Written by leading experts in their respective fields, Solidification and Casting provides a comprehensive review of topics fundamental to metallurgy and materials science as well as indicates recent trends.
From an industrial perspective, the book begins with chapters on the casting techniques most commonly used in industry today. It then describes the underlying science fundamental to solidification mechanisms, including fluid flow, the effects of cooling rates, modern simulation, and modelling methods in use and their application in various casting scenarios. Next, the authors consider the microstructure of cast materials and their defects, and explore how different casting processes can control these parameters. The book concludes with the most recent developments in the field and discusses new processes and materials, such as novel alloys and composites, metallic glasses, ceramics, and superconducting oxides.

Philosophy in Reality offers a new vision of the relation between science and philosophy in the framework of a non-propositional logic of real processes, grounded in the physics of the real world. This logical system is based on the work of the Franco-Romanian thinker Stephane Lupasco (1900-1988), previously presented by Joseph Brenner in the book Logic in Reality (Springer, 2008). The present book was inspired in part by the ancient Chinese Book of Changes (I Ching) and its scientific-philosophical discussion of change. The emphasis in Philosophy in Reality is on the recovery of dialectics and semantics from reductionist applications and their incorporation into a new synthetic paradigm for knowledge. Through an original re-interpretation of both classical and modern Western thought, this book addresses philosophical issues in scientific fields as well as long-standing conceptual problems such as the origin, nature and role of meaning, the unity of knowledge and the origin of morality. In a rigorous transdisciplinary manner, it discusses foundational and current issues in the physical sciences - mathematics, information, communication and systems theory and their implications for philosophy. The same framework is applied to problems of the origins of society, the transformation of reality by human subjects, and the emergence of a global, sustainable information society. In summary, Philosophy in Reality provides a wealth of new perspectives and references, supporting research by both philosophers and physical and social scientists concerned with the many facets of reality.

Continuum Models for Phase Transitions and Twinning in Crystals presents the fundamentals of a remarkably successful approach to crystal thermomechanics. Developed over the last two decades, it is based on the mathematical theory of nonlinear thermoelasticity, in which a new viewpoint on material symmetry, motivated by molecular theories, plays a central role.

This is the first organized presentation of a nonlinear elastic approach to twinning and displacive phase transition in crystalline solids. The authors develop geometry, kinematics, and energy invariance in crystals in strong connection and with the purpose of investigating the actual mechanical aspects of the phenomena, particularly in an elastostatics framework based on the minimization of a thermodynamic potential. Interesting for both mechanics and mathematical analysis, the new theory offers the possibility of investigating the formation of microstructures in materials undergoing martensitic phase transitions, such as shape-memory alloys.

Although phenomena such as twinning and phase transitions were once thought to fall outside the range of elastic models, research efforts in these areas have proved quite fruitful. Relevant to a variety of disciplines, including mathematical physics, continuum mechanics, and materials science, Continuum Models for Phase Transitions and Twinning in Crystals is your opportunity to explore these current research methods and topics.

This book presents the Proceedings of the 54th Winter School of Theoretical Physics on Simplicity of Complexity in Economic and Social Systems, held in Ladek Zdroj, Poland, from 18 to 24 February 2018. The purpose of the book is to introduce the new interdisciplinary research that links statistical physics, and particular attention is given to link physics of complex systems, with financial analysis and sociology. The main tools used in these areas are numerical simulation of agents behavior and the interpretation of results with the help of complexity methods, therefore a background in statistical physics and in physics of phase transition is necessary to take the first steps towards these research fields called econophysics and sociophysics. In this perspective, the book is intended to graduated students and young researchers who want to begin the study of this established new area, which connects physicists, economists, sociologists and IT professionals, to better understand complexity phenomena existing not only in physics but also in complex systems being seemingly far from traditional view at physics.

This book is dedicated to the atmosphere of our planet, and discusses historical and contemporary achievements in meteorological science and technology for the betterment of society. The book explores many significant atmospheric phenomena and physical processes from the local to global scale, as well as from the perspective of short and long-term time scales, and links these processes to various applications in other scientific disciplines with linkages to meteorology. In addition to addressing general topics such as climate system dynamics and climate change, the book also discusses atmospheric boundary layer, atmospheric waves, atmospheric chemistry, optics/photometeors, electricity, atmospheric modeling and numeric weather prediction. Through its interdisciplinary approach, the book will be of interest to researchers, students and academics in meteorology and atmospheric science, environmental physics, climate change dynamics, air pollution and human health impacts of atmospheric aerosols.

