Networks in Modelling, Control and Scheduling Part 4: System Diagnostics Part 5: Industrial Robotic, Manufacturing and Organizational Systems Part 1 involves four chapters providing background material and dealing with general issues such as the conceptual integration of qualitative and quantitative models, the treatment of timing problems at system integration, and the investigation of correct reasoning in interactive man-robot systems.

Originally published in 1991, this book, based on the 1989 Beg-Rohu summer school, contains six sets of pedagogical lectures by internationally respected researchers on the statistical physics of crystal growth. Providing a course in which the phenomena of shape and growth are viewed from a fresh vantage point, the lectures cover a variety of developments in the field and reflect on problems that have received inadequate attention. Statistical physicists, condensed matter physicists, metallurgists, and applied mathematicians will find this a stimulating and valuable book on an important topic.

Differential geometry plays an increasingly important role in modern theoretical physics and applied mathematics. This 2006 textbook gives an introduction to geometrical topics useful in theoretical physics and applied mathematics, covering: manifolds, tensor fields, differential forms, connections, symplectic geometry, actions of Lie groups, bundles, spinors, and so on. Written in an informal style, the author places a strong emphasis on developing the understanding of the general theory through more than 1000 simple exercises, with complete solutions or detailed hints. The book will prepare readers for studying modern treatments of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, electromagnetism, gauge fields, relativity and gravitation. Differential Geometry and Lie Groups for Physicists is well suited for courses in physics, mathematics and engineering for advanced undergraduate or graduate students, and can also be used for active self-study. The required mathematical background knowledge does not go beyond the level of standard introductory undergraduate mathematics courses.

The standard cosmological picture of our Universe emerging from a 'big bang' leaves open many fundamental questions which string theory, a unified theory of all forces of nature, should be able to answer. This 2007 text was the first dedicated to string cosmology, and contains a pedagogical introduction to the basic notions of the subject. It describes the possible scenarios suggested by string theory for the primordial evolution of our Universe. It discusses the main phenomenological consequences of these scenarios, stresses their differences from each other, and compares them to the more conventional models of inflation. The book summarises over 15 years of research in this field and introduces advances. It is self-contained, so it can be read by astrophysicists with no knowledge of string theory, and high-energy physicists with little understanding of cosmology. Detailed and explicit derivations of all the results presented provide a deeper appreciation of the subject.

When confronted with the how's and why's of nature's computational engines, some prefer to focus upon neural function: addressing issues of neural system behavior and its relation to natural intelligence. Then there are those who prefer the study of the 'mechanics' of neural systems: the nuts and bolts of the 'wetware': the neurons and synapses. Those who investigate pulse coded implementations of artificial neural networks know what it means to stand at the boundary which lies between these two worlds: not just asking why natural neural systems behave as they do, but also how they achieve their marvelous feats. The state-of-the-art research results presented in Silicon Implementation of Pulse Coded Neural Networks not only address more conventional abstract notions of neural-like processing, but also the more specific details of neural-like processors. It has been established for some time that natural neural systems perform a great deal of information processing via electrochemical pulses. Accordingly, pulse coded neural network concepts are receiving increased attention in artificial neural network research.This increased interest is compounded by continuing advances in the field of VLSI circuit design. For the first time in history, it is practical to construct networks of neuron-like circuits of reasonable complexity that can be applied to real problems. The pioneering work in artificial neural systems presented in Silicon Implementation of Pulse Coded Neural Networks will lead to further advances that will not only be useful in some practical sense, but may also provide some additional insight into the operation of their natural counterparts. Silicon Implementation of Pulse Coded Neural Networks seeks to cover many of the relevant contemporary studies coming out of this newly emerging area. As such, it serves as an excellent reference, and may be used as a text for advanced courses on the subject.

Structural Phase Transitions II, like its predecessor (Topics in Current Physics, Vol. 23), presents selected methods and recent advances in the experimental investigation of phase transitions in solids. The two chapters in this volume deal with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and with nuclear magnetic and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NMR-NQR). Both techniques are particularly sensitive to local properties. The chapter on EPR concentrates largely on the investigation of static properties, including mean-field behaviour, critical and multicritical phenomena, whilst NMR is shown to be a powerful tool for studying nonlinear dynamics, incommensurate transitions, and disordered systems. This book will serve as an excellent introduction to the methodology and applications of EPR and NMR-NQR for all those wishing to become acquainted with these important tools for studying structural phase transitions.

Stochastic Dynamics, born almost 100 years ago with the early explanations of Brownian motion by physicists, is nowadays a quickly expanding field of research within nonequilibrium statistical physics. The present volume provides a survey on the influence of fluctuations in nonlinear dynamics. It addresses specialists, although the intention of this book is to provide teachers and students with a reliable resource for seminar work. In particular, the reader will find many examples illustrating the theory as well as a host of recent findings.

