Computational intelligence encompasses a wide variety of techniques that allow computation to learn, to adapt, and to seek. That is, they may be designed to learn information without explicit programming regarding the nature of the content to be retained, they may be imbued with the functionality to adapt to maintain their course within a complex and unpredictably changing environment, and they may help us seek out truths about our own dynamics and lives through their inclusion in complex system modeling. These capabilities place our ability to compute in a category apart from our ability to erect suspension bridges, although both are products of technological advancement and reflect an increased understanding of our world. In this book, we show how to unify aspects of learning and adaptation within the computational intelligence framework. While a number of algorithms exist that fall under the umbrella of computational intelligence, with new ones added every year, all of them focus on the capabilities of learning, adapting, and helping us seek. So, the term unified computational intelligence relates not to the individual algorithms but to the underlying goals driving them. This book focuses on the computational intelligence areas of neural networks and dynamic programming, showing how to unify aspects of these areas to create new, more powerful, computational intelligence architectures to apply to new problem domains.

DNA replication is arguably the most crucial process at work in living cells. It is the mechanism by which organisms pass their genetic information from one generation to the next and life on Earth would be unthinkable without it. Despite the discovery of DNA structure in the 1950s, the mechanism of its replication remains rather elusive. This work makes important contributions to this line of research. In particular, it addresses two key questions in the area of DNA replication: which evolutionary forces drive the positioning of replication origins in the chromosome and how is the spatial organization of replication factories achieved inside the nucleus of a cell?. A cross-disciplinary approach uniting physics and biology is at the heart of this research. Along with experimental support, statistical physics theory produces optimal origin positions and provides a model for replication fork assembly in yeast. Advances made here can potentially further our understanding of disease mechanisms such as the abnormal replication in cancer.

These lecture notes are dedicated to the most recent theoretical applications of Black Hole solutions in high-energy physics. The main motivation of this volume is to present the latest black hole backgrounds that are relevant for gauge/gravity correspondence. Leading scientists in the field explain effective techniques for finding singular and cosmological solutions embedded in gauged supergravity, shedding light on underlying properties and symmetries. Starting from a basic level, the mathematical structures underlying black holes and cosmologies are revealed, helping the reader grasp the connection between theoretical approaches and physical observations with insights into possible future developments from both a theoretical and experimental point of view. The topics covered in this volume are based on lectures delivered during the "Theoretical Frontiers in Black Holes and Cosmology" school, held in Natal in June 2015.

These proceedings from the 37th International Workshop on Bayesian Inference and Maximum Entropy Methods in Science and Engineering (MaxEnt 2017), held in Sao Carlos, Brazil, aim to expand the available research on Bayesian methods and promote their application in the scientific community. They gather research from scholars in many different fields who use inductive statistics methods and focus on the foundations of the Bayesian paradigm, their comparison to objectivistic or frequentist statistics counterparts, and their appropriate applications. Interest in the foundations of inductive statistics has been growing with the increasing availability of Bayesian methodological alternatives, and scientists now face much more difficult choices in finding the optimal methods to apply to their problems. By carefully examining and discussing the relevant foundations, the scientific community can avoid applying Bayesian methods on a merely ad hoc basis. For over 35 years, the MaxEnt workshops have explored the use of Bayesian and Maximum Entropy methods in scientific and engineering application contexts. The workshops welcome contributions on all aspects of probabilistic inference, including novel techniques and applications, and work that sheds new light on the foundations of inference. Areas of application in these workshops include astronomy and astrophysics, chemistry, communications theory, cosmology, climate studies, earth science, fluid mechanics, genetics, geophysics, machine learning, materials science, medical imaging, nanoscience, source separation, thermodynamics (equilibrium and non-equilibrium), particle physics, plasma physics, quantum mechanics, robotics, and the social sciences. Bayesian computational techniques such as Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling are also regular topics, as are approximate inferential methods. Foundational issues involving probability theory and information theory, as well as novel applications of inference to illuminate the foundations of physical theories, are also of keen interest.

