The theory of thermodynamics has been one of the bedrocks of 19th-century physics, and thermodynamic problems have inspired Planck's quantum hypothesis. One hundred years later, in an era where we design increasingly sophisticated nanotechnologies, researchers in quantum physics have been 'returning to their roots', attempting to reconcile modern nanoscale devices with the theory of thermodynamics. This textbook explains how it is possible to unify the two opposite pictures of microscopic quantum physics and macroscopic thermodynamics in one consistent framework, proving that the ancient theory of thermodynamics still offers many remarkable insights into present-day problems. This textbook focuses on the microscopic derivation and understanding of key principles and concepts and their interrelation. The topics covered in this book include (quantum) stochastic processes, (quantum) master equations, local detailed balance, classical stochastic thermodynamics, (quantum) fluctuation theorems, strong coupling and non-Markovian effects, thermodynamic uncertainty relations, operational approaches, Maxwell's demon, and time-reversal symmetry, among other topics. The textbook also explores several practical applications of the theory in more detail, including single-molecule pulling experiments, quantum transport and thermoelectric effects in quantum dots, the micromaser, and related setups in quantum optics. The aim of this book is to inspire readers to investigate a plethora of modern nanoscale devices from a thermodynamic point of view, allowing them to address their dissipation, efficiency, reliability, and power based on a conceptually clear understanding about the microscopic origin of heat, entropy, and the second law. The book is accessible to graduate students, post-docs, and lecturers, but will also be of interest to all researchers striving for a deeper understanding of the laws of thermodynamics beyond their traditional realm of applicability.

Defrosting for Air Source Heat Pumps: Research, Analysis and Methods presents a detailed analysis of the methods, processes and problems relating to defrosting, a necessary requirement to maintain the performance of ASHP units. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of control strategies and system design optimization methods that improve the performance and reliability of units. The book discusses the most recent experimental and numerical studies of reverse cycle defrosting and the most widely used defrosting method for ASHP. Techno-economic considerations are also presented, as is the outlook for the future. This book is a valuable resource for research students and academics of thermal energy and mechanical engineering, especially those focusing on defrosting for ASHP, heating, ventilation and energy efficiency, as well as engineers and professionals engaged in the development and management of heat pump machinery.

The physical framework used to describe the various conversions is endoreversible thermodynamics, a subset of irreversible thermodynamics. "Thermodynamics of Solar Energy Conversion" provides an excellent generalized introduction into principles of solar energy conversion for everybody knowing some basics of university mathematics. Described are situations which are not in equilibrium and in which entropy is continuously created, but which are nevertheless stationary. In dealing with endoreversible thermodynamics, the given information in this book enables the reader to calculate the explicit values for a broad class of processes. It is demonstrated that solar energy conversion is a process particularly suited to being described in this way.

"De Vos is a wonderful storyteller"
--Prof. Dr. B. Andresen

One of the most penetrating and celebrated thinkers writing about the philosophy of science today, Isabelle Stengers here provides a firsthand account of the meeting of science and history. Concerned with the force and inventiveness of those theories, Power and Invention offers a unique perspective on the power of scientific theories to modify society, and vice versa.

Using the law of thermodynamics, Stengers sets out to explain the consequences of nonlinear dynamics (or chaos theory) for philosophy and science. She makes a case for the concept of complexity that transcends the conventional boundaries of scientific discourse and that clearly exposes the risks of scientific theories. Among the questions she confronts are: Is psychoanalysis a science? Is there such a thing as "women's science"? What are scientific theories?

With over half of the world's population now living in urban areas, the ability to model and understand the structure and dynamics of cities is becoming increasingly valuable. Combining new data with tools and concepts from statistical physics and urban economics, this book presents a modern and interdisciplinary perspective on cities and urban systems. Both empirical observations and theoretical approaches are critically reviewed, with particular emphasis placed on derivations of classical models and results, along with analysis of their limits and validity. Key aspects of cities are thoroughly analyzed, including mobility patterns, the impact of multimodality, the coupling between different transportation modes, the evolution of infrastructure networks, spatial and social organisation, and interactions between cities. Drawing upon knowledge and methods from areas of mathematics, physics, economics and geography, the resulting quantitative description of cities will be of interest to all those studying and researching how to model these complex systems.

