Humans engage in a seemingly endless variety of different behaviors, of which some are found across species, while others are conceived of as typically human. Most generally, behavior comes about through the interplay of various constraints - informational, mechanical, neural, metabolic, and so on - operating at multiple scales in space and time. Over the years, consensus has grown in the research community that, rather than investigating behavior only from bottom up, it may be also well understood in terms of concepts and laws on the phenomenological level. Such top down approach is rooted in theories of synergetics and self-organization using tools from nonlinear dynamics. The present compendium brings together scientists from all over the world that have contributed to the development of their respective fields departing from this background. It provides an introduction to deterministic as well as stochastic dynamical systems and contains applications to motor control and coordination, visual perception and illusion, as well as auditory perception in the context of speech and music.

This book focuses on heat and mass transfer, fluid flow, chemical reaction, and other related processes that occur in engineering equipment, the natural environment, and living organisms. Using simple algebra and elementary calculus, the author develops numerical methods for predicting these processes mainly based on physical considerations. Through this approach, readers will develop a deeper understanding of the underlying physical aspects of heat transfer and fluid flow as well as improve their ability to analyze and interpret computed results.

This textbook provides an exposition of equilibrium thermodynamics and its applications to several areas of physics with particular attention to phase transitions and critical phenomena. The applications include several areas of condensed matter physics and include also a chapter on thermochemistry. Phase transitions and critical phenomena are treated according to the modern development of the field, based on the ideas of universality and on the Widom scaling theory. For each topic, a mean-field or Landau theory is presented to describe qualitatively the phase transitions. These theories include the van der Waals theory of the liquid-vapor transition, the Hildebrand-Heitler theory of regular mixtures, the Griffiths-Landau theory for multicritical points in multicomponent systems, the Bragg-Williams theory of order-disorder in alloys, the Weiss theory of ferromagnetism, the Neel theory of antiferromagnetism, the Devonshire theory for ferroelectrics and Landau-de Gennes theory of liquid crystals. This new edition presents expanded sections on phase transitions, liquid crystals and magnetic systems, for all problems detailed solutions are provided. It is intended for students in physics and chemistry and provides a unique combination of thorough theoretical explanation and presentation of applications in both areas. Chapter summaries, highlighted essentials and problems with solutions enable a self sustained approach and deepen the knowledge. It is intended for students in physics and chemistry and provides a unique combination of thorough theoretical explanation and presentation of applications in both areas. Chapter summaries, highlighted essentials and problems with solutions enable a self sustained approach and deepen the knowledge.

Stochastic Energetics by now commonly designates the emerging field that bridges the gap between stochastic dynamical processes and thermodynamics.

Triggered by the vast improvements in spatio-temporal resolution in nanotechnology, stochastic energetics develops a framework for quantifying individual realizations of a stochastic process on the mesoscopic scale of thermal fluctuations.

This is needed to answer such novel questions as:

Can one cool a drop of water by agitating an immersed nano-particle?

How does heat flow if a Brownian particle pulls a polymer chain?

Can one measure the free-energy of a system through a single realization of the associated stochastic process?

This book will take the reader gradually from the basics to the applications: Part I provides the necessary background from stochastic dynamics (Langevin, master equation), Part II introduces how stochastic energetics describes such basic notions as heat and work on the mesoscopic scale, Part III details several applications, such as control and detection processes, as well as free-energy transducers.

It aims in particular at researchers and graduate students working in the fields of nanoscience and technology.

The European Conference on Complex Systems, held under the patronage of the Complex Systems Society, is an annual event that has become the leading European conference devoted to complexity science. ECCS'12, its ninth edition, took place in Brussels, during the first week of September 2012. It gathered about 650 scholars representing a wide range of topics relating to complex systems research, with emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches. More specifically, the following tracks were covered:

1. Foundations of Complex Systems

2. Complexity, Information and Computation

3. Prediction, Policy and Planning, Environment

4. Biological Complexity

5. Interacting Populations, Collective Behavior

6. Social Systems, Economics and Finance

This book contains a selection of the contributions presented at the conference and its satellite meetings. Its contents reflect the extent, diversity and richness of research areas in the field, both fundamental and applied.

