Nucleation is the initial step of every first-order phase transition, and most phase transitions encountered both in everyday life and industrial processes are of the first-order. Using an elegant classical theory based on thermodynamics and kinetics, this book provides a fully detailed picture of multi-component nucleation. As many of the issues concerning multi-component nucleation theory have been solved during the last 10-15 years, it also thoroughly integrates both fundamental theory with recent advances presented in the literature.

Classical Nucleation Theory in Multicomponent Systems serves as a textbook for advanced thermodynamics courses, as well as an important reference for researchers in the field. The main topics covered are: the basic relevant thermodynamics and statistical physics; modelling a molecular cluster as a spherical liquid droplet; predicting the size and composition of the nucleating critical clusters; kinetic models for cluster growth and decay; calculating nucleation rates; and a full derivation and application of nucleation theorems that can be used to extract microscopic cluster properties from nucleation rate measurements.

The assumptions and approximations needed to build the classical theory are described in detail, and the reasons why the theory fails in certain cases are explained. Relevant problems are presented at the end of each chapter.

This book describes a comprehensive approach to applying systems science formally to the deep analysis of a wide variety of complex systems. Detailed 'how-to' examples of the three phases (analysis-modeling-design) of systems science are applied to systems of various types (machines, organic (e.g. ecosystem), and supra-organic (e.g. business organizations and government). The complexity of the global system has reached proportions that seriously challenge our abilities to understand the consequences of our use of technology, modification of natural ecosystems, or even how to govern ourselves. For this reason, complex mathematics is eschewed when simpler structures will suffice, allowing the widest possible audience to apply and benefit from the available tools and concepts of systems science in their own work. The book shows, in detail, how to functionally and structurally deconstruct complex systems using a fundamental language of systems. It shows how to capture the discovered details in a structured knowledge base from which abstract models can be derived for simulation. The knowledge base is also shown to be a basis for generating system design specifications for human-built artifacts, or policy recommendations/policy mechanisms for socio-economic-ecological systems management. The book builds on principles and methods found in the authors' textbook Principles of Systems Science (co-authored with Michael Kalton), but without prerequisites. It will appeal to a broad audience that deals with complex systems every day, from design engineers to economic and ecological systems managers and policymakers.

Properties of systems with long range interactions are still poorly understood despite being of importance in most areas of physics. The present volume introduces and reviews the effort of constructing a coherent thermodynamic treatment of such systems by combining tools from statistical mechanics with concepts and methods from dynamical systems. Analogies and differences between various systems are examined by considering a large range of applications, with emphasis on Bose--Einstein condensates. Written as a set of tutorial reviews, the book will be useful for both the experienced researcher as well as the nonexpert scientist or postgraduate student.

The book focuses on the nonlinear dynamics based on the vector fields with bivariate quadratic functions. This book is a unique monograph for two-dimensional quadratic nonlinear systems based on bivariate vector fields. Such a book provides different points of view about nonlinear dynamics and bifurcations of the quadratic dynamical systems on linear and nonlinear bivariate manifolds. Possible singular dynamics of the two-dimensional quadratic systems is discussed in detail. The dynamics of equilibriums and one-dimensional flows on bivariate manifolds are presented. Saddle-focus bifurcations are discussed, and switching bifurcations based on infinite-equilibriums are presented. Saddle-focus networks on bivariate manifolds are demonstrated. This book will serve as a reference book on dynamical systems and control for researchers, students and engineering in mathematics, mechanical and electrical engineering.

This research addresses delay effects in nonlinear systems, which are ubiquitous in various fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and even in social and economic systems. They may arise as a result of processing times or due to the finite propagation speed of information between the constituents of a complex system. Time delay has two complementary, counterintuitive and almost contradictory facets. On the one hand, delay is able to induce instabilities, bifurcations of periodic and more complicated orbits, multi-stability and chaotic motion. On the other hand, it can suppress instabilities, stabilize unstable stationary or periodic states and may control complex chaotic dynamics. This thesis deals with both aspects, and presents novel fundamental results on the controllability of nonlinear dynamics by time-delayed feedback, as well as applications to lasers, hybrid-mechanical systems, and coupled neural systems.

