This book explores the fascinating and intimate relationship between music and physics. Over millennia, the playing of, and listening to music have stimulated creativity and curiosity in people all around the globe. Beginning with the basics, the authors first address the tonal systems of European-type music, comparing them with those of other, distant cultures. They analyze the physical principles of common musical instruments with emphasis on sound creation and particularly charisma. Modern research on the psychology of musical perception - the field known as psychoacoustics - is also described. The sound of orchestras in concert halls is discussed, and its psychoacoustic effects are explained. Finally, the authors touch upon the role of music for our mind and society. Throughout the book, interesting stories and anecdotes give insights into the musical activities of physicists and their interaction with composers and musicians.

All of us are confronted with complex phenomena occurring in daily life and in the living and inanimate nature surrounding us. Our scientific curiosity strives to unravel the mechanisms at work to create such complexity. Among various approaches to solve this problem, the field of synergetics, developed by Hermann Haken, has proven very successful as a general and interdisciplinary concept for describing and explaining complex phenomena that appear in systems under non-equilibrium conditions. These comprise dynamical states in evolving systems, spatial structure-forming processes, synchronization of states and regulatory mechanisms, and many other examples. The encompassing concepts have been applied to many disciplines, like physics, chemistry, biology, and beyond those also from synergetics to information theory, brain science, economics, and others. Starting from basic methods of complexity research and synergetics, this volume contains thirty contributions on complex systems that exhibit spontaneous pattern formation far from thermal equilibrium. Written by international experts and young researchers assembled under one roof, this volume reflects state of the art research from a variety of scientific fields and disciplines where complexity theory and synergetics are important or even indispensable tools today and in the future.

This book presents the general concepts of self-organized spatio-temporal ordering processes. These concepts are demonstrated via prototypical examples of recent advances in materials science. Particular emphasis is on nano scale soft matter in physics, chemistry, biology and biomedicine. The questions addressed embrace a broad spectrum of complex nonlinear phenomena, ranging from self-assembling near the thermodynamical equilibrium to dissipative structure formation far from equilibrium. Their mutual interplay gives rise to increasing degrees of hierarchical order. Analogues are pointed out, differences characterized and efforts are made to reveal common features in the mechanistic description of those phenomena.

This book presents the general concepts of self-organized spatio-temporal ordering processes. These concepts are demonstrated via prototypical examples of recent advances in materials science. Particular emphasis is on nano scale soft matter in physics, chemistry, biology and biomedicine. The questions addressed embrace a broad spectrum of complex nonlinear phenomena, ranging from self-assembling near the thermodynamical equilibrium to dissipative structure formation far from equilibrium. Their mutual interplay gives rise to increasing degrees of hierarchical order. Analogues are pointed out, differences characterized and efforts are made to reveal common features in the mechanistic description of those phenomena.

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

Concepts of nonlinear physics are applied to an increasing number of research disciplines. With this volume, the editors offer a selection of articles on nonlinear topics in progress, ranging from physics and chemistry to biology and some applications of social science. The book covers quantum optics, electron crystallization, cellular or flow patterns in fluids and in granular media, biological systems, and the control of brain structures via neuronal excitation. Chemical patterns are looked at both in bulk solutions and on surfaces in heterogeneous systems. From regular structures, the authors turn to the more complex behavior in biology and physics, such as hydrodynamical turbulence, low-dimensional dynamics in solid-state physics, and gravity.

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.

Open nonlinear systems are capable of self-organization in space and time. This realization constitutes a major breakthrough of modern science, and is currently at the origin of explosive developments in chemistry, physics and biology. Observations and numerical computations of nonlinear systems surprise us by their inexhaustible and sometimes nonintuitive variety of structures with different shapes and functions. But as well as variety one finds on closer inspection that nonlinear phenomena share universal aspects of pattern formation in time and space. These similarities make it possible to bridge the gap between inanimate and living matter at various levels of complexity, in both theory and experiment. This book is an account of different approaches to the study of this pattern formation. The universality of kinetic, thermodynamic and dimensional approaches is documented through their application to purely mathematical, physical and chemical systems, as well as to systems in nature: biochemical, cellular, multicellular, physiological, neurophysiological, ecological and economic systems. Hints given throughout the book allow the reader to discover how to make use of the principles and methods in different fields of research, including those not treated explicitly in the book.

In the decades the of the formation of structures past subject spontaneous in far from has into a branch of - systems equilibrium major physics grown search with ties to It has become evident that strong neighboring disciplines. a diverse of can be understood within a common mat- phenomena range matical framework which has been called nonlinear of continuous dynamics This name the close to the field of nonlinear systems. emphasizes relationship of with few of freedom which has evolved into a dynamics systems degrees mature in the recent features mathematically subject past. Many dynamical of continuous be described reduction few can a to a systems actually through of freedom and of the latter of continue to degrees properties type systems of continuous the inspire study systems. The of this book is to demonstrate the numerous goal through examples that exist for the of nonlinear the opportunities study phenomena through tools of mathematical and use of common analyses dynamical interpretations. Instead of overview of the a providing comprehensive rapidly evolving field, the contributors to this book are to communicate to a wide scientific trying audience the of what have learnt about the formation of essence they spon- neous structures in continuous and about the dissipative systems competition between order and chaos that characterizes these It is that systems. hoped the book will be even to those scientists whose not helpful are disciplines the authors.

In the decades the of the formation of structures past subject spontaneous in far from has into a branch of - systems equilibrium major physics grown search with ties to It has become evident that strong neighboring disciplines. a diverse of can be understood within a common mat- phenomena range matical framework which has been called nonlinear of continuous dynamics This name the close to the field of nonlinear systems. emphasizes relationship of with few of freedom which has evolved into a dynamics systems degrees mature in the recent features mathematically subject past. Many dynamical of continuous be described reduction few can a to a systems actually through of freedom and of the latter of continue to degrees properties type systems of continuous the inspire study systems. The of this book is to demonstrate the numerous goal through examples that exist for the of nonlinear the opportunities study phenomena through tools of mathematical and use of common analyses dynamical interpretations. Instead of overview of the a providing comprehensive rapidly evolving field, the contributors to this book are to communicate to a wide scientific trying audience the of what have learnt about the formation of essence they spon- neous structures in continuous and about the dissipative systems competition between order and chaos that characterizes these It is that systems. hoped the book will be even to those scientists whose not helpful are disciplines the authors.

Concepts of nonlinear physics are applied to an increasing number of research disciplines. With this volume, the editors offer a selection of articles on nonlinear topics in progress, ranging from physics and chemistry to biology and some applications of social science. The book covers quantum optics, electron crystallization, cellular or flow patterns in fluids and in granular media, biological systems, and the control of brain structures via neuronal excitation. Chemical patterns are looked at both in bulk solutions and on surfaces in heterogeneous systems. From regular structures, the authors turn to the more complex behavior in biology and physics, such as hydrodynamical turbulence, low-dimensional dynamics in solid-state physics, and gravity.

This book explores the fascinating and intimate relationship between music and physics. Over millennia, the playing of, and listening to music have stimulated creativity and curiosity in people all around the globe. Beginning with the basics, the authors first address the tonal systems of European-type music, comparing them with those of other, distant cultures. They analyze the physical principles of common musical instruments with emphasis on sound creation and particularly charisma. Modern research on the psychology of musical perception - the field known as psychoacoustics - is also described. The sound of orchestras in concert halls is discussed, and its psychoacoustic effects are explained. Finally, the authors touch upon the role of music for our mind and society. Throughout the book, interesting stories and anecdotes give insights into the musical activities of physicists and their interaction with composers and musicians.