This book intends to introduce some recent results on passivity of complex dynamical networks with single weight and multiple weights. The book collects novel research ideas and some definitions in complex dynamical networks, such as passivity, output strict passivity, input strict passivity, finite-time passivity, and multiple weights. Furthermore, the research results previously published in many flagship journals are methodically edited and presented in a unified form. The book is likely to be of interest to university researchers and graduate students in Engineering and Mathematics who wish to study the passivity of complex dynamical networks.

Radio telescopes as well as communication antennas operate under the influence of gravity, temperature and wind. Among those, temperature influences may degrade the performance of a radio telescope through transient changes of the focus, pointing, path length and sensitivity, often in an unpredictable way. Thermal Design and Thermal Behaviour of Radio Telescopes and their Enclosures reviews the design and construction principles of radio telescopes in view of thermal aspects and heat transfer with the variable thermal environment; it explains supporting thermal model calculations and the application and efficiency of thermal protection and temperature control; it presents many measurements illustrating the thermal behaviour of telescopes in the environment of their observatory sites.

The book benefits scientists and radio/communication engineers, telescope designers and construction firms as well as telescope operators, observatory staff, but also the observing astronomer who is directly confronted with the thermal behaviour of a telescope.

This book presents mainly studies on the calculation methods of thermal radiative properties of uniaxial anisotropic materials, unidirectional transmission, ultrabroadband perfect absorption, and near-field radiative heat transfer with uniaxial anisotropic materials. The results obtained in this book can not only deepen our understanding of the thermal radiative properties of anisotropic materials, but also have important theoretical guiding significance in energy conversion, energy-saving technology, and design of novel devices.

The Ising model provides a detailed mathematical description of ferromagnetism and is widely used in statistical physics and condensed matter physics. In this Student's Guide, the author demystifies the mathematical framework of the Ising model and provides students with a clear understanding of both its physical significance, and how to apply it successfully in their calculations. Key topics related to the Ising model are covered, including exact solutions of both finite and infinite systems, series expansions about high and low temperatures, mean-field approximation methods, and renormalization-group calculations. The book also incorporates plots, figures, and tables to highlight the significance of the results. Designed as a supplementary resource for undergraduate and graduate students, each chapter includes a selection of exercises intended to reinforce and extend important concepts, and solutions are also available for all exercises.

This book, based on a selection of invited presentations from a topical workshop, focusses on time-variable oscillations and their interactions. The problem is challenging, because the origin of the time variability is usually unknown. In mathematical terms, the oscillations are non-autonomous, reflecting the physics of open systems where the function of each oscillator is affected by its environment. Time-frequency analysis being essential, recent advances in this area, including wavelet phase coherence analysis and nonlinear mode decomposition, are discussed. Some applications to biology and physiology are described. Although the most important manifestation of time-variable oscillations is arguably in biology, they also crop up in, e.g. astrophysics, or for electrons on superfluid helium. The book brings together the research of the best international experts in seemingly very different disciplinary areas.

This book approaches economic problems from a systems thinking and feedback perspective. By introducing system dynamics methods (including qualitative and quantitative techniques) and computer simulation models, the respective contributions apply feedback analysis and dynamic simulation modeling to important local, national, and global economics issues and concerns. Topics covered include: an introduction to macro modeling using a system dynamics framework; a system dynamics translation of the Phillips machine; a re-examination of classical economic theories from a feedback perspective; analyses of important social, ecological, and resource issues; the development of a biophysical economics module for global modelling; contributions to monetary and financial economics; analyses of macroeconomic growth, income distribution and alternative theories of well-being; and a re-examination of scenario macro modeling. The contributions also examine the philosophical differences between the economics and system dynamics communities in an effort to bridge existing gaps and compare methods. Many models and other supporting information are provided as online supplementary files. Consequently, the book appeals to students and scholars in economics, as well as to practitioners and policy analysts interested in using systems thinking and system dynamics modeling to understand and improve economic systems around the world. "Clearly, there is much space for more collaboration between the advocates of post-Keynesian economics and system dynamics! More generally, I would like to recommend this book to all scholars and practitioners interested in exploring the interface and synergies between economics, system dynamics, and feedback thinking." Comments in the Foreword by Marc Lavoie, Emeritus Professor, University of Ottawa and University of Sorbonne Paris Nord

Stochastic processes and diffusion theory are the mathematical underpinnings of many scientific disciplines, including statistical physics, physical chemistry, molecular biophysics, communications theory and many more. Many books, reviews and research articles have been published on this topic, from the purely mathematical to the most practical.

