Extreme Events in Nature and Society
Significant, and usually unwelcome, surprises, such as floods, financial crisis, epileptic seizures, or material rupture, are the topics of Extreme Events in Nature and Society. The book, authored by foremost experts in these fields, reveals unifying and distinguishing features of extreme events, including problems of understanding and modelling their origin, spatial and temporal extension, and potential impact. The chapters converge towards the difficult problem of anticipation: forecasting the event and proposing measures to moderate or prevent it. Extreme Events in Nature and Society will interest not only specialists, but also the general reader eager to learn how the multifaceted field of extreme events can be viewed as a coherent whole.
Extrasolar Planets : Saas Fee Advanced Course 31
Research on extrasolar planets is one of the exciting fields of activity in astrophysics, from early speculations on the existence of planets orbiting other stars to the first discoveries and characterization of extrasolar planets. This book talks about this breakthrough as the result of a growing interest of a large community of researchers.
Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology : An Introduction
This textbook introduces the astronomy of galaxies, their structure, their active galactic nuclei, their evolution and their large scale distribution. Starting with a detailed description of our Milky Way, the book examines the formation of structures and astronomical objects in the early universe.
Exploring the Secrets of the Aurora
This new edition of Exploring the Secrets of the Aurora is based on the author's own experiences as a scientist. It describes the history of progress made in auroral science and magnetospheric physics by providing examples of ideas, controversies, struggles, acceptance, and success.
Exploring the Cosmic Frontier : Astrophysical Instruments for the 21st Century
On May 18-21, 2004, the Max-Planck-Society’s Harnack-Haus in Dahlem, Berlin hosted the international symposium "Exploring the Cosmic Frontier: Astrophysical Instruments for the 21st Century". contains 70 papers from the meeting and is intended to give a lasting account of a snapshot of an evolving scientific discourse and interaction throughout our field of research.
Exploring Ancient Skies : An Encyclopedic Survey of Archaeoastronomy
Exploring Ancient Skies brings together the methods of archaeology and the insights of modern astronomy to explore the science of astronomy as it was practiced in various cultures prior to the invention of the telescope. The book reviews an enormous and growing body of literature on the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, the Far East, and the New World (particularly Mesoamerica), putting the ancient astronomical materials into their archaeological and cultural contexts. The authors begin with an overview of the field and proceed to essential aspects of naked-eye astronomy, followed by an examination of specific cultures. The book concludes by taking into account the purposes of ancient astronomy: astrology, navigation, calendar regulation, and (not least) the understanding of our place and role in the universe. Skies are recreated to display critical events as they would have appeared to ancient observers - events such as the supernova of 1054, the 'lion horoscope' or the 'Star of Bethlehem.'
Explorations in Mathematical Physics : The Concepts Behind an Elegant Language
This book takes you on a tour of the main ideas forming the language of modern mathematical physics. Here you will meet novel approaches to concepts such as determinants and geometry, wave function evolution, statistics, signal processing, and three-dimensional rotations. You'll see how the accelerated frames of special relativity tell us about gravity. On the journey, you'll discover how tensor notation relates to vector calculus, how differential geometry is built on intuitive concepts, and how variational calculus leads to field theory. You will meet quantum measurement theory, along with Green functions and the art of complex integration, and finally general relativity and cosmology.
Experimental Aspects of Quantum Computing
Practical quantum computing still seems more than a decade away, and researchers have not even identified what the best physical implementation of a quantum bit will be. There is a real need in the scientific literature for a dialog on the topic of lessons learned and looming roadblocks. These papers, which appeared in the journal of "Quantum Information Processing" are dedicated to the experimental aspects of quantum computing These papers highlight the lessons learned over the last ten years, outline the challenges over the next ten years, and discuss the most promising physical implementations of quantum computing.