This book highlights the latest findings on nonlinear dynamical systems including two types of attractors: self-excited and hidden attractors. Further, it presents both theoretical and practical approaches to investigating nonlinear dynamical systems with self-excited and hidden attractors. The book includes 20 chapters contributed by respected experts, which focus on various applications such as biological systems, memristor-based systems, fractional-order systems, finance systems, business cycles, oscillators, coupled systems, hyperchaotic systems, flexible robot manipulators, electronic circuits, and control models. Special attention is given to modeling, design, circuit realization, and practical applications to address recent research problems in nonlinear dynamical systems. The book provides a valuable reference guide to nonlinear dynamical systems for engineers, researchers, and graduate students, especially those whose work involves mechanics, electrical engineering, and control systems.

This hard bound spinoff from a special issue of the Journal of Elasticity (volume 100: 1-2) features an English translation of an important 1955 paper by Walter Noll, Die Herteitung der Grundgleichungen der Thermomechanik der Kontinua aus der statistischen Mechanik. In this paper, Noll addresses and analyses the seminal paper of Irving and Kirkwood, published five years earlier, on The Statistical Mechanical Theory of Transport Processes. IV, The Equations of Hydrodynamics. Noll gives new interpretations and provides a firm setting for ideas advanced by Irving & Kirkwood that clearly and directly relate to the basic principles of continuum mechanics. However, the original German paper of Noll seems not to have gained the attention that it deserved as the field of statistical mechanics grew both fundamentally and in applications. By providing an English translation of Noll s paper, Lehoucq & Von Lilienfeld-Toal have provided a great service to the scientific community. The Noll translation is presented here to expose fundamental ideas of statistical mechanics that are of major importance in the modeling of small-scale behavior and its link to macroscopic observations. In recent years there has been a rapidly increasing reliance upon and interest in multi scale methods in computation. This has accentuated the need to establish meaningful connections between atomistic and continuum descriptions of contact interactions such as stress and heat flux. In recognition of Noll s contribution, the translation is accompanied by four relevant and invited papers, including one, entitled Thoughts on the Concept of Stress, by Noll himself.

Several of the very foundations of the cosmological standard model the baryon asymmetry of the universe, dark matter, and the origin of the hot big bang itself still call for an explanation from the perspective of fundamental physics. This workadvocates one intriguing possibility for a consistent cosmology that fills in the theoretical gaps while being fully in accordance with the observational data. At very high energies, the universe might have been in a false vacuum state that preserved B-L, the difference between the baryon number B and the lepton number L as a local symmetry. In this state, the universe experienced a stage of hybrid inflation that only ended when the false vacuum became unstable and decayed, in the course of a waterfall transition, into a phase with spontaneously broken B-L symmetry. This B-L Phase Transition was accompanied by tachyonic preheating that transferred almost the entire energy of the false vacuum into a gas of B-L Higgs bosons, which in turn decayed into heavy Majorana neutrinos. Eventually, these neutrinos decayed into massless radiation, thereby producing the entropy of the hot big bang, generating the baryon asymmetry of the universe via the leptogenesis mechanism and setting the stage for the production of dark matter. Next to a variety of conceptual novelties and phenomenological predictions, the main achievement of the thesis is hence the fascinating notion that the leading role in the first act of our universe might have actually been played by neutrinos.
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The purpose of the science of complexity is to provide, if not a unified approach, at least useful tools to tackling complex problems in various scientific domains. Generally, complexity is considered a fundamental challenge to the reductionist approach in science as a whole and to its ideas of certainty and randomness.

The overall behaviour of a complex system is different from and more than the sum of its parts. The behaviour of non-linear complex systems depends on the interaction (often with retroactive effects) among its constituent parts and not so much (or not only) on the characteristics of these parts themselves; the sum of the behaviour of single parts does not necessarily provide us with an explanation of the aggregate behaviour of a system.

All this is true for economic systems. These are based on the activities of single economic agents. Each individual can obtain only partial knowledge that is focussed around its "world" (local information) and react to external shocks in different ways (local rationality).

The aim of this book is to provide an overview to recent developments in theory and empirical research that view economic systems as complex phenomena whose aggregate dynamics can often not be inferred from its microscopic (microeconomic) building blocks. The collection of papers represented in this volume is dedicated to the memory of Massimo Salzano, who has been a fervent and eloquent advocate of the complexity approach.

The contributions have been presented at a conference held to celebrate Massimo's 60th birthday (Ecople -Economics: From Tradition of Complexity, Capri, 2-4 June, 2006), one year before he unexpectedly passed away in 2007.