Gathering the proceedings of the 14th CHAOS2021 International Conference, this book highlights recent developments in nonlinear, dynamical and complex systems. The conference was intended to provide an essential forum for Scientists and Engineers to exchange ideas, methods, and techniques in the field of Nonlinear Dynamics, Chaos, Fractals and their applications in General Science and the Engineering Sciences. The respective chapters address key methods, empirical data and computer techniques, as well as major theoretical advances in the applied nonlinear field. Beyond showcasing the state of the art, the book will help academic and industrial researchers alike apply chaotic theory in their studies. Chapter "On the Origin of the Universe: Chaos or Cosmos" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com

This book approaches economic problems from a systems thinking and feedback perspective. By introducing system dynamics methods (including qualitative and quantitative techniques) and computer simulation models, the respective contributions apply feedback analysis and dynamic simulation modeling to important local, national, and global economics issues and concerns. Topics covered include: an introduction to macro modeling using a system dynamics framework; a system dynamics translation of the Phillips machine; a re-examination of classical economic theories from a feedback perspective; analyses of important social, ecological, and resource issues; the development of a biophysical economics module for global modelling; contributions to monetary and financial economics; analyses of macroeconomic growth, income distribution and alternative theories of well-being; and a re-examination of scenario macro modeling. The contributions also examine the philosophical differences between the economics and system dynamics communities in an effort to bridge existing gaps and compare methods. Many models and other supporting information are provided as online supplementary files. Consequently, the book appeals to students and scholars in economics, as well as to practitioners and policy analysts interested in using systems thinking and system dynamics modeling to understand and improve economic systems around the world. "Clearly, there is much space for more collaboration between the advocates of post-Keynesian economics and system dynamics! More generally, I would like to recommend this book to all scholars and practitioners interested in exploring the interface and synergies between economics, system dynamics, and feedback thinking." Comments in the Foreword by Marc Lavoie, Emeritus Professor, University of Ottawa and University of Sorbonne Paris Nord

Absolute concepts of time and energy are integral to standard thermal physics, but background independent systems are devoid of them. This thesis explores the foundational question of generalising equilibrium statistical mechanics to background independent systems, and applies the resulting formulation to non-perturbative discrete quantum gravity. It offers a discussion of the rich interface of thermal physics and quantum gravity in this context, providing a broad contextualisation of such topics. This work details how standard tools from many-body physics can be generalised to discrete quantum gravity labelled with graph-based, or dual polyhedral, quanta that are common to various approaches like tensorial group field theory, loop quantum gravity, dynamical triangulations and lattice quantum gravity. It provides a systematic investigation, both conceptual and technical, of quantum gravitational Gibbs states, thermofield double vacuum states, and their application in condensate cosmology to probe questions of Big Bang singularity resolution and geometric inflation.

The best parts of physics are the last topics that our students ever see. These are the exciting new frontiers of nonlinear and complex systems that are at the forefront of university research and are the basis of many high-tech businesses. Topics such as traffic on the World Wide Web, the spread of epidemics through globally-mobile populations, or the synchronization of global economies are governed by universal principles just as profound as Newton's laws. Nonetheless, the conventional university physics curriculum reserves most of these topics for advanced graduate study. Two justifications are given for this situation: first, that the mathematical tools needed to understand these topics are beyond the skill set of undergraduate students, and second, that these are speciality topics with no common theme and little overlap. Introduction to Modern Dynamics dispels these myths. The structure of this book combines the three main topics of modern dynamics - chaos theory, dynamics on complex networks, and general relativity - into a coherent framework. By taking a geometric view of physics, concentrating on the time evolution of physical systems as trajectories through abstract spaces, these topics share a common and simple mathematical language through which any student can gain a unified physical intuition. Given the growing importance of complex dynamical systems in many areas of science and technology, this text provides students with an up-to-date foundation for their future careers.