Exoplanets : Detection, Formation, Properties, Habitability
This edited, multi-author volume will be an invaluable introduction and reference to all key aspects in the field of exoplanet research. The reviews cover: Detection methods and properties of known exoplanets, Detection of extrasolar planets by gravitational microlensing. The formation and evolution of terrestrial planets in protoplanetary and debris disks. The brown dwarf-exoplanet connection. Formation, migration mechanisms and properties of hot Jupiters. Dynamics of multiple exoplanet systems. Doppler exoplanet surveys. Searching for exoplanets in the stellar graveyard. Formation and habitability of extra solar planets in multiple star systems. Exoplanet habitats and the possibilities for life. Moons of exoplanets: habitats for life.
Excimer Laser Technology
This comprehensive survey on Excimer Lasers investigates the current range of the technology, applications and devices of this commonly used laser source, as well as the future of new technologies, such as F2 laser technology. Additional chapters on optics, devices and laser systems complete this compact handbook. A must read for laser technology students, process application researchers, engineers or anyone interested in excimer laser technology. An effective and understandable introduction to the current and future status of excimer laser technology.
Evolving methods for macromolecular crystallography : The structural path to the understanding of the mechanism of action of CBRN agents
This volume comprises papers presented at the 2005 edition of the “Crystallography of Molecular Biology” courses that have been held since 1976 at the Ettore Majorana Centre for Scientific Culture in Erice, Italy. The papers span the breadth of material presented in the course, which emphasized the practical aspects of modern macromolecular crystallography and its applications.
Evolution from Cellular to Social Scales
Evolution is a critical challenge for many areas of science, technology and development of society. The book reviews general evolutionary facts such as origin of life and evolution of the genome and clues to evolution through simple systems. Emerging areas of science such as "systems biology" and "bio-complexity" are founded on the idea that phenomena need to be understood in the context of highly interactive processes operating at different levels and on different scales. This is where physics meets complexity in nature, and where we must begin to learn about complexity if we are to understand it. Similarly, there is an increasingly urgent need to understand and predict the evolutionary behavior of highly interacting man-made systems, in areas such as communications and transport, which permeate the modern world. The same applies to the evolution of human networks such as social, political and financial systems, where technology has tended to vastly increase both the complexity and speed of interaction, which is sometimes effectively instantaneous.
Evaluating Feynman Integrals
The problem of evaluating Feynman integrals over loop momenta has existed from the early days of perturbative quantum field theory. Although a great variety of methods for evaluating Feynman integrals has been developed over a span of more than fifty years, this book is a first attempt to summarize them. 'Evaluating Feynman Integrals' characterizes the most powerful methods, in particular those used for recent, quite sophisticated calculations, and then illustrates them with numerous examples, starting from very simple ones and progressing to nontrivial examples.
Ettore Majorana : Scientific Papers
A un secolo dalla sua nascita Ettore Majorana suscita sentimenti profondi in chi hastudiato la sua opera scientifica e in chi si `e avvicinato al suo modo di essere e ne haapprezzato la sensibilit`a e l’umanit`a.In questa occasione la Societ`a Italiana di Fisica presenta un volume con tutti i suoilavori nella lingua originale enella maggior parte dei casi per la prima volta nellatraduzione in inglese. Ogni lavoro `e commentato da un esperto del settore specifico Majorana, che si colloca a buon diritto tra i grandi fisici della prima met`a del ventesimo secolo. Le note scientifiche sono presentate in ordine cronologico rispettando le numerazioni,This volume will be of interest to the specialists of the History of Science and to the physicists concerned with problems related to Majorana's contributions.
Essentials of Mathematica : With Applications to Mathematics and Physics
Essentials of Mathematica: With Applications to Mathematics and Physics, based on the lecture notes of a course taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago to advanced undergraduate and graduate students, teaches how to use Mathematica to solve a wide variety problems in mathematics and physics The aim of Essentials of Mathematica is to provide the reader with Mathematica proficiency quickly and efficiently.