The project reported here was a search for new super symmetric particles in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. It has produced some of the world's best exclusion limits on such new particles. Furthermore, dedicated simulation studies and data analyses have also yielded essential input to the upgrade activities of the CMS collaboration, both for the Phase-1 pixel detector upgrade and for the R&D studies in pursuit of a Phase-2 end cap calorimeter upgrade.

This thesis provides an introduction to the physics of the Standard Model and beyond, and to the methods used to analyse Large Hadron Collider (LHC) data. The 'hierarchy problem', astrophysical data and experiments on neutrinos indicate that new physics can be expected at the now accessible TeV scale. This work investigates extensions of the Standard Model with gravitons and gravitinos (in the context of supergravity). The production of these particles in association with jets is studied as one of the most promising avenues for researching new physics at the LHC. Advanced simulation techniques and tools, such as algorithms allowing the computation of Feynman graphs and helicity amplitudes are first developed and then employed.

This doctoral thesis focuses on the search for new phenomena in top-antitop quark (tt) final states with additional b-quark jets at the LHC. It uses the full Run 1 dataset collected by the ATLAS experiment in proton-proton collisions at s=8 TeV. The final state of interest consists of an isolated lepton, a neutrino and at least six jets with at least four b-tagged jets, a challenging experimental signature owing to the large background from tt+heavy-flavor production. This final state is characteristic of ttH production, with the Higgs boson decaying into bb, a process that allows direct probing of the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling. This signature is also present in many extensions of the Standard Model that have been proposed as solutions to the hierarchy problem, such as supersymmetry or composite Higgs models, which predict the pair production of bosonic or fermionic top quark partners, or the anomalous production of four-top-quark events. All these physics processes have been searched for using an ambitious search strategy that has been developed on the basis of a combination of state-of-art theoretical predictions and a sophisticated statistical analysis to constrain in-situ the large background uncertainties. As a result, the most restrictive bounds to date on the above physics processes have been obtained.

The present volume studies the application of concepts from non-equilibrium thermodynamics to a variety of research topics. Emphasis is on the Maximum Entropy Production (MEP) principle and applications to Geosphere-Biosphere couplings. Written by leading researchers from a wide range of backgrounds, the book presents a first coherent account of an emerging field at the interface of thermodynamics, geophysics and life sciences.

Gaining a theoretical understanding of the properties of ultra-relativistic dense matter has been one of the most important and challenging goals in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In this thesis, the author analyzes dense quark matter in QCD with gauge group SU(2) using low-energy effective theoretical techniques and elucidates a novel connection between statistical properties of the Dirac operator spectrum at high baryon chemical potential and a special class of random matrix theories. This work can be viewed as an extension of a similar correspondence between QCD and matrix models which was previously known only for infinitesimal chemical potentials. In future numerical simulations of dense matter the analytical results reported here are expected to serve as a useful tool to extract physical observables such as the BCS gap from numerical data on the Dirac spectrum.

This book describes significant tractable models used in solid mechanics - classical models used in modern mechanics as well as new ones. The models are selected to illustrate the main ideas which allow scientists to describe complicated effects in a simple manner and to clarify basic notations of solid mechanics. A model is considered to be tractable if it is based on clear physical assumptions which allow the selection of significant effects and relatively simple mathematical formulations. The first part of the book briefly reviews classical tractable models for a simple description of complex effects developed from the 18th to the 20th century and widely used in modern mechanics. The second part describes systematically the new tractable models used today for the treatment of increasingly complex mechanical objects - from systems with two degrees of freedom to three-dimensional continuous objects.

This work addresses dynamical aspects of quantum criticality in two space dimensions. It probes two energy scales: the amplitude (Higgs) mode, which describes fluctuations of the order parameter amplitude in the broken symmetry phase and the dual vortex superfluid stiffness. The results demonstrate that the amplitude mode can be probed arbitrarily close to criticality in the universal line shape of the scalar susceptibility and the optical conductivity. The hallmark of quantum criticality is the emergence of softening energy scales near the phase transition. In addition, the author employs the charge-vortex duality to show that the capacitance of the Mott insulator near the superfluid to insulator phase transition serves as a probe for the dual vortex superfluid stiffness. The numerical methods employed are described in detail, in particular a worm algorithm for O(N) relativistic models and methods for numerical analytic continuation of quantum Monte Carlo data. The predictions obtained are particularly relevant to recent experiments in cold atomic systems and disordered superconductors.