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This book is unique in covering phenomena in photon- matter interactions in a unified way over a range of many orders in energy. The quantum field theoretic approach to the fully relativistic theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED) is presented together with the non- relativistic theory in both confined and unconfined geometries. The predictions of QED have been verified to a greater accuracy than any other physical theory. Moreover QED is a paradigm for other gauge theories and is presented in such a way that the generalisation to other gauge theories is natural. Gauge and Poincare symmetry properties and the non-existence of a photon wave function are thoroughly discussed. Starting from the Dirac equation the non-relativistic interaction of the electron with the electromagnetic field is derived as an effective Hamiltonian of multipole expansions. Much of quantum optics is based on the lowest order dipole approximation. From this point on the treatment of fully relativistic QED and quantum optics is done in parallel. Applications of perturbation theory such as Compton and Moller scattering and the theory photdetection are given. After the impressive successes of QED, the limitation of the theory and the necessity of electroweak theory and quantumchromodynamics are discussed. The remaining chapters are devoted to quantum optics inside cavaties. Various approaches to open systems such as master equations are discussed within the context of active systems (e.g. the laser) and passive systems. Semi- classical approximarions are shown to imply a rich non- linear dynamics including chaos for certain parameter regimes. The effect of fluctuations on such non-linear dynamics is also studied. The final chapter is devoted to highly non- classical states of the light field such as photon number, squeezed and two photon entangled states. The latter are studied for the important system of parametric down conversion and the localisation properties of photons are characterised in terms of asympotic tails in photodetection probabilities as a function of time delay. The range of the book has wider benefits. Workers in quantum optics will gain a deeper understanding of the foundations of their subject and field theorists will see concrete examples of open systems, which are beginning to impinge on fundamental theories.

This book, Perturbation Theories for the Thermodynamic Properties of Fluids and Solids, provides a comprehensive review of current perturbation theories-as well as integral equation theories and density functional theories-for the equilibrium thermodynamic and structural properties of classical systems. Emphasizing practical applications, the text avoids complex theoretical derivations as much as possible. It begins with discussions of the nature of intermolecular forces and simple potential models. The book also presents a summary of statistical mechanics concepts and formulae. In addition, it reviews simulation techniques, providing background for the performance analyses of theories executed throughout the text using simulation data. Chapters describe integral equation theories, theoretical approaches for hard-sphere fluid or solid systems, and perturbation theories for simple fluids and solids for monocomponent and multicomponent systems. They also cover density functional theories for inhomogeneous systems and perturbative and nonperturbative approaches to describe the structure and thermodynamics of hard-body molecular fluids. The final chapter examines several more challenging systems, such as fluids near the critical point, liquid metals, molten salts, colloids, and aqueous protein solutions. This book offers a thorough account of the available equilibrium theories for the thermodynamic and structural properties of fluids and solids, with special focus on perturbation theories, emphasizing their applications, strengths, and weaknesses. Appropriate for experienced researchers as well as postgraduate students, the text presents a wide-ranging yet detailed view and provides a useful guide to the application of the theories described.

This book presents a theoretical study of heat transfer due to laminar natural convection of nanofluids, using Al2O3-water nanofluid as an example. An innovative method of similarity transformation of velocity fields on laminar boundary layers is applied for the development of a mathematical governing model of natural convection with actual nanofluids, and a novel model of the nanofluid's variable thermophysical properties is derived by a mathematical analysis based on the developed model of variable physical properties of fluids combined with the model of the nanofluid's thermal conductivity and viscosity. Based on these, the physical property factors of nanofluids are produced, which leads to a simultaneous solution for deep investigations of hydrodynamics and heat transfer of nanofluid's natural convection. The book also proposes novel predictive formulae for the evaluation of heat transfer of Al2O3-water nanofluid's natural convection. The formulae have reliable theoretical and practical value because they are developed by rigorous theoretical analysis of heat transfer combined with full consideration of the effects of the temperature-dependent physical properties of nanofluids and the nanoparticle shape factor and concentration, as well as variations of fluid boundary temperatures. The conversion factors proposed help to turn the heat transfer coefficient and rate of fluid natural convection into those of nanofluid natural convection. Furthermore, several calculation examples are provided to demonstrate the heat transfer application of the proposed predictive formulae.

The field of thermal therapy has been growing tenaciously in the last few decades. The application of heat to living tissues, from mild hyperthermia to high-temperature thermal ablation, has produced a host of well-documented genetic, cellular, and physiological responses that are being researched intensely for medical applications, particularly for treatment of solid cancerous tumors using image guidance. The controlled application of thermal energy to living tissues has proven a great challenge, requiring expertise from multiple disciplines, thereby leading to the development of many sophisticated pre-clinical and clinical devices and treatment techniques. Physics of Thermal Therapy: Fundamentals and Clinical Applications captures the breadth and depth of this highly multidisciplinary field.

