This unique book provides a fundamental introduction to all aspects of modern plasma chemistry. The book describes mechanisms and kinetics of chemical processes in plasma, plasma statistics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and electrodynamics, as well as all major electric discharges applied in plasma chemistry. The book considers most of the major applications of plasma chemistry from electronics to thermal coatings, from treatment of polymers to fuel conversion and hydrogen production, and from plasma metallurgy to plasma medicine. The book can be helpful to engineers, scientists, and students interested in plasma physics, plasma chemistry, plasma engineering, and combustion, as well as in chemical physics, lasers, energy systems, and environmental control. The book contains an extensive database on plasma kinetics and thermodynamics as well as a lot of convenient numerical formulas for practical calculations related to specific plasma-chemical processes and applications. The book contains a large number of problems and concept questions that are helpful in university courses related to plasma, lasers, combustion, chemical kinetics, statistics and thermodynamics, and high-temperature and high-energy fluid mechanics.

This book provides a comprehensive yet short description of the basic concepts of Complex Network theory. In contrast to other books the authors present these concepts through real case studies. The application topics span from Foodwebs, to the Internet, the World Wide Web and the Social Networks, passing through the International Trade Web and Financial time series. The final part is devoted to definition and implementation of the most important network models. The text provides information on the structure of the data and on the quality of available datasets. Furthermore it provides a series of codes to allow immediate implementation of what is theoretically described in the book. Readers already used to the concepts introduced in this book can learn the art of coding in Python by using the online material. To this purpose the authors have set up a dedicated web site where readers can download and test the codes. The whole project is aimed as a learning tool for scientists and practitioners, enabling them to begin working instantly in the field of Complex Networks.

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.

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 book provides a largely self-contained and broadly accessible exposition on two cosmological applications of algebraic quantum field theory (QFT) in curved spacetime: a fundamental analysis of the cosmological evolution according to the Standard Model of Cosmology; and a fundamental study of the perturbations in inflation. The two central sections of the book dealing with these applications are preceded by sections providing a pedagogical introduction to the subject. Introductory material on the construction of linear QFTs on general curved spacetimes with and without gauge symmetry in the algebraic approach, physically meaningful quantum states on general curved spacetimes, and the backreaction of quantum fields in curved spacetimes via the semiclassical Einstein equation is also given. The reader should have a basic understanding of General Relativity and QFT on Minkowski spacetime, but no background in QFT on curved spacetimes or the algebraic approach to QFT is required.>

Time asymmetric phenomena are successfully predicted by statistical mechanics. Yet the foundations of this theory are surprisingly shaky. Its explanation for the ease of mixing milk with coffee is incomplete, and even implies that un-mixing them should be just as easy. In this book the authors develop a new conceptual foundation for statistical mechanics that addresses this difficulty. Explaining the notions of macrostates, probability, measurement, memory, and the arrow of time in statistical mechanics, they reach the startling conclusion that Maxwell's Demon, the famous perpetuum mobile, is consistent with the fundamental physical laws. Mathematical treatments are avoided where possible, and instead the authors use novel diagrams to illustrate the text. This is a fascinating book for graduate students and researchers interested in the foundations and philosophy of physics.

One of the driving forces behind much of modern science and technology is the desire to foresee and thereby control the future. In recent years, however, it has become clear that, even in a deterministic world, there is alimit to the accuracy with which we can predict the future. This book details, in a largely nontechnical style, the extent to which we can predict the future development of various physical, biological and socio-economic processes.

Local and global spatial coupling mechanisms form the basis of transport processes that are of fundamental importance for the occurrence and the dynamic evolution of patterns on a mesoscopic and macroscopic scale. The present volume deals with these concepts and investigates applications in the fields of biophysics and chemistry.