This treasure of popular science by the Russian biophysicist Mikhail V. Volkenstein is at last, more than twenty years after its appearance in Russian, available in English translation.

As its title Entropy and Information suggests, the book deals with the thermodynamical concept of entropy and its interpretation in terms of information theory. The author shows how entropy is not to be considered a mere shadow of the central physical concept of energy, but more appropriately as a leading player in all of the major natural processes: physical, chemical, biological, evolutionary, and even cultural.

The theory of entropy is thoroughly developed from its beginnings in the foundational work of Sadi Carnot and Clausius in the context of heat engines, including expositions of much of the necessary physics and mathematics, and illustrations from everyday life of the importance of entropy.

The author then turns to Boltzmann's epoch-making formula relating the entropy of a system directly to the degree of disorder of the system, and to statistical physics as created by Boltzmann and Maxwell---and here again the necessary elements of probability and statistics are expounded. It is shown, in particular, that the temperature of an object is essentially just a measure of the mean square speed of its molecules.

Fluctuations" in a system are introduced and used to explain why the sky is blue, and how, perhaps, the universe came to be so ordered. Whether statistical physics reduces ultimately to pure mechanics, as Laplace's demon" would have it, is also discussed.

The final three chapters concentrate on open systems, that is, systems which exchange energy or matter with their surroundings---first linear systems close to equilibrium, and then non-linear systems far from equilibrium. Here entropy, as it figures in the theory of such systems developed by Prigogine and others, affords explanations of the mechanism of division of cells, the process of aging in organisms, and periodic chemical reactions, among other phenomena.

Finally, information theory is developed---again from first principles---and the entropy of a system characterized as absence of information about the system. In the final chapter, perhaps the piece de resistance of the work, the author examines the thermodynamics of living organisms in the context of biological evolution. Here the value of biological information" is discussed, linked to the concepts of complexity and irreplaceability. The chapter culminates in a fascinating discussion of the significance of these concepts, all centered on entropy, for human culture, with many references to particular writers and artists.

The book is recommended reading for all interested in physics, information theory, chemistry, biology, as well as literature and art."

This text focuses on the algebraic formulation of quantum field theory, from the introductory aspects to the applications to concrete problems of physical interest. The book is divided in thematic chapters covering both introductory and more advanced topics. These include the algebraic, perturbative approach to interacting quantum field theories, algebraic quantum field theory on curved spacetimes (from its structural aspects to the applications in cosmology and to the role of quantum spacetimes), algebraic conformal field theory, the Kitaev's quantum double model from the point of view of local quantum physics and constructive aspects in relation to integrable models and deformation techniques. The book is addressed to master and graduate students both in mathematics and in physics, who are interested in learning the structural aspects and the applications of algebraic quantum field theory.

The fast progress in many areas of research related to non-equilibrium ther- dynamics has prompted us to write a fourth edition of this book. Like in the previous editions, our main concern is to open the subject to the widest au- ence, including students, teachers, and researchers in physics, chemistry, engine- ing, biology, and materials sciences. Our objective is to present a general view on several open problems arising in non-equilibrium situations, and to afford a wide perspective of applications illustrating their practical outcomes and con- quences. A better comprehension of the foundations is generally correlated to an increase of the range of applications, implying mutual feedback and cross fert- ization. Truly, thermodynamic methods are widely used in many areas of science but, surprisingly, the active dynamism of thermodynamics as a ?eld on its own is not suf?ciently perceived outside a relatively reduced number of specialized researchers. Extended irreversible thermodynamics (EIT) goes beyond the classical f- malisms based on the local equilibrium hypothesis; it was also referred to in an earlier publication by the authors (Lebon et al. 1992) as a thermodynamics of the third type, as it provides a bridge between classical irreversible thermodynamics and rational thermodynamics, enlarging at the same time their respective range of application. The salient feature of the theory is that the ?uxes are incorporated into the set of basic variables.