For almost 20 years the author has conducted research on both macroscopic and molecular theories. The results of his investigation, which can be found in this work, are that irreversible thermodynamics and kinetic theory of matter are not separable especially for nonlinear irreversible processes occurring in systems removed far from equilibrium and thus must be examined together in a mutually consistent manner. Includes coverage of such topics as mass and momentum conservation law, bilinear and quadratic forms for entropy production, viscous phenomena, boundary conditions for velocities and much more.

Physics on Your Feet (2nd Edition) is a significantly expanded collection of physics problems covering the broad range of topics in classical and modern physics that were, or could have been, asked at oral PhD exams at University of California at Berkeley. The questions are easy to formulate, but some of them can only be answered using an outside-of-the box approach. Detailed solutions are provided, from which the reader is guaranteed to learn a lot about the physicists' way of thinking. The book is also packed full of cartoons and dry humor to help take the edge off the stress and anxiety surrounding exams. This is a helpful guide for students preparing for their exams, as well as a resource for university lecturers looking for good instructive problems. No exams are necessary to enjoy the book!

This textbook is intended for undergraduates who are carrying out laboratory experiments in the physical sciences for the first time. It is a practical guide on how to analyze data and estimate errors. The necessary formulas for performing calculations are given, and the ideas behind them are explained, although this is not a formal text on statistics. Specific examples are worked through step by step in the text. Emphasis is placed on the need to think about whether a calculated error is sensible. Students should take this book with them to the laboratory, and the format is intended to make this convenient. The book will provide the necessary understanding of what is involved, should inspire confidence in the method of estimating errors, and enable numerical calculations without too much effort.

Advanced Thermodynamics Engineering, Second Edition is designed for readers who need to understand and apply the engineering physics of thermodynamic concepts. It employs a self-teaching format that reinforces presentation of critical concepts, mathematical relationships, and equations with concrete physical examples and explanations of applications to help readers apply principles to their own real-world problems.

Less Mathematical/Theoretical Derivations More Focus on Practical Application

Because both students and professionals must grasp theory almost immediately in this ever-changing electronic era, this book now completely in decimal outline format uses a phenomenological approach to problems, making advanced concepts easier to understand. After a decade teaching advanced thermodynamics, the authors infuse their own style and tailor content based on their observations as professional engineers, as well as feedback from their students. Condensing more esoteric material to focus on practical uses for this continuously evolving area of science, this book is filled with revised problems and extensive tables on thermodynamic properties and other useful information.

The authors include an abundance of examples, figures, and illustrations to clarify presented ideas, and additional material and software tools are available for download. The result is a powerful, practical instructional tool that gives readers a strong conceptual foundation on which to build a solid, functional understanding of thermodynamics engineering.

The first comprehensive graduate-level introduction to stochastic thermodynamics Stochastic thermodynamics is a well-defined subfield of statistical physics that aims to interpret thermodynamic concepts for systems ranging in size from a few to hundreds of nanometers, the behavior of which is inherently random due to thermal fluctuations. This growing field therefore describes the nonequilibrium dynamics of small systems, such as artificial nanodevices and biological molecular machines, which are of increasing scientific and technological relevance. This textbook provides an up-to-date pedagogical introduction to stochastic thermodynamics, guiding readers from basic concepts in statistical physics, probability theory, and thermodynamics to the most recent developments in the field. Gradually building up to more advanced material, the authors consistently prioritize simplicity and clarity over exhaustiveness and focus on the development of readers' physical insight over mathematical formalism. This approach allows the reader to grow as the book proceeds, helping interested young scientists to enter the field with less effort and to contribute to its ongoing vibrant development. Chapters provide exercises to complement and reinforce learning. Appropriate for graduate students in physics and biophysics, as well as researchers, Stochastic Thermodynamics serves as an excellent initiation to this rapidly evolving field. Emphasizes a pedagogical approach to the subject Highlights connections with the thermodynamics of information Pays special attention to molecular biophysics applications Privileges physical intuition over mathematical formalism Solutions manual available on request for instructors adopting the book in a course