This book offers an analytical approach to stochastic processes that are most common in the physical and life sciences, as well as in optimal control and in the theory of filltering of signals from noisy measurements. Its aim is to make probability theory in function space readily accessible to scientists trained in the traditional methods of applied mathematics, such as integral, ordinary, and partial differential equations and asymptotic methods, rather than in probability and measure theory.

This thesis demonstrates the potential of two platforms to explore experimentally the emerging field of quantum thermodynamics that has remained mostly theoretical so far. It proposes methods to define and measure work in the quantum regime. The most important part of the thesis focuses on hybrid optomechanical devices, evidencing that they are proper candidates to measure directly the fluctuations of work and the corresponding fluctuation theorem. Such devices could also give rise to the observation of mechanical lasing and cooling, based on mechanisms similar to a heat engine. The final part of the thesis studies how quantum coherence can improve work extraction in superconducting circuits. All the proposals greatly clarify the concept of work since they are based on measurable quantities in state of the art devices.

For a one-semester upper-level undergraduate course in Thermal Physics or Thermodynamics.

This book provides a solid introduction to the classical and statistical theories of thermodynamics.

This introduction to thermodynamics discusses typical phase diagrams features and presents the wide range of techniques such as Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Thermogravimetry and others. In the last part the author brings many examples for typical practical problems often solved by thermal analysis. As an instructive guideline for practitioners the work reveals the connection between experimental data and theoretical model and vice versa.

This English version of Ruslan L. Stratonovich's Theory of Information (1975) builds on theory and provides methods, techniques, and concepts toward utilizing critical applications. Unifying theories of information, optimization, and statistical physics, the value of information theory has gained recognition in data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. With the emergence of a data-driven economy, progress in machine learning, artificial intelligence algorithms, and increased computational resources, the need for comprehending information is essential. This book is even more relevant today than when it was first published in 1975. It extends the classic work of R.L. Stratonovich, one of the original developers of the symmetrized version of stochastic calculus and filtering theory, to name just two topics. Each chapter begins with basic, fundamental ideas, supported by clear examples; the material then advances to great detail and depth. The reader is not required to be familiar with the more difficult and specific material. Rather, the treasure trove of examples of stochastic processes and problems makes this book accessible to a wide readership of researchers, postgraduates, and undergraduate students in mathematics, engineering, physics and computer science who are specializing in information theory, data analysis, or machine learning.

This book discusses non-equilibrium quantum many-body dynamics, recently explored in an analog quantum simulator of strongly correlated ultracold atoms. The first part presents a field-theoretical analysis of the experimental observability of the Higgs amplitude mode that emerges as a relativistic collective excitation near a quantum phase transition of superfluid Bose gases in an optical lattice potential. The author presents the dynamical susceptibilities to external driving of the microscopic parameters, taking into account a leading-order perturbative correction from quantum and thermal fluctuations and shows clear signatures of the Higgs mode in these observables. This is the first result that strongly supports the stability of the Higgs mode in three-dimensional optical lattices even in the presence of a spatially inhomogeneous confinement potential and paves the way for desktop observations of the Higgs mode. In the second part, the author applies the semi-classical truncated-Wigner approximation (TWA) to far-from-equilibrium quantum dynamics. Specifically, he considers the recent experiments on quantum-quench dynamics in a Bose-Hubbard quantum simulator. A direct comparison shows remarkable agreement between the numerical results from TWA and the experimental data. This result clearly indicates the potential of such a semi-classical approach in reliably simulating many-body systems using classical computers. The book also includes several chapters providing comprehensive reviews of the recent studies on cold-atomic quantum simulation and various theoretical methods, including the Schwinger-boson approach in strongly correlated systems and the phase-space semi-classical method for far-from-equilibrium quantum dynamics. These chapters are highly recommended to students and young researchers who are interested in semi-classical approaches in non-equilibrium quantum dynamics.

This book has been written by two experts in ventilation and indoor air quality with vast experience in the field of kitchen ventilation in both Asia and Europe. The authors share their extensive knowledge of the subject and present the results of their research programs as well those of other researchers. Discussing advanced theories of and design approaches for kitchen ventilation, it is a useful reference resource for a wide range of readers, including HVAC researchers, designers and architects.

This book explores water geothermometry, a highly relevant topic in the exploration and exploitation of geothermal energy. Presenting theoretical geothermometers and indicators of CO2 fugacity, it describes a rigorous new approach entirely based on thermodynamics. The book will appeal to geothermal geoscientists, especially those working in research institutions and companies around the globe. It is also of interest to students on advanced courses in applied geochemistry, water-rock interaction and other related areas.