Focusing on applications in cancer treatment, this book covers basic principles, practical aspects, and clinical applications of thermal therapy. An overview of the fundamentals shows how use of controlled heat in medicine and biology involves electromagnetics, acoustics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, and imaging sciences. The book discusses challenges in the use of thermal energy on living tissues and explores the genetic, cellular, and physiological responses that can be employed in the fight against cancer from the physics and engineering perspectives. It also highlights recent advances, including the treatment of solid tumors using image-guided thermal therapy, microbubbles, nanoparticles, and other cutting-edge techniques.

Complex Nonlinearity: Chaos, Phase Transitions, Topology Change and Path Integrals is a book about prediction & control of general nonlinear and chaotic dynamics of high-dimensional complex systems of various physical and non-physical nature and their underpinning geometro-topological change.

The book starts with a textbook-like expose on nonlinear dynamics, attractors and chaos, both temporal and spatio-temporal, including modern techniques of chaos-control. Chapter 2 turns to the edge of chaos, in the form of phase transitions (equilibrium and non-equilibrium, oscillatory, fractal and noise-induced), as well as the related field of synergetics. While the natural stage for linear dynamics comprises of flat, Euclidean geometry (with the corresponding calculation tools from linear algebra and analysis), the natural stage for nonlinear dynamics is curved, Riemannian geometry (with the corresponding tools from nonlinear, tensor algebra and analysis). The extreme nonlinearity - chaos - corresponds to the topology change of this curved geometrical stage, usually called configuration manifold. Chapter 3 elaborates on geometry and topology change in relation with complex nonlinearity and chaos. Chapter 4 develops general nonlinear dynamics, continuous and discrete, deterministic and stochastic, in the unique form of path integrals and their action-amplitude formalism. This most natural framework for representing both phase transitions and topology change starts with Feynman's sum over histories, to be quickly generalized into the sum over geometries and topologies. The last Chapter puts all the previously developed techniques together and presents the unified form of complex nonlinearity. Here we have chaos, phase transitions, geometrical dynamics and topology change, all working together in the form of path integrals.

The objective of this book is to provide a serious reader with a serious scientific tool that will enable them to actually perform a competitive research in modern complex nonlinearity. It includes a comprehensive bibliography on the subject and a detailed index. Target readership includes all researchers and students of complex nonlinear systems (in physics, mathematics, engineering, chemistry, biology, psychology, sociology, economics, medicine, etc.), working both in industry/clinics and academia.

This book introduces the concepts of physical chemistry of polymers in a format targeted for a blended-learning approach. It provides a basis to bridge polymer chemistry, which targets microscopic chain structures, and polymer engineering, which targets macroscopic material properties and functions. Topics covered are single chain statistics, multi-chain interactions, and chain dynamics, both from a viewpoint of structure, properties (mostly mechanical ones), and their interrelation. In all that, the author encourages the reader to think conceptually. Explains complex facts through simplifying models, diagrams, and illustrations Accessible to chemists, chemical engineers, materials scientists, and physicists Tailored content for an interactive blended-learning format

The idea of this book is to present the up-to-date research results on Nitrate Esters as explosive materials. It covers many aspects including the material structures, nitrating agent, chemical synthesis devices, preparation technology, and applications etc. In particular, this work sheds light on the comprehensive utilization and thorough destruction of the used Nitrate Easters which is crucial for preventing repeated pollution. This is a highly informative and instructive book providing insight for the researchers working on nitrating theory, energetic materials and chemical equipments.

From the basics of thermodynamics to solutions for modern dynamical problems —the complete beginner's guide to statistical mechanics.

Unlike most books on statistical mechanics, this one is written for advanced students in chemistry, chemical engineering, biophysics, and related fields. It targets readers with no prior exposure to statistical mechanics and provides a complete introduction to all the important principles, concepts, and equations, while maintaining a level of mathematical sophistication that most advanced chemistry students will find manageable. The emphasis is on finding solutions to common problems in chemistry. Topics covered include:

• The Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution for molecules in a gas, partition functions, and calculation of thermodynamic properties
• Ensembles (including the grand canonical ensemble), independent particles, and thermodynamic properties of atoms and molecules
• Practical introductions to quantum statistical mechanics and classical statistical mechanics
• Applications to electrons in metals and semiconductors; bosons and fermions; imperfect gases; transport properties; dipole moments in electric and magnetic fields; and distribution functions and correlation functions in fluids
• Time-dependent techniques for handling both simple and modern dynamical problems —the Liouville equation, time-correlation functions, and the Langevin equation.

