This book is based on many years of teaching statistical and thermal physics. It assumes no previous knowledge of thermodynamics, kinetic theory, or probability---the only prerequisites are an elementary knowledge of classical and modern physics, and of multivariable calculus. The first half of the book introduces the subject inductively but rigorously, proceeding from the concrete and specific to the abstract and general. In clear physical language the book explains the key concepts, such as temperature, heat, entropy, free energy, chemical potential, and distributions, both classical and quantum. The second half of the book applies these concepts to a wide variety of phenomena, including perfect gases, heat engines, and transport processes. Each chapter contains fully worked examples and real-world problems drawn from physics, astronomy, biology, chemistry, electronics, and mechanical engineering.

This practical, user-friendly reference book of common mechanical engineering concepts is geared toward makers who don't have (or want) an engineering degree but need to know the essentials of basic mechanical elements to successfully accomplish their personal projects. The book provides practical mechanical engineering information (supplemented with the applicable math, science, physics, and engineering theory) without being boring like a typical textbook. Most chapters contain at least one hands-on, fully illustrated, step-by-step project to demonstrate the topic being discussed and requires only common, inexpensive, easily sourced materials and tools. Some projects also provide alternative materials and tools and processes to align with the reader's individual preferences, skills, tools, and materials-at-hand. Linked together via the authors' overarching project -- building a kid-sized tank -- the chapters describe the thinking behind each mechanism and then expands the discussions to similar mechanical concepts in other applications. Written with humor, a bit of irreverence, and entertaining personal insights and first-hand experiences, the book presents complex concepts in an uncomplicated way. Highlights include: Provides mechanical engineering information that includes math, science, physics and engineering theory without being a textbook Contains hands-on projects in each chapter that require common, inexpensive, easily sourced materials and tools All hands-on projects are fully illustrated with step-by-step instructions Some hands-on projects provide alternative materials and tools/processes to align with the reader's individual preferences, skills, tools and materials-at-hand Includes real-world insights from the authors like tips and tricks ("Staying on Track") and fail moments ("Lost Track!") Many chapters contain a section ("Tracking Further") that dives deeper into the chapter subject, for those readers that are interested in more details of the topic Builds on two related Make: projects to link and illustrate all the chapter topics and bring individual concepts together into one system Furnishes an accompanying website that offers further information, illustrations, projects, discussion boards, videos, animations, patterns, drawings, etc. Learn to effectively use professional mechanical engineering principles in your projects, without having to graduate from engineering school!

The accurate measurement of temperature is a vital parameter in many fields of engineering and scientific practice. Responding to emerging trends, this classic reference has been fully revised to include coverage of the latest instrumentation and measurement methods.

Featuring:

• Brand new chapters on computerised temperature measuring systems and temperature measurement in medicine.

• Sections on noise thermometers, the development of photoelectric and two-wave pyrometers and the latest IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) standards

• Coverage of fibre optic thermometers, imaging of temperature fields and measurement in hazardous areas.

• Examination of virtual instruments, fuzzy logic in temperature measurement and new methods for thermometer calibration.

An introduction to how the mathematical tools from quantum field theory can be applied to economics and finance, providing a wide range of quantum mathematical techniques for designing financial instruments. The ideas of Lagrangians, Hamiltonians, state spaces, operators and Feynman path integrals are demonstrated to be the mathematical underpinning of quantum field theory, and which are employed to formulate a comprehensive mathematical theory of asset pricing as well as of interest rates, which are validated by empirical evidence. Numerical algorithms and simulations are applied to the study of asset pricing models as well as of nonlinear interest rates. A range of economic and financial topics are shown to have quantum mechanical formulations, including options, coupon bonds, nonlinear interest rates, risky bonds and the microeconomic action functional. This is an invaluable resource for experts in quantitative finance and in mathematics who have no specialist knowledge of quantum field theory.