Model reduction and coarse-graining are important in many areas of science and engineering. How does a system with many degrees of freedom become one with fewer? How can a reversible micro-description be adapted to the dissipative macroscopic model? These crucial questions, as well as many other related problems, are discussed in this book. All contributions are by experts whose specialities span a wide range of fields within science and engineering.

Following the birth of the laser in 1960, the field of "nonlinear optics" rapidly emerged.

Today, laser intensities and pulse durations are readily available, for which the concepts and approximations of traditional nonlinear optics no longer apply. In this regime of "extreme nonlinear optics," a large variety of novel and unusual effects arise, for example frequency doubling in inversion symmetric materials or high-harmonic generation in gases, which can lead to attosecond electromagnetic pulses or pulse trains. Other examples of "extreme nonlinear optics" cover diverse areas such as solid-state physics, atomic physics, relativistic free electrons in a vacuum and even the vacuum itself.

This book starts with an introduction to the field based primarily on extensions of two famous textbook examples, namely the Lorentz oscillator model and the Drude model. Here the level of sophistication should be accessible to any undergraduate physics student. Many graphical illustrations and examples are given. The following chapters gradually guide the student towards the current "state of the art" and provide a comprehensive overview of the field. Every chapter is accompanied by exercises to deepen the reader's understanding of important topics, with detailed solutions at the end of the book.

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."

Thermodynamicsandstatisticalphysicsstudythephysicalproperties(mec- nical, thermal, magnetic, optical, electrical, etc.) of the macroscopic system. The tasks and objects of study in thermodynamics and statistical physics are identical. However, the methods of investigationinto macroscopicsystems are di?erent. Thermodynamics is a phenomenological theory. It studies the properties of bodies, without going into the mechanism of phenomena, i.e., not taking into consideration the relation between the internal structure of substance and phenomena, it generalizes experimental results. As a result of such a g- eralization, postulates and laws of thermodynamics made their appearance. These laws make it possible to ?nd general relations between the di?erent properties of macroscopic systems and the physical events occurring in them. Statisticalphysicsisa microscopic theory.Onthebasisoftheknowledgeof the type of particles a system consists of, the nature of their interaction, and thelawsofmotionoftheseparticlesissuingfromtheconstructionofsubstance, it explains the properties being observedon experiment, and predicts the new properties of systems. Using the laws of classical or quantum mechanics, and alsothe theoryofprobability, itestablishesqualitativelynewstatistical app- priatenesses of the physical properties of macroscopic systems, substantiates the laws of thermodynamics, determines the limits of their applicability, gives the statistical interpretation of thermodynamic parameters, and also works out methods of calculations of their means. The Gibbs method is based on statisticalphysics.Thismethodis themostcanonical.Therefore, inthis book, the exposition of the Gibbs method takes an important pla

The term transport phenomena is used to describe processes in which mass, momentum, energy and entropy move about in matter. Advances in Transport Phenomena provide state-of-the-art expositions of major advances by theoretical, numerical and experimental studies from a molecular, microscopic, mesoscopic, macroscopic or megascopic point of view across the spectrum of transport phenomena, from scientific enquiries to practical applications. The annual review series intends to fill the information gap between regularly published journals and university-level textbooks by providing in-depth review articles over a broader scope than in journals. The authoritative articles, contributed by internationally-leading scientists and practitioners, establish the state of the art, disseminate the latest research discoveries, serve as a central source of reference for fundamentals and applications of transport phenomena, and provide potential textbooks to senior undergraduate and graduate students. This review book provides state-of-the-art expositions of major advances by theoretical, numerical and experimental studies from a molecular, microscopic, mesoscopic, macroscopic or megascopic point of view across the spectrum of transport phenomena, from scientific enquiries to practical applications. This new volume of the annual review "Advances in Transport Phenomena" series provides in-depth review articles covering the fields of mass transfer, fluid mechanics, heat transfer and thermodynamics. This review book provides state-of-the-art expositions of major advances by theoretical, numerical and experimental studies from a molecular, microscopic, mesoscopic, macroscopic or megascopic point of view across the spectrum of transport phenomena, from scientific enquiries to practical applications. This new volume of the annual review "Advances in Transport Phenomena" series provides in-depth review articles covering the fields of mass transfer, fluid mechanics, heat transfer and thermodynamics.