Clearly written, and with a minimum of theory, Statistical Mechanics for Chemists takes you step by step through mathematical manipulations and explains the physical and chemical bases for each procedure. It is a valuable resource for advanced students in chemistry, chemical engineering, biophysics, and related fields.

This monograph attempts to provide a systematic and consistent survey of the fundamentals of the theory of free, linear, isentropic oscillations in spherically symmetric, gaseous equilibrium stars, whose structure is affected neither by axial rotation, nor by the tidal action of a companion, nor by a magnetic eld. Three parts can be distinguished. The rst part, consisting of Chaps.1-8, covers the basic concepts and equations, the distinction between spheroidal and toroidal normal modes, the solution of Poisson's differential equation for the perturbation of the gravitational potential, and Hamilton's variational principle. The second part, consisting of Chaps.9-13, is devotedto the possible existenceof waves propagating in the radial direction, the origin and classi cation of normal modes, the comple- ness of the normal modes, and the relation between the local stability with respect to convection and the global stability of a star. In the third part, Chaps.14-18 c- tain asymptoticrepresentationsof normalmodes. Chapter 19 deals with slow period changes in rapidly evolving pulsating stars. The theory is developed within the framework of the Newtonian theory of gr- itation and the hydrodynamics of compressible uids. It is described in its present status, with inclusion of open questions. We give preference to the use of the adjective "isentropic" above that of the adjective "adiabatic," since, from a thermodynamic point of view, these stellar - cillations are described as reversible adiabatic processes and thus as processes that take place at constant entropy.

This book presents the physical science experiments in a space microgravity environment conducted on board the SJ-10 recoverable satellite, which was launched on April 6th, 2016 and recovered on April 18th, 2016. The experiments described were selected from ~100 proposals from various institutions in China and around the world, and have never previously been conducted in the respective fields. They involve fluid physics and materials science, and primarily investigate the kinetic properties of matter in a space microgravity environment. The book provides a comprehensive review of these experiments, as well as the mission's execution, data collection, and scientific outcomes.

This open access book offers a concise overview of how data from large scale experiments are analyzed and how technological tools are used in practice, as in the search for new elementary particles. It focuses on interconnects between physics and detector technology in experimental particle physics, and includes descriptions of mathematical approaches. Readers find all the important steps in analysis, including reconstruction of the momentum and energy of particles from detector information, particle identification, and also the general concept of simulating particle production from collisions and detector responses. As the scale of scientific experiments becomes larger and data-intensive science emerges, the techniques used in the data analysis become ever more complicated, making it difficult for beginners to grasp the overall picture. The book provides an explanation of the idea and concepts behind the methods, helping readers understand journal articles on high energy physics. This book is engaging as it does not overemphasize mathematical formalism and it gives a lively example of how such methods have been applied to the Higgs particle discovery in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments, which led to Englert and Higgs being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2013. Graduate students and young researchers can easily obtain the required knowledge on how to start data analyses from these notes, without having to spend time in consulting many experts or digesting huge amounts of literature.

This book presents the optimal auxiliary functions method and applies it to various engineering problems and in particular in boundary layer problems. The cornerstone of the presented procedure is the concept of "optimal auxiliary functions" which are needed to obtain accurate results in an efficient way. Unlike other known analytic approaches, this procedure provides us with a simple but rigorous way to control and adjust the convergence of the solutions of nonlinear dynamical systems. The optimal auxiliary functions are depending on some convergence-control parameters whose optimal values are rigorously determined from mathematical point of view. The capital strength of our procedure is its fast convergence, since after only one iteration, we obtain very accurate analytical solutions which are very easy to be verified. Moreover, no simplifying hypothesis or assumptions are made. The book contains a large amount of practical models from various fields of engineering such as classical and fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, nonlinear oscillations, electrical machines, and many more. The book is a continuation of our previous books "Nonlinear Dynamical Systems in Engineering. Some Approximate Approaches", Springer-2011 and "The Optimal Homotopy Asymptotic Method. Engineering Applications", Springer-2015.

This book offers a didactic and a self-contained treatment of the physics of liquid and flowing matter with a statistical mechanics approach. Experimental and theoretical methods that were developed to study fluids are now frequently applied to a number of more complex systems generically referred to as soft matter. As for simple liquids, also for complex fluids it is important to understand how their macroscopic behavior is determined by the interactions between the component units. Moreover, in recent years new and relevant insights have emerged from the study of anomalous phases and metastable states of matter. In addition to the traditional topics concerning fluids in normal conditions, the authors of this book discuss recent developments in the field of disordered systems in condensed and soft matter. In particular they emphasize computer simulation techniques that are used in the study of soft matter and the theories and study of slow glassy dynamics. For these reasons the book includes a specific chapter about metastability, supercooled liquids and glass transition. The book is written for graduate students and active researchers in the field.

