Control Theory in Physics and other Fields of Science : Concepts, Tools, and Applications
This book covers systematically and in a simple language the mathematical and physical foundations of controlling deterministic and stochastic evolutionary processes in systems with a high degree of complexity. Strong emphasis is placed on concepts, methods and techniques for modelling, assessment and the solution or estimation of control problems in an attempt to understand the large variability of these problems in several branches of physics, chemistry and biology as well as in technology and economics. The main focus of the book is on a clear physical and mathematical understanding of the dynamics and kinetics behind several kinds of control problems and their relation to self-organizing principles in complex systems. The book is a modern introduction and a helpful tool for researchers, engineers as well as post-docs and graduate students interested in an application oriented control theory and related topics.
Control of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems : Methods and Applications
This book is devoted to new methods of control for complex dynamical systems and deals with nonlinear control systems having several degrees of freedom, subjected to unknown disturbances, and containing uncertain parameters. Various constraints are imposed on control inputs and state variables or their combinations. The book contains an introduction to the theory of optimal control and the theory of stability of motion, and also a description of some known methods based on these theories.
Computer simulation studies in condensed-matter physics XVIII ; Proceedings of the Eighteenth Workshop, Athens, GA, USA, March 7-11, 2005
This volume represents a "status report" emanating from presentations made during the 18th Annual Workshop on Computer Simulations Studies in Condensed Matter Physics at the Center for Simulational Physics at the University of Georgia in March 2005. It provides a broad overview of the most recent advances in the field, spanning the range from statistical physics to soft condensed matter and biological systems. Results on nanostructures and materials are included as are several descriptions of advances in quantum simulations and quantum computing as well as.methodological advances.
Computational Science and High Performance Computing III ; The 3rd Russian-German Advanced Research Workshop, Novosibirsk, Russia, July 23 - 27, 2007
This volume contains 18 contributions to the Third Russian-German Advanced Research Workshop on Computational Science and High Performance Computing presented in July 2007 at Novosibirsk, Russia.
Computational Many-Particle Physics
Complicated many-particle problems abound in nature and in research alike. Plasma physics, statistical physics and condensed matter physics, as primary examples, are all heavily dependent on efficient methods for solving such problems. Addressing graduate students and young researchers, this book presents an overview and introduction to state-of-the-art numerical methods for studying interacting classical and quantum many-particle systems. A broad range of techniques and algorithms are covered, and emphasis is placed on their implementation on modern high-performance computers.
Collective Dynamics of Nonlinear and Disordered Systems
Phase transitions in disordered systems and related dynamical phenomena are a topic of intrinsically high interest in theoretical and experimental physics. This book presents a unified view, adopting concepts from each of the disjoint fields of disordered systems and nonlinear dynamics. Special attention is paid to the glass transition, from both experimental and theoretical viewpoints, to modern concepts of pattern formation, and to the application of the concepts of dynamical systems for understanding equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties of fluids and solids. The content is accessible to graduate students, but will also be of benefit to specialists, since the presentation extends as far as the topics of ongoing research work.
Mathematical Methods in Time Series Analysis and Digital Image Processing
The aim of this volume is to bring together research directions in theoretical signal and imaging processing developed rather independently in electrical engineering, theoretical physics, mathematics and the computer sciences. In particular, mathematically justified algorithms and methods, the mathematical analysis of these algorithms, and methods as well as the investigation of connections between methods from time series analysis and image processing are reviewed. An interdisciplinary comparison of these methods, drawing upon common sets of test problems from medicine and geophysical/enviromental sciences, is also addressed.
Linearization Methods for Stochastic Dynamic Systems
The aim of this book is to give a systematic introduction to and overview of the relatively simple and popular linearization methods available. The scope is limited to models with continous external and parametric excitations, yet these cover the majority of known approaches. The book contains an application chapter with emphasis on vibration analysis of stochastic mechanical structures as well as a chapter devoted to the assessment of the accuracy of the theoretical methods presented, both with respect to numerical and to experimental studies.
Complex Nonlinearity : Chaos, Phase Transitions, Topology Change and Path Integrals
The book starts with a textbook-like expose on nonlinear dynamics, attractors and chaos, both temporal and spatio-temporal, including modern techniques of chaos–control. Chapter 2 turns to the edge of chaos, in the form of phase transitions (equilibrium and non-equilibrium, oscillatory, fractal and noise-induced), as well as the related field of synergetics. While the natural stage for linear dynamics comprises of flat, Euclidean geometry (with the corresponding calculation tools from linear algebra and analysis), the natural stage for nonlinear dynamics is curved, Riemannian geometry (with the corresponding tools from nonlinear, tensor algebra and analysis). The extreme nonlinearity – chaos – corresponds to the topology change of this curved geometrical stage, usually called configuration manifold. Chapter 3 elaborates on geometry and topology change in relation with complex nonlinearity and chaos. Chapter 4 develops general nonlinear dynamics, continuous and discrete, deterministic and stochastic, in the unique form of path integrals and their action-amplitude formalism.