This book originated from a course given at the Univcrsidad Aut6noma of Madrid in the Spring of 1994 and in the Universidad Complutense of Madrid in 1995. The goal of these courses is to give the non-specialist an introduction to some old and new ideas in the field of strongly correlated systems, in particular the problems posed by the high-1 superconducting materials. As theoretical physicists, our starting viewpoint to address the problem of strongly correlat ed ferlnion systems and related issues of modern condensed matter physics .is the renormalization group approach applied both to quantU111 field theory and statistical physics. In recent years this has become not only a powerful tool for retrieving the essential physics of interacting systems but also a link between theoretical physics and modern condensed matter physics. Furthermore, once we have this common background for dealing with apparently different prob lems, we discuss more specific topics and even phenomenological aspects of the field. In doing so we have tried to make the exposition clear and simple, with out entering into technical details but focusing ill the fundamental physics of the phenomena under study. Therefore, ve expect that our experience ll1ay have some value to other people entering this fascinating field. We have divided these notes into three parts and each part into chapters, which correspond roughly to one or two lectures. Part I, Chaps. 1-2 (A. H. V."

This compilation contains new theoretical work as well as up-to-date applications contributed by some of the world leaders of current SOM research. It is a compact and vivid collection of almost all aspects of current research on Self-Organizing Maps, ranging from theoretical work, several technical and non-technical applications, numerical and implementation details on sequential and parallel hardware to self-organisation with spiking neurons. An overture, given by Teuvo Kohonen, builds a bridge from the development of the fundamentals to the many extensions, modifications and applications which have made this neural network architecture so successful.

The accomplishments and the available expertise of scientists working on spin systems, lattice gauge models, and quantum liquids and solids has culminated in an extraordinary opportunity for rapid and efficient development of realistic strategies and algorithms of ab initio theoretical analysis of conventional and exotic condensed-matter systems. This volume presents the latest results in the interdisciplinary field of lattice many-body systems. These include magnetism and phase transitions and lattice gauge problems in quantum field theory. Also treated are strongly correlated systems that help to unify many-body problems in solid-state physics, crystallography, and materials sciences and that helped their quantitative understanding.

This book introduces the novel concept of a fuzzy network whose nodes are rule bases and the connections between the nodes are the interactions between the rule bases in the form of outputs fed as inputs. The concept is presented as a systematic study for improving the feasibility and transparency of fuzzy models by means of modular rule bases whereby the model accuracy and efficiency can be optimised in a flexible way. The study uses an effective approach for fuzzy rule based modelling of complex systems that are characterised by attributes such as nonlinearity, uncertainty, dimensionality and structure.The approach is illustrated by formal models for fuzzy networks, basic and advanced operations on network nodes, properties of operations, feedforward and feedback fuzzy networks as well as evaluation of fuzzy networks. The results are demonstrated by numerous examples, two case studies and software programmes within the Matlab environment that implement some of the theoretical methods from the book. The book shows the novel concept of a fuzzy network with networked rule bases as a bridge between the existing concepts of a standard fuzzy system with a single rule base and a hierarchical fuzzy system with multiple rule bases.

Current companies and communities of practice are involved in intensive networking and collaborative systems by a great variety of electronic relations and collaborative interactions. This has resulted in entangled systems that need to be managed efficiently and in an autonomous way, thus facing many issues and challenges. The extensive research produced in this book will help virtual organizations to exploit latest and powerful technologies based on Grid and Wireless infrastructures as well as Cloud computing in order to alleviate complex issues and challenges arisen in networking and collaborative systems, in terms of collaborative applications, resource management, mobility, and security and system resilience. The ultimate aim of the book is to stimulate research that leads to the creation of responsive environments for networking and, at longer-term, the development of adaptive, secure, mobile, and intuitive intelligent systems for collaborative work and learning. Academic researchers, professionals and practitioners in the field will be inspired and put in practice the ideas and experiences proposed in the book in order to evaluate them for their specific research and work.

Modern achievements in the intensively developing field of applied mathematics are presented in this monograph. In particular, it proposes a new approach to extremal problem theory for nonlinear operators, differential-operator equations and inclusions, and for variational inequalities in Banach spaces. An axiomatic study of nonlinear maps (including multi-valued ones) is given, and the properties of resolving operators for systems, consisting of operator and differential-operator equations, are stated in nonlinear-map terms. The solvability conditions and the properties of extremal problem solutions are obtained, while their weak expansions and necessary conditions of optimality in variational inequality form are formulated. In addition. the monograph proposes regularization methods and approximation schemes. This book is adressed to scientists, graduates and undergraduates who are interested in nonlinear analysis, control theory, system analysis and differential equations.

Fuzzy Set Theory and Advanced Mathematical Applications contains contributions by many of the leading experts in the field, including coverage of the mathematical foundations of the theory, decision making and systems science, and recent developments in fuzzy neural control. The book supplies a readable, practical toolkit with a clear introduction to fuzzy set theory and its evolution in mathematics and new results on foundations of fuzzy set theory, decision making and systems science, and fuzzy control and neural systems. Each chapter is self-contained, providing up-to-date coverage of its subject. Audience: An important reference work for university students, and researchers and engineers working in both industrial and academic settings.