Instantons, or pseudoparticles, are solutions to the equations of motion in classical field theories on a Euclidean spacetime. Instantons are found everywhere in quantum theories as they have many applications in quantum tunnelling. Diverse physical phenomena may be described through quantum tunnelling, for example: the Josephson effect, the decay of meta-stable nuclear states, band formation in tight binding models of crystalline solids, the structure of the gauge theory vacuum, confinement in 2+1 dimensions, and the decay of superheated or supercooled phases. Drawing inspiration from Sidney Coleman's Erice lectures, this volume provides an accessible, detailed introduction to instanton methods, with many applications, making it a valuable resource for graduate students in many areas of physics, from condensed matter, particle and nuclear physics, to string theory. This title, first published in 2017, has been reissued as an Open Access publication on Cambridge Core.

This monograph is a comprehensive and cohesive exposition of power-law statistics. Following a bottom-up construction from a foundational bedrock - the power Poisson process - this monograph presents a unified study of an assortment of power-law statistics including: Pareto laws, Zipf laws, Weibull and Frechet laws, power Lorenz curves, Levy laws, power Newcomb-Benford laws, sub-diffusion and super-diffusion, and 1/f and flicker noises. The bedrock power Poisson process, as well as the assortment of power-law statistics, are investigated via diverse perspectives: structural, stochastic, fractal, dynamical, and socioeconomic. This monograph is poised to serve researchers and practitioners - from various fields of science and engineering - that are engaged in analyses of power-law statistics.

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

This textbook brings together the fundamentals of the macroscopic and microscopic aspects of thermal physics by presenting thermodynamics and statistical mechanics as complementary theories based on small numbers of postulates. The book is designed to give the instructor flexibility in structuring courses for advanced undergraduates and/or beginning graduate students and is written on the principle that a good text should also be a good reference. The presentation of thermodynamics follows the logic of Clausius and Kelvin while relating the concepts involved to familiar phenomena and the modern student's knowledge of the atomic nature of matter. Another unique aspect of the book is the treatment of the mathematics involved. The essential mathematical concepts are briefly reviewed before using them, and the similarity of the mathematics to that employed in other fields of physics is emphasized. The text gives in depth treatments of low density gases, harmonic solids, magnetic and dielectric materials, phase transitions, and the concept of entropy. The microcanonical, canonical, and grand canonical ensembles of statistical mechanics are derived and used as the starting point for the analysis of fluctuations, blackbody radiation, the Maxwell distribution, Fermi-Dirac statistics, Bose-Einstein condensation, and the statistical basis of computer simulations. Supplementary material including PowerPoint slides and detailed worked solutions can be downloaded online at http://booksupport.wiley.com

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.

This book presents a careful selection of the most important developments of the \phi^4 model, offering a judicious summary of this model with a view to future prospects and the challenges ahead. Over the past four decades, the \phi^4 model has been the basis for a broad array of developments in the physics and mathematics of nonlinear waves. From kinks to breathers, from continuum media to discrete lattices, from collisions of solitary waves to spectral properties, and from deterministic to stochastic models of \phi^4 (and \phi^6, \phi^8, \phi^12 variants more recently), this dynamical model has served as an excellent test bed for formulating and testing the ideas of nonlinear science and solitary waves.

This book presents sensemaking strategies to support security planning and design. Threats to security are becoming complex and multifaceted and increasingly challenging traditional notions of security. The security landscape is characterized as 'messes' and 'wicked problems' that proliferate in this age of complexity. Designing security solutions in the face of interconnectedness, volatility and uncertainty, we run the risk of providing the right answer to the wrong problem thereby resulting in unintended consequences. Sensemaking is the activity that enables us to turn the ongoing complexity of the world into a "situation that is comprehended explicitly in words and that serves as a springboard into action" (Weick, Sutcliffe, Obstfeld, 2005). It is about creating an emerging picture of our world through data collection, analysis, action, and reflection. The importance of sensemaking to security is that it enables us to plan, design and act when the world as we knew it seems to have shifted. Leveraging the relevant theoretical grounding and thought leadership in sensemaking, key examples are provided, thereby illustrating how sensemaking strategies can support security planning and design. This is a critical analytical and leadership requirement in this age of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity that characterizes the security landscape. This book is useful for academics, graduate students in global security, and government and security planning practitioners.