Genetic Algorithms for Applied CAD Problems

Aimed at graduate students and researchers, this fascinating text provides a comprehensive study of the Erdős–Ko–Rado Theorem, with a focus on algebraic methods. The authors begin by discussing well-known proofs of the EKR bound for intersecting families. The natural generalization of the EKR Theorem holds for many different objects that have a notion of intersection, and the bulk of this book focuses on algebraic proofs that can be applied to these different objects. The authors introduce tools commonly used in algebraic graph theory and show how these can be used to prove versions of the EKR Theorem. Topics include association schemes, strongly regular graphs, the Johnson scheme, the Hamming scheme and the Grassmann scheme. Readers can expand their understanding at every step with the 170 end-of-chapter exercises. The final chapter discusses in detail 15 open problems, each of which would make an interesting research project.

Best-worst scaling (BWS) is an extension of the method of paired comparison to multiple choices that asks participants to choose both the most and the least attractive options or features from a set of choices. It is an increasingly popular way for academics and practitioners in social science, business, and other disciplines to study and model choice. This book provides an authoritative and systematic treatment of best-worst scaling, introducing readers to the theory and methods for three broad classes of applications. It uses a variety of case studies to illustrate simple but reliable ways to design, implement, apply, and analyze choice data in specific contexts, and showcases the wide range of potential applications across many different disciplines. Best-worst scaling avoids many rating scale problems and will appeal to those wanting to measure subjective quantities with known measurement properties that can be easily interpreted and applied.

Learn classical thermodynamics alongside statistical mechanics with this fresh approach to the subjects. Molecular and macroscopic principles are explained in an integrated, side-by-side manner to give students a deep, intuitive understanding of thermodynamics and equip them to tackle future research topics that focus on the nanoscale. Entropy is introduced from the get-go, providing a clear explanation of how the classical laws connect to the molecular principles, and closing the gap between the atomic world and thermodynamics. Notation is streamlined throughout, with a focus on general concepts and simple models, for building basic physical intuition and gaining confidence in problem analysis and model development. Well over 400 guided end-of-chapter problems are included, addressing conceptual, fundamental, and applied skill sets. Numerous worked examples are also provided together with handy shaded boxes to emphasize key concepts, making this the complete teaching package for stude

Learn classical thermodynamics alongside statistical mechanics with this fresh approach to the subjects. Molecular and macroscopic principles are explained in an integrated, side-by-side manner to give students a deep, intuitive understanding of thermodynamics and equip them to tackle future research topics that focus on the nanoscale. Entropy is introduced from the get-go, providing a clear explanation of how the classical laws connect to the molecular principles, and closing the gap between the atomic world and thermodynamics. Notation is streamlined throughout, with a focus on general concepts and simple models, for building basic physical intuition and gaining confidence in problem analysis and model development. Well over 400 guided end-of-chapter problems are included, addressing conceptual, fundamental, and applied skill sets. Numerous worked examples are also provided together with handy shaded boxes to emphasize key concepts, making this the complete teaching package for stude

The estimation of noisily observed states from a sequence of data has traditionally incorporated ideas from Hilbert spaces and calculus-based probability theory. As conditional expectation is the key concept, the correct setting for filtering theory is that of a probability space. Graduate engineers, mathematicians and those working in quantitative finance wishing to use filtering techniques will find in the first half of this book an accessible introduction to measure theory, stochastic calculus, and stochastic processes, with particular emphasis on martingales and Brownian motion. Exercises are included. The book then provides an excellent users' guide to filtering: basic theory is followed by a thorough treatment of Kalman filtering, including recent results which extend the Kalman filter to provide parameter estimates. These ideas are then applied to problems arising in finance, genetics and population modelling in three separate chapters, making this a comprehensive resource for b

When is war justified? When is intervention in the domestic affairs of other states justified? Is international terrorist activity ever justified? Is the policy of nuclear deterrence morally defensible? These questions are clearly of the utmost importance, yet scholars in the discipline of international relations have for the most part avoided moral theory. Part One of this book examines the reasons put forward (or implicitly accepted) for ignoring moral theory and finds that none of them stands up to close scrutiny. In Part Two a start is made towards the construction of a normative theory which will be useful in seeking answers to the crucial questions listed above. The theory put forward is called constitutive theory and it is argued that constitutive theory is more satisfactory than utilitarianism, order-based theories or rights-based theories. In the final chapter constitutive theory is applied to the moral problems surrounding international terrorism.

