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)

Contains most of the invited papers of the Second Colloquium and Workshop on 'Random Fields: Rigorous Results in Statistical Mechanics' held in K'oszeg, Hungary between August 26 and September 1, 1984--Pref.

The present work reflects a multi-disciplinary effort to address the topic of confined hydrosystems developed with a cross-fertilization panel of physics, chemists, biologists, soil and earth scientists. Confined hydrosystems include all situations in natural settings wherein the extent of the liquid phase is limited so that the solid-liquid and/or liquid-air interfaces may be critical to the properties of the whole system. Primarily, this so-called "residual" solution is occluded in pores/channels in such a way that decreases its tendency to evaporation, and makes it long-lasting in arid (Earth deserts) and hyper-arid (Mars soils) areas. The associated physics is available from domains like capillarity, adsorption and wetting, and surface forces. However, many processes are still to understand due to the close relationship between local structure and matter properties, the subtle interplay between the host and the guest, the complex intermingling among static reactivity and migration pathway. Expert contributors from Israel, Russia, Europe and US discuss the behaviour of water and aqueous solutes at different scale, from the nanometric range of carbon nanotubes and nanofluidics to the regional scale of aquifers reactive flow in sedimentary basins. This scientific scope allowed the group of participants with very different background to tackle the confinement topic at different scales. The book is organized according to four sections that include: i) flow, from nano- to mega-scale; ii) ions, hydration and transport; iii) in-pores/channels cavitation; iv) crystallization under confinement. Most of contributions relates to experimental works at different resolution, interpreted through classic thermodynamics and intermolecular forces. Simulation techniques are used to explore the atomic scale of interfaces and the migration in the thinnest angstrom-wide channels.

"...The Multiversal book series is equally unique, providing book-length extensions of the lectures with enough additional depth for those who truly want to explore these fields, while also providing the kind of clarity that is appropriate for interested lay people to grasp the general principles involved." - Lawrence M. Krauss Cosmic Update Covers: A novel approach to uncover the dark faces of the Standard Model of cosmology. The possibility that Dark Energy and Dark Matter are manifestations of the inhomogeneous geometry of our Universe. On the history of cosmological model building and the general architecture of cosmological modes. Illustrations on the Large Scale Structure of the Universe. A new perspective on the classical static Einstein Cosmos. Global properties of World Models including their Topology. The Arrow of Time in a Universe with a Positive Cosmological Constant. Exploring the consequences of a fundamental Cosmological Constant for our Universe. Exploring why the current observed acceleration of the Universe may not be its final destiny. Demonstrating that nature forbids the existence of a pure Cosmological Constant. Our current understanding of the long term (in time scales that greatly exceed the current age of the Universe) future of the Universe. The long term fate and eventual destruction of the astrophysical objects that populate the universe -- including clusters, galaxies, stars, planets, and black holes. The material is presented in a layperson-friendly language followed by addition technical sections that explain the basic equations and principles. This feature is very attractive to readers who want to learn more about the theories involved beyond the basic description. "Multiversal Journeys (TM) is a trademark of Farzad Nekoogar and Multiversal Journeys, a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization."

In this book the author presents the dynamical systems in infinite dimension, especially those generated by dissipative partial differential equations. This book attempts a systematic study of infinite dimensional dynamical systems generated by dissipative evolution partial differential equations arising in mechanics and physics and in other areas of sciences and technology. This second edition has been updated and extended.

Overthe nearly 20 years of Kelvin probe force microscopy, an increasing interest in the technique and its applications has developed. This book gives a concise introduction into the method and describes various experimental techniques. Surface potential studies on semiconductor materials, nanostructures and devices are described, as well as application to molecular and organic materials. The current state of surface potential at the atomic scale is also considered. This book presents an excellent introduction for the newcomer to this field, as much as a valuable resource for the expert."

"Fundamental Aspects of Plasma Chemical Physics - Thermodynamics" develops basic and advanced concepts of plasma thermodynamics from both classical and statistical points of view.

After a refreshment of classical thermodynamics applied to the dissociation and ionization regimes, the book invites the reader to discover the role of electronic excitation in affecting the properties of plasmas, a topic often overlooked by the thermal plasma community.

Particular attention is devoted to the problem of the divergence of the partition function of atomic species and the state-to-state approach for calculating the partition function of diatomic and polyatomic molecules. The limit of ideal gas approximation is also discussed, by introducing Debye-Huckel and virial corrections.

Throughout the book, worked examples are given in order to clarify concepts and mathematical approaches.

This book is a first of a series of three books to be published by the authors on fundamental aspects of plasma chemical physics. The next books will discuss transport and kinetics.