Neural-network models for event analysis are widely used in experimental high-energy physics, star/galaxy discrimination, control of adaptive optical systems, prediction of nuclear properties, fast interpolation of potential energy surfaces in chemistry, classification of mass spectra of organic compounds, protein-structure prediction, analysis of DNA sequences, and design of pharmaceuticals. This book, devoted to this highly interdisciplinary research area, addresses scientists and graduate students. The pedagogically written review articles range over a variety of fields including astronomy, nuclear physics, experimental particle physics, bioinformatics, linguistics, and information processing.

This companion provides a collection of frequently needed numerical data as a convenient desk-top or pocket reference for atmospheric scientists as well as a concise source of information for others interested in this matter. The material contained in this book was extracted from the recent and the past scientific literature; it covers essentially all aspects of atmospheric chemistry. The data are presented primarily in the form of annotated tables while any explanatory text is kept to a minimum. In this condensed form of presentation, the volume may serve also as a supplement to many textbooks used in teaching the subject at various universities.

Peter Warneck, a physical chemist specializing in atmospheric chemistry, received the diploma in 1954 and the doctorate in 1956 at the university in Bonn, Germany. In 1959, following several postdoctoral assignments, he joined the GCA Corporation in Bedford, Massachusetts, where he explored elementary processes in the atmospheres of the earth and other planets. He returned to Germany in 1970 to head the chemical kinetics group in the Air Chemistry Division of the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry in Mainz. In 1974 he also became professor of physical chemistry at the university in Mainz. In 1991, following German reunification, Warneck was appointed the founding director of the new Institute for Tropospheric Research in Leipzig. He served in this position parallel to his activities in Mainz until official retirement. Warneck s research included laboratory studies of chemical mechanisms and photochemistry as well as the development of analytical techniques for field measurements. Since 1990, his interests are focused on chemical reactions in clouds.

Jonathan Williams is an atmospheric chemist. He received his BSc in Chemistry and French and his Ph.D. in Environmental Science from the University of East Anglia, England. Between 1995-1997 he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the NOAA Aeronomy laboratory in Boulder, USA, and from 1998 to present as a member of staff at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany. He has participated in many international field measurement campaigns on aircraft, ships and at ground stations. Dr Williams is currently an editor on three atmospheric chemistry journals. His present research involves investigating the chemistry of reactive organic species in the atmosphere, in particular over forested ecosystems and in the marine boundary layer. Dr Williams leads a research group focussed specifically on Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) at the Max Planck Institute and in 2008 he was made an honorary Reader at the University of East Anglia, UK."

For the first time this subject, including many systems of interest in Condensed Matter Physics, is treated in an unified way. Complexity emerges as one of the main ingredients dictating the collective behaviour of many systems. Glassy systems constitute one of the most interesting fields of Condensed Matter Physics for which also a considerable amount of experimental data and industial applications have been collected during the last twenty years. Systems exhibiting glassy behaviour are for example: real glasses, spin glasses, vortex flasses in superconductors, protein folding, etc. In this book the reader can see how the present theoretical understanding of these subjects is based on similar techniques and approaches hopefully allowing to develop a unifying structure that underlies the physical mechanism.

This monograph presents an integrated perspective of the wide range of phenomena and processes applicable to the study of transport of species in porous materials. In order to formulate the entire range of porous media and their uses, this book gives the basics of continuum mechanics, thermodynamics, seepage and consolidation and diffusion, including multiscale homogenization methods. The particular structure of the book has been chosen because it is essential to be aware of the true properties of porous materials particularly in terms of nano, micro and macro mechanisms. This book is of pedagogical and practical importance to the fields covered by civil, environmental, nuclear and petroleum engineering and also in chemical physics and geophysics as it relates to radioactive waste disposal, geotechnical engineering, mining and petroleum engineering and chemical engineering.