This substantial volume has two principal objectives. First it provides an overview of the statistical foundations of Simulation-based inference. This includes the summary and synthesis of the many concepts and results extant in the theoretical literature, the different classes of problems and estimators, the asymptotic properties of these estimators, as well as descriptions of the different simulators in use. Second, the volume provides empirical and operational examples of SBI methods. Often what is missing, even in existing applied papers, are operational issues. Which simulator works best for which problem and why? This volume will explicitly address the important numerical and computational issues in SBI which are not covered comprehensively in the existing literature. Examples of such issues are: comparisons with existing tractable methods, number of replications needed for robust results, choice of instruments, simulation noise and bias as well as efficiency loss in practice.

The interaction of waves with obstacles is an everyday phenomenon in science and engineering, arising for example in acoustics, electromagnetism, seismology and hydrodynamics. The mathematical theory and technology needed to understand the phenomenon is known as multiple scattering, and this book is the first devoted to the subject. The author covers a variety of techniques, describing first the single-obstacle methods and then extending them to the multiple-obstacle case. A key ingredient in many of these extensions is an appropriate addition theorem: a coherent, thorough exposition of these theorems is given, and computational and numerical issues around them are explored. The application of these methods to different types of problems is also explained; in particular, sound waves, electromagnetic radiation, waves in solids and water waves. A comprehensive bibliography of some 1400 items rounds off the book, which will be an essential reference on the topic for applied mathematicians

The estimation of noisily observed states from a sequence of data has traditionally incorporated ideas from Hilbert spaces and calculus-based probability theory. As conditional expectation is the key concept, the correct setting for filtering theory is that of a probability space. Graduate engineers, mathematicians and those working in quantitative finance wishing to use filtering techniques will find in the first half of this book an accessible introduction to measure theory, stochastic calculus, and stochastic processes, with particular emphasis on martingales and Brownian motion. Exercises are included. The book then provides an excellent users' guide to filtering: basic theory is followed by a thorough treatment of Kalman filtering, including recent results which extend the Kalman filter to provide parameter estimates. These ideas are then applied to problems arising in finance, genetics and population modelling in three separate chapters, making this a comprehensive resource for b

The extremely powerful technique of molecular dynamics simulation involves solving the classical many-body problem in contexts relevant to the study of matter at the atomistic level. Since there is no alternative approach capable of handling this extremely broad range of problems at the required level of detail, molecular dynamics methods have proved themselves indispensable in both pure and applied research. This book, first published in 2004, is a blend of tutorial and recipe collection, providing both an introduction to the subject for beginners and a reference manual for the more experienced practitioner. It is organized as a series of case studies that take the reader through each of the steps from formulating the problem, developing the necessary software, and then using the programs to make actual measurements. The second edition of the book includes a substantial amount of new material as well as completely rewritten software.

Finding and interpreting the solutions of differential equations is a central and essential part of applied mathematics. This book aims to enable the reader to develop the required skills needed for a thorough understanding of the subject. The authors focus on the business of constructing solutions analytically, and interpreting their meaning, using rigorous analysis where needed. MATLAB is used extensively to illustrate the material. There are many worked examples based on interesting and unusual real world problems. A large selection of exercises is provided, including several lengthier projects, some of which involve the use of MATLAB. The coverage is broad, ranging from basic second-order ODEs and PDEs, through to techniques for nonlinear differential equations, chaos, asymptotics and control theory. This broad coverage, the authors' clear presentation and the fact that the book has been thoroughly class-tested will increase its attraction to undergraduates at each stage of their s

This substantial volume has two principal objectives. First it provides an overview of the statistical foundations of Simulation-based inference. This includes the summary and synthesis of the many concepts and results extant in the theoretical literature, the different classes of problems and estimators, the asymptotic properties of these estimators, as well as descriptions of the different simulators in use. Second, the volume provides empirical and operational examples of SBI methods. Often what is missing, even in existing applied papers, are operational issues. Which simulator works best for which problem and why? This volume will explicitly address the important numerical and computational issues in SBI which are not covered comprehensively in the existing literature. Examples of such issues are: comparisons with existing tractable methods, number of replications needed for robust results, choice of instruments, simulation noise and bias as well as efficiency loss in practice.