"

Complexity, Cognition and the City aims at a deeper understanding of urbanism, while invoking, on an equal footing, the contributions both the hard and soft sciences have made, and are still making, when grappling with the many issues and facets of regional planning and dynamics. In this work, the author goes beyond merely seeing the city as a self-organized, emerging pattern of some collective interaction between many stylized urban "agents" - he makes the crucial step of attributing cognition to his agents and thus raises, for the first time, the question on how to deal with a complex system composed of many interacting complex agents in clearly defined settings. Accordingly, the author eventually addresses issues of practical relevance for urban planners and decision makers. The book unfolds its message in a largely nontechnical manner, so as to provide a broad interdisciplinary readership with insights, ideas, and other stimuli to encourage further research - with the twofold aim of further pushing back the boundaries of complexity science and emphasizing the all-important interrelation of hard and soft sciences in recognizing the cognitive sciences as another necessary ingredient for meaningful urban studies.

The book introduces readers to and summarizes the current ideas and theories about the basic mechanisms for transport in chaotic flows. Typically no single paradigmatic approach exists as this topic is relevant for fields as diverse as plasma physics, geophysical flows and various branches of engineering. Accordingly, the dispersion of matter in chaotic or turbulent flows is analyzed from different perspectives. Partly based on lecture courses given by the author, this book addresses both graduate students and researchers in search of a high-level but approachable and broad introduction to the topic.

This book provides a profound understanding, which physical processes and mechanisms cause the heat transfer in composite and cellular materials. It shows models for all important classes of composite materials and introduces into the latest advances.

In three parts, the book covers Composite Materials (Part A), Porous and Cellular Materials (Part B) and the appearance of a conjoint solid phase and fluid aggregate (Part C).

Describes the chaos apparent in simple mechanical systems with the goal of elucidating the connections between classical and quantum mechanics. It develops the relevant ideas of the last two decades via geometric intuition rather than algebraic manipulation. The historical and cultural background against which these scientific developments have occurred is depicted, and realistic examples are discussed in detail. This book enables entry-level graduate students to tackle fresh problems in this rich field.

The book covers all aspects from the expansion of the Boltzmann transport equation with harmonic functions to application to devices, where transport in the bulk and in inversion layers is considered. The important aspects of stabilization and band structure mapping are discussed in detail. This is done not only for the full band structure of the 3D k-space, but also for the warped band structure of the quasi 2D hole gas. Efficient methods for building the Schrodinger equation for arbitrary surface or strain directions, gridding of the 2D k-space and solving it together with the other two equations are presented."

Dynamic logic (DL) recently had a highest impact on the development in several areas of modeling and algorithm design. The book discusses classical algorithms used for 30 to 50 years (where improvements are often measured by signal-to-clutter ratio), and also new areas, which did not previously exist. These achievements were recognized by National and International awards. Emerging areas include cognitive, emotional, intelligent systems, data mining, modeling of the mind, higher cognitive functions, evolution of languages and other. Classical areas include detection, recognition, tracking, fusion, prediction, inverse scattering, and financial prediction. All these classical areas are extended to using mixture models, which previously was considered unsolvable in most cases. Recent neuroimaging experiments proved that the brain-mind actually uses DL. "Emotional Cognitive Neural Algorithms with Engineering Applications" is written for professional scientists and engineers developing computer and information systems, for professors teaching modeling and algorithms, and for students working on Masters and Ph.D. degrees in these areas. The book will be of interest to psychologists and neuroscientists interested in mathematical models of the brain and min das well.

In general, combustion is a spatially three-dimensional, highly complex physi co-chemical process oftransient nature. Models are therefore needed that sim to such a degree that it becomes amenable plify a given combustion problem to theoretical or numerical analysis but that are not so restrictive as to distort the underlying physics or chemistry. In particular, in view of worldwide efforts to conserve energy and to control pollutant formation, models of combustion chemistry are needed that are sufficiently accurate to allow confident predic tions of flame structures. Reduced kinetic mechanisms, which are the topic of the present book, represent such combustion-chemistry models. Historically combustion chemistry was first described as a global one-step reaction in which fuel and oxidizer react to form a single product. Even when detailed mechanisms ofelementary reactions became available, empirical one step kinetic approximations were needed in order to make problems amenable to theoretical analysis. This situation began to change inthe early 1970s when computing facilities became more powerful and more widely available, thereby facilitating numerical analysis of relatively simple combustion problems, typi cally steady one-dimensional flames, with moderately detailed mechanisms of elementary reactions. However, even on the fastest and most powerful com puters available today, numerical simulations of, say, laminar, steady, three dimensional reacting flows with reasonably detailed and hence realistic ki netic mechanisms of elementary reactions are not possible."