This authoritative but highly accessible book presents the reader with a powerful framework for understanding the critical role of the energy return on investment (EROI) in the survival and well-being of individuals, ecosystems, businesses, economies and nations. Growth and development are fundamental and ubiquitous processes at all scales, from individuals to food crops to national economies. While we are all familiar with the concepts of economic growth and living standards as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), we often take for granted the energy use that underpins GDP and our expectations for year-on-year growth. In this book, you will learn how these measures of "progress" are completely dependent on the balance that can be achieved between energy costs (inputs) and gains. Nothing is made or moved without an energy surplus, and it is the EROI of available energy sources more than any other single factor that determines the shape of civilization. Nearly all politics and economics assume that policy and market forces are the levers upon which future outcomes will hinge. However, this book presents many examples of historical and current events that can be explained much more clearly from an energetic perspective. In addition, a future scenario is developed that gives a central place to EROI in assessing the potential of governmental and private initiatives to substitute so-called renewable energy sources for diminishing stocks of fossil fuels. When cheap fossil fuels are no longer available in the abundance needed to mask economic problems and power business as usual, it will be EROI more than the plethora of "green" technologies that creates the boundary conditions for a sustainable future.

This book is the first major work covering applications in thermal engineering and offering a comprehensive introduction to optimal control theory, which has applications in mechanical engineering, particularly aircraft and missile trajectory optimization. The book is organized in three parts: The first part includes a brief presentation of function optimization and variational calculus, while the second part presents a summary of the optimal control theory. Lastly, the third part describes several applications of optimal control theory in solving various thermal engineering problems. These applications are grouped in four sections: heat transfer and thermal energy storage, solar thermal engineering, heat engines and lubrication.Clearly presented and easy-to-use, it is a valuable resource for thermal engineers and thermal-system designers as well as postgraduate students.

This book acquaints readers with recent developments in dynamical systems theory and its applications, with a strong focus on the control and estimation of nonlinear systems. Several algorithms are proposed and worked out for a set of model systems, in particular so-called input-affine or bilinear systems, which can serve to approximate a wide class of nonlinear control systems. These can either take the form of state space models or be represented by an input-output equation. The approach taken here further highlights the role of modern mathematical and conceptual tools, including differential algebraic theory, observer design for nonlinear systems and generalized canonical forms.

This book is intended as a text for a one-semester course on Mathematical and Computational Neuroscience for upper-level undergraduate and beginning graduate students of mathematics, the natural sciences, engineering, or computer science. An undergraduate introduction to differential equations is more than enough mathematical background. Only a slim, high school-level background in physics is assumed, and none in biology. Topics include models of individual nerve cells and their dynamics, models of networks of neurons coupled by synapses and gap junctions, origins and functions of population rhythms in neuronal networks, and models of synaptic plasticity. An extensive online collection of Matlab programs generating the figures accompanies the book.

Important aspects of social networking analysis are covered in this work by combining experimental and theoretical research. A specific focus is devoted to emerging trends and the industry needs associated with utilizing data mining techniques. Some of the techniques covered include data mining advances in the discovery and analysis of communities, in the personalization of solitary activities (like searches) and social activities (like discovering potential friends), in the analysis of user behavior in open fora (like conventional sites, blogs and fora) and in commercial platforms (like e-auctions), and in the associated security and privacy-preservation challenges; as well as social network modeling, scalable, customizable social network infrastructure construction, and the identification and discovery of dynamic growth and evolution patterns using machine learning approaches or multi-agent based simulation. These topics will be of interest to practitioners and researchers alike in this dynamic and growing field.

This book shows how Bohmian mechanics overcomes the need for a measurement postulate involving wave function collapse. The measuring process plays a very important role in quantum mechanics. It has been widely analyzed within the Copenhagen approach through the Born and von Neumann postulates, with later extension due to Luders. In contrast, much less effort has been invested in the measurement theory within the Bohmian mechanics framework. The continuous measurement (sharp and fuzzy, or strong and weak) problem is considered here in this framework. The authors begin by generalizing the so-called Mensky approach, which is based on restricted path integral through quantum corridors. The measuring system is then considered to be an open quantum system following a stochastic Schroedinger equation. Quantum stochastic trajectories (in the Bohmian sense) and their role in basic quantum processes are discussed in detail. The decoherence process is thereby described in terms of classical trajectories issuing from the violation of the noncrossing rule of quantum trajectories.