Investors must be held to account for their flawed contributions or otherwise wrongful conduct, but exactly what 'holding to account' means remains an enigma. Opinions vary on whether such circumstances are relevant to admissibility, jurisdiction, liability, or remedies. Reasoning from certain proposed axioms, this book suggests that such circumstances are only relevant to liability, meaning that the legal concepts that they activate, contributory fault and illegality, are defences. Three defences are identified: mismanagement, investment reprisal, and post-establishment illegality. While they might lack formal recognition, arbitral tribunals have implicitly applied them in multiple investment arbitrations. In detailing their legal content, special attention is paid to resolving the problems that they raise relating to causation, apportionment of liability, distinguishing these defences from their conceptual cousins, and arbitral tribunals' jurisdiction over pleas based on investor mi

Investors must be held to account for their flawed contributions or otherwise wrongful conduct, but exactly what 'holding to account' means remains an enigma. Opinions vary on whether such circumstances are relevant to admissibility, jurisdiction, liability, or remedies. Reasoning from certain proposed axioms, this book suggests that such circumstances are only relevant to liability, meaning that the legal concepts that they activate, contributory fault and illegality, are defences. Three defences are identified: mismanagement, investment reprisal, and post-establishment illegality. While they might lack formal recognition, arbitral tribunals have implicitly applied them in multiple investment arbitrations. In detailing their legal content, special attention is paid to resolving the problems that they raise relating to causation, apportionment of liability, distinguishing these defences from their conceptual cousins, and arbitral tribunals' jurisdiction over pleas based on investor mi

Machine learning is an interdisciplinary field of science and engineering that studies mathematical theories and practical applications of systems that learn. This book introduces theories, methods and applications of density ratio estimation, which is a newly emerging paradigm in the machine learning community. Various machine learning problems such as non-stationarity adaptation, outlier detection, dimensionality reduction, independent component analysis, clustering, classification and conditional density estimation can be systematically solved via the estimation of probability density ratios. The authors offer a comprehensive introduction of various density ratio estimators including methods via density estimation, moment matching, probabilistic classification, density fitting and density ratio fitting, as well as describing how these can be applied to machine learning. The book provides mathematical theories for density ratio estimation including parametric and non-parametric conve

The self-taught mathematician Hua Loo-Keng (1910–1985) has been credited with inspiring generations of mathematicians, while his papers on number theory are regarded as some of the most significant contributions made to the subject during the first half of the twentieth century. An Introduction to Higher Mathematics is based on the lectures given by Hua at the University of Science and Technology of China from 1958. The course reflects Hua's instinctive technique, using the simplest tools to tackle even the most difficult problems, and contains both pure and applied mathematics, emphasising the interdependent relationships between different branches of the discipline. With hundreds of diagrams, examples and exercises, this is a wide-ranging reference text for university mathematics and a testament to the teaching of one of the most eminent mathematicians of his generation.

Machine learning is an interdisciplinary field of science and engineering that studies mathematical theories and practical applications of systems that learn. This book introduces theories, methods and applications of density ratio estimation, which is a newly emerging paradigm in the machine learning community. Various machine learning problems such as non-stationarity adaptation, outlier detection, dimensionality reduction, independent component analysis, clustering, classification and conditional density estimation can be systematically solved via the estimation of probability density ratios. The authors offer a comprehensive introduction of various density ratio estimators including methods via density estimation, moment matching, probabilistic classification, density fitting and density ratio fitting, as well as describing how these can be applied to machine learning. The book provides mathematical theories for density ratio estimation including parametric and non-parametric conve

Fungi are a diverse group of organisms, studied widely because of their commercial importance in biotechnology, agriculture and medicine, and because they provide simple model systems for illuminating the eukaryotic mode of life. The development of the techniques of molecular biology has opened up new areas of mycological research, with profound consequences such as the sequencing of the first entire eukaryotic genome. This book focuses on the application of molecular and cell biology to mycology and presents examples of how these approaches are elucidating long-held problems in areas as diverse as animal and plant pathology, protein expression and evolution. Aimed at advanced undergraduates taking courses in mycology, applied biology, biotechnology, fungal biology and fungal genetics, this textbook will also serve postgraduates needing an introduction to modern fungal research.