Although nearly three years have elapsed since the publication of this work in Hungarian, it was decided to publish the English edition in the same form as the original, apart from some minor modifications. Since, recent research has been directed to the development of an exact theory of non-linear irreversible processes; we suggest to readers interested in similar tasks - such as the continuation of this boo- that they should study some new publications: "On the most general form of the Thermodynamic Integral Principle," Z. phys. Chem. 239 (1968) 133, and particularly: "On the Governing Principle of Dissi pative Processes," Ann. Phys. 7 (1969) 23. I have to thank my wife and Mr. W.F.HEINZ for the translation of the very concise Hungarian text. I also wish to express my gratitude to Dr. L.KARADI and Mr. Gy. VINCZE for reading the typescript with such care and to Mrs. A. R6sZLER, who typed the manuscript with great patience. I am deeply indebted to Professor ISTVAN SZABO for making this edition available so quickly and for including my work in the "En gineering Science Library." Finally, I would like to express my thanks to Springer-Verlag for the excellent edition and to the editorial staff for their readiness to meet my wishes."

The thesis deals with averaging dynamics in a multiagent networked system, which is a main mechanism for diffusing the information over such networks. It arises in a wide range of applications in engineered physical networks (such as mobile communication and sensor networks), as well as social and economic networks. The thesis provides in depth study of stability and other phenomena characterizing the limiting behavior of both deterministic and random averaging dynamics. By developing new concepts, and using the tools from dynamic system theory and non-negative matrix theory, several novel fundamental results are rigorously developed. These contribute significantly to our understanding of averaging dynamics as well as to non-negative random matrix theory. The exposition, although highly rigorous and technical, is elegant and insightful, and accompanied with numerous illustrative examples, which makes this thesis work easily accessible to those just entering this field and will also be much appreciated by experts in the field.

Applied Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics provides the undergraduate and graduate student of chemical engineering with the basic knowledge, the methodology and the references he needs to apply it in industrial practice. Thus, in addition to the classical topics of the laws of thermodynamics, pure component and mixture thermodynamic properties as well as phase and chemical equilibria the reader will find: - history of thermodynamics - energy conservation - internmolecular forces and molecular thermodynamics - cubic equations of state - statistical mechanics. A great number of calculated problems with solutions and an appendix with numerous tables of numbers of practical importance are extremely helpful for applied calculations. The computer programs on the included disk help the student to become familiar with the typical methods used in industry for volumetric and vapor-liquid equilibria calculations.

This book treats the classical problem of gravitational physics within Einstein's theory of general relativity. It presents basic principles and equations needed to describe rotating fluid bodies, as well as black holes in equilibrium. It then goes on to deal with a number of analytically tractable limiting cases, placing particular emphasis on the rigidly rotating disc of dust. The book concludes by considering the general case using powerful numerical methods that are applied to various models, including the classical example of equilibrium figures of constant density. Researchers in general relativity, mathematical physics, and astrophysics will find this a valuable reference book on the topic. A related website containing codes for calculating various figures of equilibrium is available at www.cambridge.org/9781107407350.

Mechanics, Motion Control, Sensing and Programming, Synthesis and Design, Legged Locomotion and Biomechanical Aspects of Robots and Manipulators - world view of the state of the art. Characterization: This volume presents the latest contribution to the theory and practice of modern robotics given by the world recognized scientists from Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Mexico, Singapore and USA.

This book contains the edited proceedings of the 2nd Internat- ional Conference on Computationa1 Methods and Experimental Meas- urements held on board the QE2 liner from 27th June to 2nd Ju1y 1984. The meeting was sponsored by the International Society for Computationa1 Methods in Engineering and the Department of Civi1 Engineering, Southampton University and organized by the Computationa1 Mechanics Institute of Southampton, England. The QE2 provided an ideal environment for the international meeting and one that was equa11y convenient for the USA and European re- searchers and offered a 10cation propitious to the interchange of ideas and c10se contact between participants. This book covers a wide range of different topics in Computat- iona1 Methods and Experimental Measurements with the main empha- sis on the re1ationships between experimental and ana1ytica1 5- utions. The first section deals with fluid dynamics problems and a 1arge number of app1ications. Section 2 considers geophysica1 fluid dynamics and describes some atmospheric models and their re1ated problems. Water resources are dealt with in Section 3 which describes some app1ications of porous media f10w and sur- face water mode11ing. Wave interaction problems are described in Section 4 and Section 5 considers some important heat transfer app1ications. Other sections - 6 & 7 - study problems re1ated to stress analysis and structura1 app1ications. Vibration pro- blems are becoming of fundamental importance in engineering and part of the Conference Proceedings - Section 8 - are dedicated to the study of experimental and computational models.