Complex decision making : Theory and practice
The increasingly complex environment of today's world, characterized by technological innovation and global communication, generates myriads of possible and actual interactions while limited physical and intellectual resources severely impinge on decision makers, be it in the public or private domains. At the core of the decision-making process is the need for quality information that allows the decision maker to better assess the impact of decisions in terms of outcomes, nonlinear feedback processes and time delays on the performance of the complex system invoked.
Complex and Adaptive Dynamical Systems : A Primer
We are living in an ever more complex world, an epoch where human actions can accordingly acquire far-reaching potentialities. Complex and adaptive dynamical systems are ubiquitous in the world surrounding us and require us to adapt to new realities and the way of dealing with them. This primer has been developed with the aim of conveying a wide range of "commons-sense" knowledge in the field of quantitative complex system science at an introductory level, providing an entry point to this both fascinating and vitally important subject.
Compendium of Theoretical Physics
Mechanics, Electrodynamics, Quantum Mechanics, and Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics comprise the canonical undergraduate curriculum of theoretical physics. In Compendium of Theoretical Physics, Armin Wachter and Henning Hoeber offer a concise, rigorous and structured overview that will be invaluable for students preparing for their qualifying examinations, readers needing a supplement to standard textbooks, and research or industrial physicists seeking a bridge between extensive textbooks and formula books. The authors take an axiomatic-deductive approach to each topic, starting the discussion of each theory with its fundamental equations. By subsequently deriving the various physical relationships and laws in logical rather than chronological order, and by using a consistent presentation and notation throughout, they emphasize the connections between the individual theories. The reader’s understanding is then reinforced with exercises, solutions and topic summaries.
Classical Nucleation Theory in Multicomponent Systems
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. It 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.
Chance : The life of games and the game of life
With its many easy-to-follow mathematical examples, this book takes the reader on an almost chronological trip through the fascinating and amazing laws of chance, omnipresent in the natural world and in our daily lives. Along the route many fascinating topics are discussed, such as: challenging probability paradoxes; "paranormal" coincidences; game odds; causes and effects; interpretation of opinion polls; winning chances as a game proceeds; the nature of randomness; entropy and randomness; randomness in life; algorithmic complexity and the undecidability of randomness; possibilities and limitations of learning the laws of a Universe immersed in chance events. This charming book will inform and entertain the scientist and non-scientist alike.
Browning Agents and Active Particles : Collective Dynamics in the Natural and Social Sciences
Lays out a vision for a coherent framework for understanding complex systems'' (from the foreword by J. Doyne Farmer). By developing the genuine idea of Brownian agents, the author combines concepts from informatics, such as multiagent systems, with approaches of statistical many-particle physics. This way, an efficient method for computer simulations of complex systems is developed which is also accessible to analytical investigations and quantitative predictions. The book demonstrates that Brownian agent models can be successfully applied in many different contexts, ranging from physicochemical pattern formation, to active motion and swarming in biological systems, to self-assembling of networks, evolutionary optimization, urban growth, economic agglomeration and even social systems.
Basic theoretical physics : A concise overview
This concise treatment embraces, in four parts, all the main aspects of theoretical physics (I . Mechanics and Basic Relativity, II. Electrodynamics and Aspects of Optics, III. Non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics, IV. Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics). It summarizes the material that every graduate student, physicist working in industry, or physics teacher should master during his or her degree course. It thus serves both as an excellent revision and preparation tool, and as a convenient reference source, covering the whole of theoretical physics. It may also be successfully employed to deepen its readers' insight and add new dimensions to their understanding of these fundamental concepts. Recent topics such as holography and quantum cryptography are included, thus making this a unique contribution to the learning material for theoretical physics.
Aspects of physical biology : Biological water, protein solutions, transport and replication
The present volume focuses on three main subtopics (biological water, protein solutions as well as transport and replication), presenting for each of the them the on-going debates on recent results. The role of water in biological processes, the mechanisms of protein folding, the phases and cooperative effects in biological solutions, the thermodynamic description of replication, transport and neural activity, all are subjects that are revised in this volume, based on new experiments and new theoretical interpretations.
Algorithmic Learning in a Random World
This new monograph integrates mathematical theory and revealing experimental work. It demonstrates mathematically the validity of the reliability claimed by conformal predictors when they are applied to independent and identically distributed data, and it confirms experimentally that the accuracy is sufficient for many practical problems. Later chapters generalize these results to models called repetitive structures, which originate in the algorithmic theory of randomness and statistical physics. The approach is flexible enough to incorporate most existing methods of machine learning, including newer methods such as boosting and support vector machines and older methods such as nearest neighbors and the bootstrap.
A Course in Enumeration
Leads the reader in a leisurely way from the basic notions to a variety of topics, ranging from algebra to statistical physics. Its aim is to introduce the student to a fascinating field, and to be a source of information for the professional mathematician who wants to learn more about the subject.


