Measurements, Mechanisms, and Models of Heat Transport offers an interdisciplinary approach to the dynamic response of matter to energy input. Using a combination of fundamental principles of physics, recent developments in measuring time-dependent heat conduction, and analytical mathematics, this timely reference summarizes the relative advantages of currently used methods, and remediates flaws in modern models and their historical precursors. Geophysicists, physical chemists, and engineers will find the book to be a valuable resource for its discussions of radiative transfer models and the kinetic theory of gas, amended to account for atomic collisions being inelastic. This book is a prelude to a companion volume on the thermal state, formation, and evolution of planets. Covering both microscopic and mesoscopic phenomena of heat transport, Measurements, Mechanisms, and Models of Heat Transport offers both the fundamental knowledge and up-to-date measurements and models to encourage further improvem

This book presents a first generation of artificial brains, using vision as sample application. An object recognition system is built, using neurons and synapses as exclusive building elements. The system contains a feature pyramid with 8 orientations and 5 resolution levels for 1000 objects and networks for binding of features into objects. This vision system can recognize objects robustly in the presence of changes in illumination, deformation, distance and pose (as long as object components remain visible).

The neuro-synaptic network owes its functional power to the introduction of rapidly modifiable dynamic synapses. These give a network greater pattern recognition capabilities than are achievable with fixed connections. The spatio-temporal correlation structure of patterns is captured by a single synaptic differential equation in a universal way. The correlation can appear as synchronous neural firing, which signals the presence of a feature in a robust way, or binds features into objects.

Although in this book we can present only a first generation artificial brain and believe many more generations will have to follow to reach the full power of the human brain, we nevertheless see a new era of computation on the horizon. There were times when computers, with their precision, reliability and blinding speed, were considered to be as superior to the wet matter of our brain as a jet plane is to a sparrow. These times seem to be over, given the fact that digital systems inspired by formal logic and controlled algorithmically - today's computers - are hitting a complexity crisis. A paradigm change is in the air: from the externally organised to the self-organised computer, of which the results described in this book may give an inkling.

Thermal physics deals with collections of large numbers of particles - typically 10 to the 23rd power or so. Examples include the air in a balloon, the water in a lake, the electrons in a chunk of metal, and the photons given off by the sun. We can't possibly follow every detail of the motions of so many particles. So in thermal physics we assume that these motions are random, and we use the laws of probability to predict how the material as a whole ought to behave. Alternatively, we can measure the bulk properties of a material, and from these infer something about the particles it is made of. This book will give you a working understanding of thermal physics, assuming that you have already studied introductory physics and calculus. You will learn to apply the general laws of energy and entropy to engines, refrigerators, chemical reactions, phase transformations, and mixtures. You will also learn to use basic quantum physics and powerful statistical methods to predict in detail how temperature affects molecular speeds, vibrations of solids, electrical and magnetic behaviors, emission of light, and exotic low-temperature phenomena. The problems and worked examples explore applications not just within physics but also to engineering, chemistry, biology, geology, atmospheric science, astrophysics, cosmology, and everyday life.

This unique book gives a modern account of particle physics and gravity based on supersymmetry and supergravity, two of the most significant developments in theoretical physics since general relativity. The book begins with a brief overview of the history of unification and then goes into a detailed exposition of both fundamental and phenomenological topics. The topics in fundamental physics include Einstein gravity, Yang-Mills theory, anomalies, the standard model, supersymmetry and supergravity, and the construction of supergravity couplings with matter and gauge fields, as well as computational techniques for SO(10) couplings. The topics of phenomenological interest include implications of supergravity models at colliders, CP violation, and proton stability, as well as topics in cosmology such as inflation, leptogenesis, baryogenesis, and dark matter. The book is intended for graduate students and researchers seeking to master the techniques for building grand unified models.