This book focuses on mixed crystals formed by molecular substances. The emphasis lies on the elucidation of the structural and thermodynamic properties of two-component systems. Thanks to the fact that the research efforts have been directed to a number of families of chemically coherent substances, rather than to a collection of isolated systems, the knowledge of mixed crystals has substantially increased. This is reflected by the discovery of several empirical relationships between thermodynamic properties, crystallographic properties, and also between thermodynamic mixing properties and exothermodynamic parameters, such as the structural mismatch between the components of the binary systems. This book is a benchmark for material scientists and a unique starting point for anyone interested in mixed crystals.

Simulating for a crisis is far more than creating a simulation of a crisis situation. In order for a simulation to be useful during a crisis, it should be created within the space of a few days to allow decision makers to use it as quickly as possible. Furthermore, during a crisis the aim is not to optimize just one factor, but to balance various, interdependent aspects of life. In the COVID-19 crisis, decisions had to be made concerning e.g. whether to close schools and restaurants, and the (economic) consequences of a 3 or 4-week lock-down had to be considered. As such, rather than one simulation focusing on a very limited aspect, a framework allowing the simulation of several different scenarios focusing on different aspects of the crisis was required. Moreover, the results of the simulations needed to be easily understandable and explainable: if a simulation indicates that closing schools has no effect, this can only be used if the decision makers can explain why this is the case. This book describes how a simulation framework was created for the COVID-19 crisis, and demonstrates how it was used to simulate a wide range of scenarios that were relevant for decision makers at the time. It also discusses the usefulness of the approach, and explains the decisions that had to be made along the way as well as the trade-offs. Lastly, the book examines the lessons learned and the directions for the further development of social simulation frameworks to make them better suited to crisis situations, and to foster a more resilient society.

Providing a systematic introduction to the techniques which are fundamental to quantum field theory, this book pays special attention to the use of these techniques in a wide variety of areas, including ordinary quantum mechanics, quantum mechanics in the second-quantized formulation, relativistic quantum field theory, Euclidean field theory, quantum statistics at finite temperature, and the classical statistics of nonideal gas and spin systems. The extended chapter on variational methods and functional Legendre transformations contains completely original material.

This book highlights the practical aspects of computer modelling and simulation of complex dynamical systems for students. Mechanical systems are considered in the book as representative examples of dynamical systems. Wolfram SystemModeler, in combination with Learning Management System Sakai, is used as an instrument for studying features of various physical and technical phenomena and processes. Each of the presented virtual labs may be considered a stand-alone mini project to enable students to go through all the steps of mathematical modelling and computer simulation-from the problem statement to mathematical and physical analysis of the obtained result. The book is useful for teachers to organize the educational process, allowing gradual monitoring of the learning process and assessment of students' competencies. It also allows tutors to design individual educational trajectories for students to achieve educational properties. The subject of the book is an extension of activity started by the international team of authors within the InMotion project of the European programme ERASMUS+.

This book discusses basic topics in the spectral theory of dynamical systems. It also includes two advanced theorems, one by H. Helson and W. Parry, and another by B. Host. Moreover, Ornstein's family of mixing rank-one automorphisms is given with construction and proof. Systems of imprimitivity and their relevance to ergodic theory are also examined. Baire category theorems of ergodic theory, scattered in literature, are discussed in a unified way in the book. Riesz products are introduced and applied to describe the spectral types and eigenvalues of rank-one automorphisms. Lastly, the second edition includes a new chapter "Calculus of Generalized Riesz Products", which discusses the recent work connecting generalized Riesz products, Hardy classes, Banach's problem of simple Lebesgue spectrum in ergodic theory and flat polynomials.

This textbook provides a comprehensive and instructive coverage of vehicular traffic flow dynamics and modeling. It makes this fascinating interdisciplinary topic, which to date was only documented in parts by specialized monographs, accessible to a broad readership. Numerous figures and problems with solutions help the reader to quickly understand and practice the presented concepts. This book is targeted at students of physics and traffic engineering and, more generally, also at students and professionals in computer science, mathematics, and interdisciplinary topics. It also offers material for project work in programming and simulation at college and university level. The main part, after presenting different categories of traffic data, is devoted to a mathematical description of the dynamics of traffic flow, covering macroscopic models which describe traffic in terms of density, as well as microscopic many-particle models in which each particle corresponds to a vehicle and its driver. Focus chapters on traffic instabilities and model calibration/validation present these topics in a novel and systematic way. Finally, the theoretical framework is shown at work in selected applications such as traffic-state and travel-time estimation, intelligent transportation systems, traffic operations management, and a detailed physics-based model for fuel consumption and emissions.