Spontaneous pattern formation in nonlinear dissipative systems far from equilibrium occurs in a variety of settings in nature and technology, and has applications ranging from nonlinear optics through solid and fluid mechanics, physical chemistry and chemical engineering to biology. This book explores the forefront of current research, describing in-depth the analytical methods that elucidate the complex evolution of nonlinear dissipative systems.

This book intends to introduce some recent results on passivity of complex dynamical networks with single weight and multiple weights. The book collects novel research ideas and some definitions in complex dynamical networks, such as passivity, output strict passivity, input strict passivity, finite-time passivity, and multiple weights. Furthermore, the research results previously published in many flagship journals are methodically edited and presented in a unified form. The book is likely to be of interest to university researchers and graduate students in Engineering and Mathematics who wish to study the passivity of complex dynamical networks.

This book discusses the study and analysis of the physical aspects of social systems and models, inspired by the analogy with familiar models of physical systems and possible applications of statistical physics tools. Unlike the traditional analysis of the physics of macroscopic many-body or condensed matter systems, which is now an established and mature subject, the upsurge in the physical analysis and modelling of social systems, which are clearly many-body dynamical systems, is a recent phenomenon. Though the major developments in sociophysics have taken place only recently, the earliest attempts of proposing "Social Physics" as a discipline are more than one and a half centuries old. Various developments in the mainstream physics of condensed matter systems have inspired and induced the recent growth of sociophysical analysis and models. In spite of the tremendous efforts of many scientists in recent years, the subject is still in its infancy and major challenges are yet to be taken up. An introduction to these challenges is the main motivation for this book.

This book presents a comprehensive study covering the design and application of models and algorithms for assessing the joint device failures of telecommunication backbone networks caused by large-scale regional disasters. At first, failure models are developed to make use of the best data available; in turn, a set of fast algorithms for determining the resulting failure lists are described; further, a theoretical analysis of the complexity of the algorithms and the properties of the failure lists is presented, and relevant practical case studies are investigated. Merging concepts and tools from complexity theory, combinatorial and computational geometry, and probability theory, a comprehensive set of models is developed for translating the disaster hazard in informative yet concise data structures. The information available on the network topology and the disaster hazard is then used to calculate the possible (probabilistic) network failures. The resulting sets of resources that are expected to break down simultaneously are modeled as a collection of Shared Risk Link Groups (SRLGs), or Probabilistic SRLGs. Overall, this book presents improved theoretical methods that can help predicting disaster-caused network malfunctions, identifying vulnerable regions, and assessing precisely the availability of internet services, among other applications.

This book includes constructive approximation theory; it presents ordinary and fractional approximations by positive sublinear operators, and high order approximation by multivariate generalized Picard, Gauss-Weierstrass, Poisson-Cauchy and trigonometric singular integrals. Constructive and Computational Fractional Analysis recently is more and more in the center of mathematics because of their great applications in the real world. In this book, all presented is original work by the author given at a very general level to cover a maximum number of cases in various applications. The author applies generalized fractional differentiation techniques of Riemann-Liouville, Caputo and Canavati types and of fractional variable order to various kinds of inequalities such as of Opial, Hardy, Hilbert-Pachpatte and on the spherical shell. He continues with E. R. Love left- and right-side fractional integral inequalities. They follow fractional Landau inequalities, of left and right sides, univariate and multivariate, including ones for Semigroups. These are developed to all possible directions, and right-side multivariate fractional Taylor formulae are proven for the purpose. It continues with several Gronwall fractional inequalities of variable order. This book results are expected to find applications in many areas of pure and applied mathematics. As such this book is suitable for researchers, graduate students and seminars of the above disciplines, also to be in all science and engineering libraries.