This book presents a history of shock compression science, including development of experimental, material modeling, and hydrodynamics code technologies over the past six decades at Sandia National Laboratories. The book is organized into a discussion of major accomplishments by decade with over 900 references, followed by a unique collection of 45 personal recollections detailing the trials, tribulations, and successes of building a world-class organization in the field. It explains some of the challenges researchers faced and the gratification they experienced when a discovery was made. Several visionary researchers made pioneering advances that integrated these three technologies into a cohesive capability to solve complex scientific and engineering problems. What approaches worked, which ones did not, and the applications of the research are described. Notable applications include the turret explosion aboard the USS Iowa and the Shoemaker-Levy comet impact on Jupiter. The personal anecdotes and recollections make for a fascinating account of building a world-renowned capability from meager beginnings. This book will be inspiring to the expert, the non expert, and the early-career scientist. Undergraduate and graduate students in science and engineering who are contemplating different fields of study should find it especially compelling.

This textbook takes the reader on a tour of the most important landmarks of theoretical physics: classical, quantum, and statistical mechanics, relativity, electrodynamics, as well as the most modern and exciting of all: elementary particles and the physics of fractals. The second edition has been supplemented with a new chapter devoted to concise though complete presentation of dynamical systems, bifurcations and chaos theory. The treatment is confined to the essentials of each area, presenting all the central concepts and equations at an accessible level. Chapters 1 to 4 contain the standard material of courses in theoretical physics and are supposed to accompany lectures at the university; thus they are rather condensed. They are supposed to fill one year of teaching. Chapters 5 and 6, in contrast, are written less condensed since this material may not be part of standard lectures and thus could be studied without the help of a university teacher. An appendix on elementary particles lies somewhere in between: It could be a summary of a much more detailed course, or studied without such a course. Illustrations and numerous problems round off this unusual textbook. It will ideally accompany the students all along their course in theoretical physics and prove indispensable in preparing and revising the exams. It is also suited as a reference for teachers or scientists from other disciplines who are interested in the topic.

This book provides a practical study of modern heat pipe engineering, discussing how it can be optimized for use on a wider scale. An introduction to operational and design principles, this book offers a review of heat and mass transfer theory relevant to performance, leading into and exploration of the use of heat pipes, particularly in high-heat flux applications and in situations in which there is any combination of non-uniform heat loading, limited airflow over the heat generating components, and space or weight constraints. Key implementation challenges are tackled, including load-balancing, materials characteristics, operating temperature ranges, thermal resistance, and operating orientation. With its presentation of mathematical models to calculate heat transfer limitations and temperature gradient of both high- and low-temperature heat pipes, the book compares calculated results with the available experimental data. It also includes a series of computer programs developed by the author to support presented data, aid design, and predict performance.

This monograph investigates violations of statistical stability of physical events, variables, and processes and develops a new physical-mathematical theory taking into consideration such violations - the theory of hyper-random phenomena. There are five parts. The first describes the phenomenon of statistical stability and its features, and develops methods for detecting violations of statistical stability, in particular when data is limited. The second part presents several examples of real processes of different physical nature and demonstrates the violation of statistical stability over broad observation intervals. The third part outlines the mathematical foundations of the theory of hyper-random phenomena, while the fourth develops the foundations of the mathematical analysis of divergent and many-valued functions. The fifth part contains theoretical and experimental studies of statistical laws where there is violation of statistical stability. The monograph should be of particular interest to engineers and scientists in general who study the phenomenon of statistical stability and use statistical methods for high-precision measurements, prediction, and signal processing over long observation intervals.