At the fundamental level, the interactions of elementary particles are described by quantum gauge field theory. The quantitative implications of these interactions are captured by scattering amplitudes, traditionally computed using Feynman diagrams. In the past decade tremendous progress has been made in our understanding of and computational abilities with regard to scattering amplitudes in gauge theories, going beyond the traditional textbook approach. These advances build upon on-shell methods that focus on the analytic structure of the amplitudes, as well as on their recently discovered hidden symmetries. In fact, when expressed in suitable variables the amplitudes are much simpler than anticipated and hidden patterns emerge.

These modern methods are of increasing importance in phenomenological applications arising from the need for high-precision predictions for the experiments carried out at the Large Hadron Collider, as well as in foundational mathematical physics studies on the S-matrix in quantum field theory.

Bridging the gap between introductory courses on quantum field theory and state-of-the-art research, these concise yet self-contained and course-tested lecture notes are well-suited for a one-semester graduate level course or as a self-study guide for anyone interested in fundamental aspects of quantum field theory and its applications.

The numerous exercises and solutions included will help readers to embrace and apply the material presented in the main text.

This monograph presents, for the first time, a unified and comprehensive introduction to some of the basic transport properties of porous media, such as electrical and hydraulic conductivity, air permeability and diffusion. The approach is based on critical path analysis and the scaling of transport properties, which are individually described as functions of saturation. At the same time, the book supplies a tutorial on percolation theory for hydrologists, providing them with the tools for solving actual problems. In turn, a separate chapter serves to introduce physicists to some of the language and complications of groundwater hydrology necessary for successful modeling. The end-of-chapter problems often indicate open questions, which young researchers entering the field can readily start working on. This significantly revised and expanded third edition includes in particular two new chapters: one on advanced fractal-based models, and one devoted to the discussion of various open issues such as the role of diffusion vs. advection, preferential flow vs. critical path, universal vs. non-universal exponents for conduction, and last but not least, the overall influence of the experimental apparatus in data collection and theory validation. "The book is suitable for advanced graduate courses, with selected problems and questions appearing at the end of each chapter. [...] I think the book is an important work that will guide soil scientists, hydrologists, and physicists to gain a better qualitative and quantitative understanding of multitransport properties of soils." (Marcel G. Schaap, Soil Science Society of America Journal, May-June, 2006)

Convection in Porous Media, 4th Edition, provides a user-friendly introduction to the subject, covering a wide range of topics, such as fibrous insulation, geological strata, and catalytic reactors. The presentation is self-contained, requiring only routine mathematics and the basic elements of fluid mechanics and heat transfer. The book will be of use not only to researchers and practicing engineers as a review and reference, but also to graduate students and others entering the field. The new edition features approximately 1,750 new references and covers current research in nanofluids, cellular porous materials, strong heterogeneity, pulsating flow, and more.