Discover a straightforward and holistic look at energy conversion and conservation processes using the exergy concept with this thorough text. Explains the fundamental energy conversion processes in numerous diverse systems, ranging from jet engines and nuclear reactors to human bodies. Provides examples for applications to practical energy conversion processes and systems that use our naturally occurring energy resources, such as fossil fuels, solar energy, wind, geothermal, and nuclear fuels. With more than one-hundred diverse cases and solved examples, readers will be able to perform optimizations for a cleaner environment, a sustainable energy future, and affordable energy generation. An essential tool for practicing scientists and engineers who work or do research in the area of energy and exergy, as well as graduate students and faculty in chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and physics.

Equilibrium Thermodynamics gives a comprehensive but concise course in the fundamentals of classical thermodynamics. Although the subject is essentially classical in nature, illustrative material is drawn widely from modern physics and free use is made of microscopic ideas to illuminate it. The overriding objective in writing the book was to achieve a clear exposition: to give an account of the subject that it both stimulating and easy to learn from. Classical thermodynamics has such wide application that it can be taught in many ways. The terms of reference for Equilibrium Thermodynamics are primarily those of the undergraduate physicist; but it is also suitable for courses in chemistry, engineering, materials science etc. The subject is usually taught in the first or second year of an undergraduate course, but the book takes the student to degree standard (and beyond). Prerequisites are elementary or school-level thermal physics.

Handbook for Transversely Finned Tubes Heat Exchangers Design contains detailed experimental data, correlations, and design methods for designing and improving the performance of finned tube heat exchangers. It covers the three main types, circular finned, square finned, and helical finned tube bundles. Based on extensive experimental studies and tested at leading design and research institutions, this handbook provides an extensive set of materials for calculating and designing convective surfaces from transversely finned tubes, with a particular emphasis on power plant applications.

Water (R718) Turbo Compressor and Ejector Refrigeration/Heat Pump Technology provides the latest information on efficiency improvements, a main topic in recent investigations of thermal energy machines, plants, and systems that include turbo compressors, ejectors, and refrigeration/heat pump systems. This, when coupled with environmental concerns, has led to the application of eco-friendly refrigerants and to a renewed interest in natural refrigerants. Within this context, readers will find valuable information that explores refrigeration and heat pump systems using natural refrigerants, polygeneration systems, the energy efficiency of thermal systems, the utilization of low temperature waste heat, and cleaner production. The book also examines the technical, economic, and environmental reasons of R718 refrigeration/heat pump systems and how they are competitive with traditional systems, serving as a valuable reference for engineers who work in the design and construction of thermal plants and systems, and those who wish to specialize in the use of R718 as a refrigerant in these systems.

This book basically caters to the needs of undergraduates and graduates physics students in the area ofclassical physics, specially Classical Mechanics and Electricity and Electromagnetism. Lecturers/ Tutors may use it as a resource book. The contents of the book are based on the syllabi currently used in the undergraduate courses in USA, U.K., and other countries. The book is divided into 15 chapters, each chapter beginning with a brief but adequate summary and necessary formulas and Line diagrams followed by a variety of typical problems useful for assignments and exams. Detailed solutions are provided at the end of each chapter.

Microchannel Heat transfer is the cooling application of high power density microchips in the CPU system, micropower systems and many other large scale thermal systems requiring effective cooling capacity. This book offers the latest research and recommended models on the microsize cooling system which not only significantly reduces the weight load, but also enhances the capability to remove much greater amount of heat than any of large scale cooling systems. A detailed reference in microchannel phase change (boiling and condensation) including recommended models and correlations for various requirements such as pressure loss, and heat transfer coefficient. Researchers, engineers, designers and students will benefit from the collated, state-of-the-art of the research put together in this book and its systematic, addressing all the relevant issues and providing a good reference for solving problems of critical analysis.