Scheck's textbook starts with a concise introduction to classical thermodynamics, including geometrical aspects. Then a short introduction to probabilities and statistics lays the basis for the statistical interpretation of thermodynamics. Phase transitions, discrete models and the stability of matter are explained in great detail.Thermodynamics has a special role in theoretical physics. Due to the general approach of thermodynamics the field has as a bridging function between several areas like the theory of condensed matter, elementary particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. The classical thermodynamics describes predominantly averaged properties of matter, reaching from few particle systems and state of matter to stellar objects. Statistical Thermodynamics covers the same fields, but explores them in greater depth and unifies classical statistical mechanics with quantum theory of multiple particle systems. The content is presented as two tracks: the fast track for master students, providing the essentials, and the intensive track for all wanting to get in depth knowledge of the field. Clearly labelled material and sections guide students through the preferred level of treatment. Numerous problems and worked examples will provide successful access to Statistical Physics and Thermodynamics.

This book provides analytical solutions to a number of classical problems in transport processes, i.e. in fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer. Expanding computing power and more efficient numerical methods have increased the importance of computational tools. However, the interpretation of these results is often difficult and the computational results need to be tested against the analytical results, making analytical solutions a valuable commodity. Furthermore, analytical solutions for transport processes provide a much deeper understanding of the physical phenomena involved in a given process than do corresponding numerical solutions. Though this book primarily addresses the needs of researchers and practitioners, it may also be beneficial for graduate students just entering the field.

In this book the author presents a general formalism of nonequilibrium thermodynamics with complex information flows induced by interactions among multiple fluctuating systems. The author has generalized stochastic thermodynamics with information by using a graphical theory. Characterizing nonequilibrium dynamics by causal networks, he has obtained a novel generalization of the second law of thermodynamics with information that is applicable to quite a broad class of stochastic dynamics such as information transfer between multiple Brownian particles, an autonomous biochemical reaction, and complex dynamics with a time-delayed feedback control. This study can produce further progress in the study of Maxwell's demon for special cases. As an application to these results, information transmission and thermodynamic dissipation in biochemical signal transduction are discussed. The findings presented here can open up a novel biophysical approach to understanding information processing in living systems.

This book provides a systematic and comprehensive description of high-entropy alloys (HEAs). The authors summarize key properties of HEAs from the perspective of both fundamental understanding and applications, which are supported by in-depth analyses. The book also contains computational modeling in tackling HEAs, which help elucidate the formation mechanisms and properties of HEAs from various length and time scales.

This book provides detailed calculated values for the thermal radiative and thermodynamic functions of black-body radiation in finite spectral ranges. The results are presented in tabular form. The areas of thermal power generation, infrared medical diagnostics, solar power and nuclear generation, and astrophysics are included. A range of the thermal radiative and thermodynamic functions are calculated by the authors in the finite frequency/wavenumber/wavelength intervals at different temperatures. This book also contains the tables of the chromaticity coordinates and RGB parameters calculated for different color spaces (Rec.709 (HDTV), sRGB, Adobe RGB). A number of the optimization problems is formulated and solved for various thermal black-body radiative and thermodynamic functions in a finite range of frequencies.

In the past decades, the scan rate range of calorimeters has been extended tremendously at the high end, from approximately 10 up to 10 000 000 DegreesC/s and more. The combination of various calorimeters and the newly-developed Fast Scanning Calorimeters (FSC) now span 11 orders of magnitude, by which many processes can be mimicked according to the time scale(s) of chemical and physical transitions occurring during cooling, heating and isothermal stays in case heat is exchanged. This not only opens new areas of research on polymers, metals, pharmaceuticals and all kinds of substances with respect to glass transition, crystallization and melting phenomena, it also enables in-depth study of metastability and reorganization of samples on an 1 to 1000 ng scale. In addition, FSC will become a crucial tool for understanding and optimization of processing methods at high speeds like injection molding. The book resembles the state-of-the art in Thermal Analysis & Calorimetry and is an excellent starting point for both experts and newcomers in the field.

The book addresses the problem of calculation of d-dimensional integrals (conditional expectations) in filter problems. It develops new methods of deterministic numerical integration, which can be used to speed up and stabilize filter algorithms. With the help of these methods, better estimates and predictions of latent variables are made possible in the fields of economics, engineering and physics. The resulting procedures are tested within four detailed simulation studies.