This book presents the proceedings from ECONOPHYS-2015, an international workshop held in New Delhi, India, on the interrelated fields of "econophysics" and "sociophysics", which have emerged from the application of statistical physics to economics and sociology. Leading researchers from varied communities, including economists, sociologists, financial analysts, mathematicians, physicists, statisticians, and others, report on their recent work, discuss topical issues, and review the relevant contemporary literature. A society can be described as a group of people who inhabit the same geographical or social territory and are mutually involved through their shared participation in different aspects of life. It is possible to observe and characterize average behaviors of members of a society, an example being voting behavior. Moreover, the dynamic nature of interaction within any economic sector comprising numerous cooperatively interacting agents has many features in common with the interacting systems of statistical physics. It is on these bases that interest has grown in the application within sociology and economics of the tools of statistical mechanics. This book will be of value for all with an interest in this flourishing field.

This book aims to theoretically and empirically enrich the GVC accounting framework with statistical physics and complex network theory from the perspective of econophysics, thus adding up to the existing theories. Besides, it also aims at capturing the essences of network models such as topological complexity, hierarchy, transmissibility, interaction, and causality and reflecting the objective interrelations among economies or between economies and economic systems on the GVC, so as to reveal the inherent evolution of the cross-regional and even global economic systems.

This thesis focuses on experimental studies on collective motion using swimming bacteria as model active-matter systems. It offers comprehensive reviews of state-of-the-art theories and experiments on collective motion from the viewpoint of nonequilibrium statistical physics. The author presents his experimental studies on two major classes of collective motion that had been well studied theoretically. Firstly, swimming filamentous bacteria in a thin fluid layer are shown to exhibit true, long-range orientational order and anomalously strong giant density fluctuations, which are considered universal and landmark signatures of collective motion by many numerical and theoretical works but have never been observed in real systems. Secondly, chaotic bacterial turbulence in a three-dimensional dense suspension without any long-range order as described in the first half is demonstrated to be capable of achieving antiferromagnetic vortex order by imposing a small number of constraints with appropriate periodicity. The experimental results presented significantly advance our fundamental understanding of order and fluctuations in collective motion of motile elements and their future applications.

Conjugated polymers have important technological applications, including solar cells and light emitting devices. They are also active components in many important biological processes. In recent years there have been significant advances in our understanding of these systems, owing to both improved experimental measurements and the development of advanced computational techniques. The aim of this book is to describe and explain the electronic and optical properties of conjugated polymers. It focuses on the three key roles of electron-electron interactions, electron-nuclear coupling, and disorder in determining the character of the electronic states, and it relates these properties to experimental observations in real systems. A number of important optical and electronic processes in conjugated polymers are also described. The second edition has a more extended discussion of excitons in conjugated polymers. There is also a new chapter on the static and dynamical localization of excitons.

This monograph is devoted to an entirely new branch of nonlinear physics - solitary intrinsic states, or autosolitons, which form in a broad class of physical, chemical and biological dissipative systems. Autosolitons are often observed as highly nonequilibrium regions in slightly nonequilibrium systems, in many ways resembling ball lightning which occurs in the atmosphere. We develop a new approach to problems of self-organization and turbulence, treating these phenomena as a result of spontaneous formation and subsequent evolution of autosolitons. Scenarios of self-organization involve sophisticated interactions between autosolitons, whereas turbulence is regarded as a pattern of autosolitons which appear and disappear at random in different parts of the system. This monograph is the first attempt to provide a comprehensive summary of the theory of autosolitons as developed by the authors over the years of research. The monograph is comprised of three more or less autonomous parts. Part I deals with the physical nature and experimental studies of autosolitons and self organization in various physical systems: semiconductor and gas plasma, heated gas mixture, semiconductor structures, composite superconductors, optical and magnetic media, systems with uniformly generated combustion matter, distributed gas-discharge and electronic systems. We discuss feasibility of autosolitons in the form of highly nonequilibrium regions in slightly nonequilibrium gases and semiconductors, "hot" and "cold" regions in semiconductor and gas plasmas, static, pulsating and traveling combustion fronts."