This book illustrates how models of complex systems are built up and provides indispensable mathematical tools for studying their dynamics. This second edition includes more recent research results and many new and improved worked out examples and exercises.

Since the late 1960s, there has been a revolution in robots and industrial automation, from the design of robots with no computing or sensorycapabilities (first-generation), to the design of robots with limited computational power and feedback capabilities (second-generation), and the design of intelligent robots (third-generation), which possess diverse sensing and decision making capabilities. The development of the theory of intelligent machines has been developed in parallel to the advances in robot design. This theory is the natural outcome of research and development in classical control (1950s), adaptive and learning control (1960s), self-organizing control (1970s) and intelligent control systems (1980s). The theory of intelligent machines involves utilization and integration of concepts and ideas from the diverse disciplines of science, engineering and mathematics, and fields like artificial intelligence, system theory and operations research. The main focus and motivation is to bridge the gap between diverse disciplines involved and bring under a common cover several generic methodologies pertaining to what has been defined as machine intelligence. Intelligent robotic systems are a specific application of intelligent machines. They are complex computer controlled robotic systems equipped with a diverse set of visual and non visual sensors and possess decision making and problem solving capabilities within their domain of operation. Their modeling and control is accomplished via analytical and heuristic methodologies and techniques pertaining to generalized system theory and artificial intelligence. Intelligent Robotic Systems: Theory, Design and Applications, presents and justifies the fundamental concepts and ideas associated with the modeling and analysis of intelligent robotic systems. Appropriate for researchers and engineers in the general area of robotics and automation, Intelligent Robotic Systems is both a solid reference as well as a text for a graduate level course in intelligent robotics/machines.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in applying neural networks to dynamic systems identification (modelling), prediction and control. Neural networks are computing systems characterised by the ability to learn from examples rather than having to be programmed in a conventional sense. Their use enables the behaviour of complex systems to be modelled and predicted and accurate control to be achieved through training, without a priori information about the systems' structures or parameters. This book describes examples of applications of neural networks In modelling, prediction and control. The topics covered include identification of general linear and non-linear processes, forecasting of river levels, stock market prices and currency exchange rates, and control of a time-delayed plant and a two-joint robot. These applications employ the major types of neural networks and learning algorithms. The neural network types considered in detail are the muhilayer perceptron (MLP), the Elman and Jordan networks and the Group-Method-of-Data-Handling (GMDH) network. In addition, cerebellar-model-articulation-controller (CMAC) networks and neuromorphic fuzzy logic systems are also presented. The main learning algorithm adopted in the applications is the standard backpropagation (BP) algorithm. Widrow-Hoff learning, dynamic BP and evolutionary learning are also described.

This self-contained treatment covers all aspects of nonlinear dynamics, from fundamentals to recent developments, in a unified and comprehensive way. Numerous examples and exercises will help the student to assimilate and apply the techniques presented.

The Dynamics of Digital Excitation provides a fundamental new viewpoint on circuit therapy. It begins with a very real and practical problem and then presents arguments that are set forth for the first time. The most commonly used parameter of digital circuits, the gate delay time, does not exist. This problem emerges most clearly in the high-speed CMOS, above 1 GHz clock frequency. This book explains why that is so and then how to deal with the situation in a practical manner. Most of the large IC companies, and many of the small IC design companies, are now racing to capture above 1 GHz clock CMOS IC markets. A few examples of such companies in the United States are Motorola, Intel and DEC. Numerous new small design-only companies are also interested in this technology. The above 1 GHz circuit design is an extremely difficult concept and, for the designers, the material discussed in this book is indispensable. The Dynamics of Digital Excitation shows that the fastest CMOS circuits can be understood and designed only after understanding their quantum-mechanical nature.The Dynamics of Digital Excitation will help the circuit designer to learn how to deal with the problems of circuit delay when the gate delay is not a valid concept at high switching speeds and how to design the fastest critical paths. This book outlines essential and fundamental guidelines for designing the fastest CMOS circuits. It also explains how to design and structure computer-aided designs to deal with above 1 GHz circuits. The Dynamics of Digital Excitation sets forth exciting new ideas and will be of interest to IC designers and CAD professionals alike.

This book contains the lectures given at the NATO ASI 910820 "Cellular Automata and Cooperative Systems" Meeting which was held at the Centre de Physique des Houches, France, from June 22 to July 2, 1992. This workshop brought together mathematical physicists, theoretical physicists and mathe maticians working in fields related to local interacting systems, cellular and probabilistic automata, statistical physics, and complexity theory, as well as applications of these fields. We would like to thank our sponsors and supporters whose interest and help was essential for the success of the meeting: the NATO Scientific Affairs Division, the DRET (Direction des Recherches, Etudes et Techniques), the Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres, the National Science Foundation. We would also like to thank all the secretaries who helped us during the preparation of the meeting, in particular Maryse Cohen-Solal (CPT, Marseille) and Janice Nowinski (Courant Institute, New York). We are grateful for the fine work of Mrs. Gladys Cavallone in preparing this volume."