This thesis represents the first systematic description of the two-phase flow problem. Two-phase flows of volatile fluids in confined geometries driven by an applied temperature gradient play an important role in a range of applications, including thermal management, such as heat pipes, thermosyphons, capillary pumped loops and other evaporative cooling devices. Previously, this problem has been addressed using a piecemeal approach that relied heavily on correlations and unproven assumptions, and the science and technology behind heat pipes have barely evolved in recent decades. The model introduced in this thesis, however, presents a comprehensive physically based description of both the liquid and the gas phase. The model has been implemented numerically and successfully validated against the available experimental data, and the numerical results are used to determine the key physical processes that control the heat and mass flow and describe the flow stability. One of the key contributions of this thesis work is the description of the role of noncondensables, such as air, on transport. In particular, it is shown that many of the assumptions used by current engineering models of evaporative cooling devices are based on experiments conducted at atmospheric pressures, and these assumptions break down partially or completely when most of the noncondensables are removed, requiring a new modeling approach presented in the thesis. Moreover, Numerical solutions are used to motivate and justify a simplified analytical description of transport in both the liquid and the gas layer, which can be used to describe flow stability and determine the critical Marangoni number and wavelength describing the onset of the convective pattern. As a result, the results presented in the thesis should be of interest both to engineers working in heat transfer and researchers interested in fluid dynamics and pattern formation.

In the present volume numerous descriptions of Ram accelerators are presented. These descriptions provide good overview on the progress made and the present state of the Ram accelerator technology worldwide. In addition, articles describing light gas gun, ballistic range including a chapter dealing with shock waves in solids are given. Along with the technical description of considered facilities, samples of obtained results are also included. Each chapter is written by an expert in the described topic providing a comprehensive description of the discussed phenomena.

Thermodynamics is fundamental to university and college curricula in chemistry, physics, engineering and many life sciences around the world. It is also notoriously difficult for students to understand, learn and apply. What makes this book different, and special, is the clarity of the text. The writing style is fluid, natural and lucid, and everything is explained in a logical and transparent manner. Thermodynamics is a deep, and important, branch of science, and this book does not make it "easy". But it does make it intelligible. This book introduces a new, 'Fourth Law' of Thermodynamics' based on the notion of Gibbs free energy, which underpins almost every application of thermodynamics and which the authors claim is worthy of recognition as a 'law'. The last four chapters bring thermodynamics into the twenty-first century, dealing with bioenergetics (how living systems capture and use free energy), macromolecule assembly (how proteins fold), and macromolecular aggregation (how, for example, virus capsids assemble). This is of great current relevance to students of biochemistry, biochemical engineering and pharmacy, and is covered in very few other texts on thermodynamics. The book also contains many novel and effective examples, such as the explanation of why friction is irreversible, the proof of the depression of the freezing point, and the explanation of the biochemical standard state.

This book is an introduction to quantum Markov chains and explains how this concept is connected to the question of how well a lost quantum mechanical system can be recovered from a correlated subsystem. To achieve this goal, we strengthen the data-processing inequality such that it reveals a statement about the reconstruction of lost information. The main difficulty in order to understand the behavior of quantum Markov chains arises from the fact that quantum mechanical operators do not commute in general. As a result we start by explaining two techniques of how to deal with non-commuting matrices: the spectral pinching method and complex interpolation theory. Once the reader is familiar with these techniques a novel inequality is presented that extends the celebrated Golden-Thompson inequality to arbitrarily many matrices. This inequality is the key ingredient in understanding approximate quantum Markov chains and it answers a question from matrix analysis that was open since 1973, i.e., if Lieb's triple matrix inequality can be extended to more than three matrices. Finally, we carefully discuss the properties of approximate quantum Markov chains and their implications. The book is aimed to graduate students who want to learn about approximate quantum Markov chains as well as more experienced scientists who want to enter this field. Mathematical majority is necessary, but no prior knowledge of quantum mechanics is required.