The aim of this book is the pedagogical exploration of the basic principles of quantum-statistical thermodynamics as applied to various states of matter - ranging from rare gases to astrophysical matter with high-energy density. The reader will learn in this work that thermodynamics and quantum statistics are still the concepts on which even the most advanced research is operating - despite of a flood of modern concepts, classical entities like temperature, pressure, energy and entropy are shown to remain fundamental. The physics of gases, plasmas and high-energy density matter is still a growing field and even though solids and liquids dominate our daily life, more than 99 percent of the visible Universe is in the state of gases and plasmas and the overwhelming part of matter exists at extreme conditions connected with very large energy densities, such as in the interior of stars. This text, combining material from lectures and advanced seminars given by the authors over many decades, is a must-have introduction and reference for both newcomers and seasoned researchers alike.

These Proceedings contain invited lectures presented at the third Interna- tional Conference on "Irreversible Processes and Dissipative Structures" in Kiihlungsborn (German Democratic Republic) in March, 1985. These con- ferences, the first of which was held in Rostock in 1977 and the second in Berlin in 1982, are devoted to the study of irreversible processes far from thermal equilibrium and to the phenomena of selforganization. The meet- ing in Kiihlungsborn brought together some 160 mathematicians, physicists, chemists and biologists from 10 countries, who are all interested in the inter- disciplinary field of synergetics. The main topics of the conference were basic concepts of selforganization and evolution, such as entropy, instabilities, nucleation, dissipative struc- tures, chaos and turbulence. The contributions cover methods from ther- modynamics, the theory of dynamic systems, stochastic and statistic theory, the method of Green's functions, the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, etc. Several problems are studied in more detail, e.g., the kinetics of nucleation especially in finite systems, the dynamics of interfaces, reaction-diffusion sys- tems, chemical and biochemical pattern formation and information process- ing. Further, several contributions are devoted to the development of the concepts of chaos and turbulence. The editors hope that the contributions collected in this volume will pro- vide some new information about the field of selforganization, which is in full development now.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Evolutionary Computation held jointly with the 4th Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, PPSN IV, in Berlin, Germany, in September 1996.
The 103 revised papers presented in the volume were carefully selected from more than 160 submissions. The papers are organized in sections on basic concepts of evolutionary computation (EC), theoretical foundations of EC, modifications and extensions of evolutionary algorithms, comparison of methods, other metaphors, and applications of EC in a variety of areas like ML, NNs, engineering, CS, OR, and biology. The book has a comprehensive subject index.

Most of the matter in our universe is in a gaseous or plasma state. Yet, most textbooks on quantum statistics focus on examples from and applications in condensed matter systems, due to the prevalence of solids and liquids in our day-to-day lives. In an attempt to remedy that oversight, this book consciously focuses on teaching the subject matter in the context of (dilute) gases and plasmas, while aiming primarily at graduate students and young researchers in the field of quantum gases and plasmas for some of the more advanced topics. The majority of the material is based on a two-semester course held jointly by the authors over many years, and has benefited from extensive feedback provided by countless students and co-workers. The book also includes many historical remarks on the roots of quantum statistics: firstly because students appreciate and are strongly motivated by looking back at the history of a given field of research, and secondly because the spirit permeating this book has been deeply influenced by meetings and discussions with several pioneers of quantum statistics over the past few decades.

Die Autoren geben als aktiv Beteiligte erstmalig aus ihrem persoenlichen Erleben einen Einblick auf die ersten zwei Jahrzehnte der Synergetik-Geschichte. Hermann Haken fuhrt in die Begrifflichkeit der Synergetik ein und verdeutlicht die Schwierigkeiten, eine neues Denken in der Wissenschaft zu etablieren. Peter Plath geht exemplarisch auf die Vorgeschichte der Synergetik ein und zeigt an einem Fallbeispiel aus der Chemie, wie die Idee der Synergetik zum Leitmotiv einer Forschungsgruppe wurde. Werner Ebeling und Yuri Romanovsky beschreiben die intensive Kooperation der Wissenschaftler aus Ost und West bei der Herausbildung neuer Ideen zur Synergetik.

The VI. International Workshop on Physics of Nonideal Plasmas (PNP VI) took place from November 18th to 21th, 1991, in Gosen (Germany) at the Science communication & Conference Centre of the Humboldt University of Berlin. The workshop was organized by the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Humboldt University and by the Central Institute of Electron Physics, Berlin, with financial support given by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn, and the Robert-Bosch-Stiftung, Stuttgart. The workshop was attended by more than 100 scientists from 14 countries who presented about 120 papers, including 18 invited lectures. The series of PNP workshops, which started in 1980, provides a biennial forum for both experimental and theoretical research in the field of nonideal plasmas. These meetings are organized alternately by the Central Institute of Electron Physics, Berlin, and/or by one of the universities of Berlin, Greifswald, and Rostock. They took place in Matzlow-Garwitz (1980), Wustrow (1982 and 1988), Biesenthal (1984), and Greifswald (1986). Since the beginning, the workshop has been concerned mainly with fundamental studies of the thermodynamic, transport, and radiative properties of nonideal plasmas. These fields were also covered at PNP VI in Gosen, but new topics such as high-pressure laser plasmas, dense astrophysical plasmas, molecular dynamics and Monte-Carlo results, and the kinetics of transitions have completed the programme. In particular, several papers addressed the role of nonideal plasmas for radiation sources, for inertial confinement fusion, for helio-seismology, and for the determination of the structure of the giant planets.

This book presents both the fundamentals and the major research topics in statistical physics of systems out of equilibrium. It summarizes different approaches to describe such systems on the thermodynamic and stochastic levels, and discusses a variety of areas including reactions, anomalous kinetics, and the behavior of self-propelling particles.