Esercizi di fisica : Meccanica e termodinamica = Physics exercises : Mechanics and thermodynamics
La risoluzione di esercizi rappresenta uno strumento indispensabile per raggiungere una comprensione sicura e approfondita dei concetti di Fisica appresi dai corsi e dai testi di teoria. Frutto di una lunga esperienza didattica dei due autori nell'insegnamento universitario della meccanica e della termodinamica, questa raccolta contiene 188 esercizi, di cui 91 completamente risolti ed accompagnati da un ampio corredo di figure. Il peimo capitolo presenta un'introduzione ai sistemi di unità di misura, al calcolo dimensionale, all'uso corretto delle cifre significative e degli arrotondamenti, ai grafici. Gli altri capitoli contengono gli esercizi, suddivisi per argomento e preceduti da una serie di paragrafi riassuntivi dei concetti fondamentali. Criterio ispiratore di questo lavoro è l'adozione di una metodologia per la soluzione degli esercizi basata sempre sull'analisi accurata dei dati a disposizione e sul riferimento ai principi e alle leggi della Fisica, mai alla sola intuizione.
Ernst Equation and Riemann Surfaces : Analytical and Numerical Methods
Exact solutions to Einstein`s equations have been useful for the understanding of general relativity in many respects. They have led to physical concepts as black holes and event horizons and helped to visualize interesting features of the theory. In addition they have been used to test the quality of various approximation methods and numerical codes. The most powerful solution generation methods are due to the theory of Integrable Systems. In the case of axisymmetric stationary spacetimes the Einstein equations are equivalent to the completely integrable Ernst equation. In this volume the solutions to the Ernst equation associated to Riemann surfaces are studied in detail and physical and mathematical aspects of this class are discussed both analytically and numerically.
Equilibrium statistical physics : Phases of matter and phase transitions
This is a textbook which gradually introduces the student to the statistical mechanical study of the different phases of matter and to the phase transitions between them. Throughout, only simple models of both ordinary and soft matter are used but these are studied in full detail. The subject is developed in a pedagogical manner, starting from the basics, going from the simple ideal systems to the interacting systems, and ending with the more modern topics. The latter include the renormalisation group approach to critical phenomena, the density functional theory of interfaces, the topological defects of nematic liquid crystals and the kinematic aspects of the phase transformation process. This textbook provides the student with a complete overview, intentionally at an introductory level, of the theory of phase transitions. References include suggestions for more detailed treatments and four appendices supply overviews of the mathematical tools employed in the text.
Engineering Optics
Engineering Optics is a book for students who want to apply their knowledge of optics to engineering problems, as well as for engineering students who want to acquire the basic principles of optics. It covers such important topics as optical signal processing, holography, tomography, holographic radars, fiber optical communication, electro- and acousto-optic devices, and integrated optics (including optical bistability). As a basis for understanding these topics, the first few chapters give easy-to-follow explanations of diffraction theory, Fourier transforms, and geometrical optics. Practical examples, such as the video disk, the Fresnel zone plate, and many more, appear throughout the text, together with numerous solved exercises. There is an entirely new section in this updated edition on 3-D imaging.
Energy dissipation in molecular systems
Energy Dissipation in Molecular Systems analyzes experimental data on the redistribution and dissipation of energy injected into molecular systems by radiation or charged particles. These processes, competing with such practically important relaxation channels as chemical reaction or stimulated emission (laser action), are the primary focus in this monograph. Among other topics, the book treats vibrational redistribution and electronic relaxation in isolated molecules and the effects of inter-molecular interactions (collisions, complex formation, solvent effects) on the relaxation paths. Primary photo-chemical processes (such as isomerization, proton or hydrogen-atom transfer, electron transfer and ionization) are also treated as particular cases of vibrational or electronic relaxation. Only a basic knowledge of quantum mechanics and spectroscopy is assumed and calculations are kept to a strict minimum, making the book more accessible to students.



