Over the years enormous effort was invested in proving ergodicity, but for a number of reasons, con?dence in the fruitfulness of this approach has waned. - Y. Ben-Menahem and I. Pitowsky [1] Abstract The basic motivation behind the present text is threefold: To give a new explanation for the emergence of thermodynamics, to investigate the interplay between quantum mechanics and thermodynamics, and to explore possible ext- sions of the common validity range of thermodynamics. Originally, thermodynamics has been a purely phenomenological science. Early s- entists (Galileo, Santorio, Celsius, Fahrenheit) tried to give de?nitions for quantities which were intuitively obvious to the observer, like pressure or temperature, and studied their interconnections. The idea that these phenomena might be linked to other ?elds of physics, like classical mechanics, e.g., was not common in those days. Such a connection was basically introduced when Joule calculated the heat equ- alent in 1840 showing that heat was a form of energy, just like kinetic or potential energy in the theory of mechanics. At the end of the 19th century, when the atomic theory became popular, researchers began to think of a gas as a huge amount of bouncing balls inside a box.

Researchers, postgraduate and undergraduate students of high energy physics

The book describes the thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and working principle of the Ranque Hilsch Vortex Tube. Although vortex tubes have been around for a long time, different explications of their fundamental physics and operation can be found in literature and on the internet. This volume investigates the working principle based on thermodynamics and fluid dynamics. It provides full explication of these parameters in one single work along with results of new investigations not published elsewhere. In addition, the book features a wealth of illustrations on various aspects of the vortex tube that make it easy to read and understand.

This book introduces the concepts of physical chemistry of polymers in a format targeted for a blended-learning approach. It provides a basis to bridge polymer chemistry, which targets microscopic chain structures, and polymer engineering, which targets macroscopic material properties and functions. Topics covered are single chain statistics, multi-chain interactions, and chain dynamics, both from a viewpoint of structure, properties (mostly mechanical ones), and their interrelation. In all that, the author encourages the reader to think conceptually. Explains complex facts through simplifying models, diagrams, and illustrations Accessible to chemists, chemical engineers, materials scientists, and physicists Tailored content for an interactive blended-learning format

Density functional theory (DFT) has blossomed in the past few decades into a powerful tool that is used by experimentalists and theoreticians alike. This book highlights the extensive contributions that the DFT-based OLCAO method has made to progress in this field, and it demonstrates its competitiveness for performing ab initio calculations on large and complex models of practical systems. A brief historical account and introduction to the elements of the theory set the stage for discussions on semiconductors, insulators, crystalline metals and alloys, complex crystals, non-crystalline solids and liquids, microstructure containing systems and those containing impurities, defects, and surfaces, biomolecular systems, and the technique of ab initio core level spectroscopy calculation.

This textbook presents the classical treatment of the problems of heat transfer in an exhaustive manner with due emphasis on understanding of the physics of the problems. This emphasis will be especially visible in the chapters on convective heat transfer. Emphasis is also laid on the solution of steady and unsteady two-dimensional heat conduction problems. Another special feature of the book is a chapter on introduction to design of heat exchangers and their illustrative design problems. A simple and understandable treatment of gaseous radiation has been presented. A special chapter on flat plate solar air heater has been incorporated that covers mathematical modeling of the air heater. The chapter on mass transfer has been written looking specifically at the needs of the students of mechanical engineering. The book includes a large number and variety of solved problems with supporting line diagrams. A number of application-based examples have been incorporated where applicable. The end-of-chapter exercise problems are supplemented with stepwise answers. Though the book has been primarily designed to serve as a complete textbook for undergraduate and graduate students of mechanical engineering, it will also be useful for students of chemical, aerospace, automobile, production, and industrial engineering streams. The book fully covers the topics of heat transfer coursework and can also be used as an excellent reference for students preparing for competitive graduate examinations.