This textbook facilitates students' ability to apply fundamental principles and concepts in classical thermodynamics to solve challenging problems relevant to industry and everyday life. It also introduces the reader to the fundamentals of statistical mechanics, including understanding how the microscopic properties of atoms and molecules, and their associated intermolecular interactions, can be accounted for to calculate various average properties of macroscopic systems. The author emphasizes application of the fundamental principles outlined above to the calculation of a variety of thermodynamic properties, to the estimation of conversion efficiencies for work production by heat interactions, and to the solution of practical thermodynamic problems related to the behavior of non-ideal pure fluids and fluid mixtures, including phase equilibria and chemical reaction equilibria. The book contains detailed solutions to many challenging sample problems in classical thermodynamics and statistical mechanics that will help the reader crystallize the material taught. Class-tested and perfected over 30 years of use by nine-time Best Teaching Award recipient Professor Daniel Blankschtein of the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT, the book is ideal for students of Chemical and Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, and Materials Science, who will benefit greatly from in-depth discussions and pedagogical explanations of key concepts. Distills critical concepts, methods, and applications from leading full-length textbooks, along with the author's own deep understanding of the material taught, into a concise yet rigorous graduate and advanced undergraduate text; Enriches the standard curriculum with succinct, problem-based learning strategies derived from the content of 50 lectures given over the years in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT; Reinforces concepts covered with detailed solutions to illuminating and challenging homework problems.

The new edition of this highly regarded textbook provides a detailed overview of the most important characterization techniques for solar cells and a discussion of their advantages and disadvantages. It describes in detail all aspects of solar cell function, the physics behind every single step, as well as all the issues to be considered when improving solar cells and their efficiency. The text is now complete with examples of how the appropriate characterization techniques enable the distinction between several potential limitation factors, describing how quantities that have been introduced theoretically in earlier chapters become experimentally accessible. With exercises after each chapter to reinforce the newly acquired knowledge and requiring no more than standard physics knowledge, this book enables students and professionals to understand the factors driving conversion efficiency and to apply this to their own solar cell development.

Non-Destructive Testing and Condition Monitoring Techniques in Wind Energy looks at the complex and critical components of energy assets and the importance of inspection and maintenance to ensure their high availability and uninterrupted operation. Presenting the main concepts, state-of-the-art advances and case studies, this book approaches the topic by considering it as an integral part of the overall operation of any wind energy project. Linking the essential NDT subject with its sub disciplines, the book uses computational techniques, dynamic analysis, probabilistic methods, and mathematical optimization techniques to support analysis of prognostic problems with defined constraints and requirements. This book is the first of its kind and will provide useful insights to industrial engineers and scientists, academics and students in the possibilities that NDT and condition monitoring technologies can offer.

This book is an attempt to get to the bottom of an acute and perennial tension between our best scientific pictures of the fundamental physical structure of the world and our everyday empirical experience of it. The trouble is about the direction of time. The situation (very briefly) is that it is a consequence of almost every one of those fundamental scientific pictures--and that it is at the same time radically at odds with our common sense--that whatever can happen can just as naturally happen backwards.

Albert provides an unprecedentedly clear, lively, and systematic new account--in the context of a Newtonian-Mechanical picture of the world--of the ultimate origins of the statistical regularities we see around us, of the temporal irreversibility of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, of the asymmetries in our epistemic access to the past and the future, and of our conviction that by acting now we can affect the future but not the past. Then, in the final section of the book, he generalizes the Newtonian picture to the quantum-mechanical case and (most interestingly) suggests a very deep potential connection between the problem of the direction of time and the quantum-mechanical measurement problem.

The book aims to be both an original contribution to the present scientific and philosophical understanding of these matters at the most advanced level, and something in the nature of an elementary textbook on the subject accessible to interested high-school students.

The marvellous complexity of the Universe emerges from several deep laws and a handful of fundamental constants that fix its shape, scale, and destiny. There is a deep structure to the world which at the same time is simple, elegant, and beautiful. Where did these laws and these constants come from? And why are the laws so fruitful when written in the language of mathematics? Peter Atkins considers the minimum effort needed to equip the Universe with its laws and its constants. He explores the origin of the conservation of energy, of electromagnetism, of classical and quantum mechanics, and of thermodynamics, showing how all these laws spring from deep symmetries. The revolutionary result is a short but immensely rich weaving together of the fundamental ideas of physics. With his characteristic wit, erudition, and economy, Atkins sketches out how the laws of Nature can spring from very little. Or arguably from nothing at all.