This is a collection of outstanding review papers on integrable systems. It gives the algebraic geometric aspects of the subject, describes integrability techniques e.g. for the modified KdV equation, integrability of Hamiltonian systems, hierarchies of equations, probability distribution of eigenvalues, and modern aspects of quantum groups. It addresses researchers in mathematics and mathematical physics.

This book collects together recent results on large-scale structures in non-linear science. Coherent states, convective and turbulent patterns, inverse cascades, interfaces and cooperative phenomena in fluids and plasmas are discussed, together with the implementation of concepts of statistical mechanics to particle physics and nuclear matter. Special attention is devoted to phenomena, such as mixing, which display macroscopicfeatures, even though generated by small-scale dynamical processes. In this context, homoclinic structure, the KAM theorem, Lyapunov stability, and singularities are addressed. A new perturbative technique for classical and quantum fields and new results concerning the analysis of hierarchially organized objects are presented. The book should be attractive for a large audience including engineers, mathematicians and physicists.

The study of the magnetic fields of the Earth and Sun, as well as those of other planets, stars, and galaxies, has a long history and a rich and varied literature, including in recent years a number of review articles and books dedicated to the dynamo theories of these fields. Against this background of work, some explanation of the scope and purpose of the present monograph, and of the presentation and organization of the material, is therefore needed. Dynamo theory offers an explanation of natural magnetism as a phenomenon of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), the dynamics governing the evolution and interaction of motions of an electrically conducting fluid and electromagnetic fields. A natural starting point for a dynamo theory assumes the fluid motion to be a given vector field, without regard for the origin of the forces which drive it. The resulting kinematic dynamo theory is, in the non-relativistic case, a linear advection-diffusion problem for the magnetic field. This kinematic theory, while far simpler than its magnetohydrodynamic counterpart, remains a formidable analytical problem since the interesting solutions lack the easiest symmetries. Much ofthe research has focused on the simplest acceptable flows and especially on cases where the smoothing effect of diffusion can be exploited. A close analog is the advection and diffusion of a scalar field by laminar flows, the diffusion being measured by an appropriate Peclet number. This work has succeeded in establishing dynamo action as an attractive candidate for astrophysical magnetism.

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

This two-volume work gives the first detailed coherent treatment of a relatively young branch of statistical physics - nonlinear nonequilibrium and fluctuational dissipative thermodynamics. This area of research has taken shape rather recently: its de elopment began in 1959. The earlier theory - linear nonequilibrium ther modynamics - is in principle a simple special case of the new theory. Despite the fact that the title of the book includes the word 'nonlinear', it also covers the results of linear nonequilibrium thermodynamics. The presentation of the linear and nonlinear theories is done within a common theoretical framework that is not subject to the linearity condition. The author hopes that the reader will perceive the intrinsic unjty of this dis cipline, the uniformity and generality of its constituent parts. This theory has a wide variety of applications in various domains of physics and physical chemistry, enabling one to calculate thermal fluctuations in various nonlinear systems. The book is divided into two volumes. Fluctuation-dissipation theorems (or relations) of various types (linear, quadratic and cubic, classical and quantum) are considered in the first volume. There one encounters the Markov and non-Markov fluctuation-dissipation theorems (FDTs), theorems of the first, second and third kinds. Nonlinear FDTs are less known than their linear counterparts. The present second volume of the book deals with the advanced theory. It consists of four chapters. The connection and interdependence of the material in the various chapters of both volumes are illustrated in the accompanying diagram."

The review articles in this book treat the overall nonlinear and complex behavior of nature from the viewpoint of such diverse research fields as fluid mechanics, condensed matter physics, biophysics, biochemistry, biology, and applied mathematics. Attention is focussed on a broad and comprehensive overview of recent developments and perspectives. Particular attention is given to the so-far unsolved problem of how to capture the mutual interplay between the microscopic and macroscopic dynamics that extend over various length and time scales. The book addresses researchers as well as graduate students.

Inspired by the general configuration characteristics of automatic production lines, the author discusses the modelisation of important sectors of a factory. Typical topics such as parts feeders, part orienting devices, insertion mechanisms and buffered flows are analysed using random evolution models and non-linear dynamical systems theory.

This book contains thoroughly written reviews of modern developments in low-dimensional modelling of statistical mechanics and quantum systems. It addresses students as well as researchers. The main items can be grouped into integrable (quantum) spin systems, which lead in the continuum limit to (conformal invariant) quantum field theory models and their algebraic structures, ranging from the Yang-Baxter equation and quantum groups to noncommutative geometry.