"Stochastic Tools in Mathematics and Science" covers basic stochastic tools used in physics, chemistry, engineering and the life sciences. The topics covered include conditional expectations, stochastic processes, Brownian motion and its relation to partial differential equations, Langevin equations, the Liouville and Fokker-Planck equations, as well as Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms, renormalization, basic statistical mechanics, and generalized Langevin equations and the Mori-Zwanzig formalism. The applications include sampling algorithms, data assimilation, prediction from partial data, spectral analysis, and turbulence. The book is based on lecture notes from a class that has attracted graduate and advanced undergraduate students from mathematics and from many other science departments at the University of California, Berkeley. Each chapter is followed by exercises. The book will be useful for scientists and engineers working in a wide range of fields and applications. For this new edition the material has been thoroughly reorganized and updated, and new sections on scaling, sampling, filtering and data assimilation, based on recent research, have been added. There are additional figures and exercises. Review of earlier edition: "This is an excellent concise textbook which can be used for self-study by graduate and advanced undergraduate students and as a recommended textbook for an introductory course on probabilistic tools in science." Mathematical Reviews, 2006

Dealing with Uncertainties is an innovative monograph that lays special emphasis on the deductive approach to uncertainties and on the shape of uncertainty distributions. This perspective has the potential for dealing with the uncertainty of a single data point and with sets of data that have different weights. It is shown that the inductive approach that is commonly used to estimate uncertainties is in fact not suitable for these two cases. The approach that is used to understand the nature of uncertainties is novel in that it is completely decoupled from measurements. Uncertainties which are the consequence of modern science provide a measure of confidence both in scientific data and in information in everyday life. Uncorrelated uncertainties and correlated uncertainties are fully covered and the weakness of using statistical weights in regression analysis is discussed. The text is abundantly illustrated with examples and includes more than 150 problems to help the reader master the subject.

On June 19th 1999, the European Ministers of Education signed the Bologna Dec laration, with which they agreed that the European university education should be uniformized throughout Europe and based on the two cycle bachelor master's sys tem. The Institute for Theoretical Physics at Utrecht University quickly responded to this new challenge and created an international master's programme in Theoret ical Physics which started running in the summer of 2000. At present, the master's programme is a so called prestige master at Utrecht University, and it aims at train ing motivated students to become sophisticated researchers in theoretical physics. The programme is built on the philosophy that modern theoretical physics is guided by universal principles that can be applied to any sub?eld of physics. As a result, the basis of the master's programme consists of the obligatory courses Statistical Field Theory and Quantum Field Theory. These focus in particular on the general concepts of quantum ?eld theory, rather than on the wide variety of possible applica tions. These applications are left to optional courses that build upon the ?rm concep tual basis given in the obligatory courses. The subjects of these optional courses in clude, for instance, Strongly Correlated Electrons, Spintronics, Bose Einstein Con densation, The Standard Model, Cosmology, and String Theory.

On March 15, 1901, Henri B' enard defended his thesis entitled "Les Tourbillons cellulaires dans une nappe liquide propageant de la chaleur par convection en 1 r' egime permanent" at the University of Paris, Sorbonne. The results contained in this thesis have been at the origin of recent intensive research activities on c- lular structures observed in many physicochemical systems far from equilibrium: instabilities, spatio-temporal patterns, chaos, and turbulence. The French Physical Society organized a scienti?c meeting to commemorate the centenary of B' enard's thesis, at the Ecole Sup' erieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles de Paris (ESPCI). This meeting, which gathered approximately one hundred scientists and graduate students working in nonlinear science, was honored by the presence of the director of the ESPCI, Professor Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Nobel laureate in physics (1991), who gave the opening talk. At the conference, lectures were given by internationally recognized scholars who have contributed to the development of B' enard's work: J.E. Wesfreid, P. Manneville,Y.Pomeau,M.Velarde,J.Gollub,M.Provansal,G.Nicolis,B.C- taing,andP.Coullet.Apostersessionandaroundtableonfurtherdevelopments in nonlinear physics were organized. In the present book, we have extended the list of contributors in order to cover all the aspects involved with B' enard's work, with a main focus on th- mal convection, on B' enard-Marangoni instability and on B' enard-von Karman instability. WewouldliketothankDr.HansKoelschfromSpringerforthepublicationof this monography in the Springer Tracts in Modern Physics series. We ackno- edge a critical reading by C.D. Mitescu and a very helpful technical assistance from Olivier Crumeyrolle.