Fungi are a diverse group of organisms, studied widely because of their commercial importance in biotechnology, agriculture and medicine, and because they provide simple model systems for illuminating the eukaryotic mode of life. The development of the techniques of molecular biology has opened up new areas of mycological research, with profound consequences such as the sequencing of the first entire eukaryotic genome. This book focuses on the application of molecular and cell biology to mycology and presents examples of how these approaches are elucidating long-held problems in areas as diverse as animal and plant pathology, protein expression and evolution. Aimed at advanced undergraduates taking courses in mycology, applied biology, biotechnology, fungal biology and fungal genetics, this textbook will also serve postgraduates needing an introduction to modern fungal research.

The essential guide for anyone wanting a quick introduction to the fundamental ideas underlying photonics. The author uses his forty years of experience in photonics research and teaching to provide intuitive explanations of key concepts, and demonstrates how these relate to the operation of photonic devices and systems. Readers will gain insight into the nature of light and the ways in which it interacts with materials and structures, and learn how these basic ideas are applied in areas such as optical systems, 3D imaging and astronomy. Carefully designed worked examples and end-of-chapter problems enable students to check their understanding, with full solutions available online. Mathematical treatments are kept as simple as possible, allowing readers to grasp even the most complex of concepts. Clear, concise and accessible, this is the perfect guide for undergraduate students taking a first course in photonics, and anyone in academia or industry wanting to review the fundamentals.

The essential guide for anyone wanting a quick introduction to the fundamental ideas underlying photonics. The author uses his forty years of experience in photonics research and teaching to provide intuitive explanations of key concepts, and demonstrates how these relate to the operation of photonic devices and systems. Readers will gain insight into the nature of light and the ways in which it interacts with materials and structures, and learn how these basic ideas are applied in areas such as optical systems, 3D imaging and astronomy. Carefully designed worked examples and end-of-chapter problems enable students to check their understanding, with full solutions available online. Mathematical treatments are kept as simple as possible, allowing readers to grasp even the most complex of concepts. Clear, concise and accessible, this is the perfect guide for undergraduate students taking a first course in photonics, and anyone in academia or industry wanting to review the fundamentals.

There has been an increase in interest worldwide in fusion research over the last decade and a half due to the recognition that a large number of new, environmentally attractive, sustainable energy sources will be needed to meet ever increasing demand for electrical energy. Based on a series of course notes from graduate courses in plasma physics and fusion energy at MIT, the text begins with an overview of world energy needs, current methods of energy generation, and the potential role that fusion may play in the future. It covers energy issues such as the production of fusion power, power balance, the design of a simple fusion reactor and the basic plasma physics issues faced by the developers of fusion power. This book is suitable for graduate students and researchers working in applied physics and nuclear engineering. A large number of problems accumulated over two decades of teaching are included to aid understanding.

Economic analysis is being applied by scholars to an increasing range of legal problems. This collection brings together some of the main contributions to an important area of this work, the economics of contract law. The essays and illuminating notes, questions, and introductions provided by the editor outline the Law and Economics framework for analyzing contractual relationships. The first two parts of the book present a number of useful concepts - adverse selection, moral hazard, and rent seeking - and a general way of thinking about the economics of contracting and contract law. The remainder of the book considers a wide range of topics and issues. The recurring theme is that contracting parties want to assign the responsibility for adjusting to particular contingencies to the party best able to control the costs of adjustment. The adjustment problem is exacerbated by the fact that the parties might engage in various types of strategic behavior, such as opportunism, moral hazard,

The essays in this volume consider the question of whether the self is a unity or whether it should be conceived without metaphor as divided - as a 'multiple self'. The issue is a central one for several disciplines. It bears directly on the account of rationality and the explanation of individual decision-making and behaviour. Is the hypothesis of a multiple self required to deal with the problems of self-deception and weakness of will; and can the conceptual tools developed in the study of interpersonal conflict be applied to the analysis of intra-personal struggle? Most of the essays, by a number of leading philosophers, psychologists and economists, appear here for the first time. They bring out the interdisciplinary importance of the question, and will interest readers in all those areas. The volume will also usefully supplement The Foundations of Social Choice Theory, edited by Jon Elster and Aanund Hylland, which appears in the same series and is also concerned with the foundati

The fourth edition of this popular text has been significantly rewritten to make it more accessible to students and easier for instructors to use. It remains distinctive in presenting a unified narrative of cognitive science as a field of inquiry in its own right. Thematically organized, Cognitive Science underscores the problems and solutions of cognitive science rather than more narrowly examining individually the subjects that contribute to it - psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, and so on. The generous use of examples, illustrations, and applications demonstrates how theory and experiment can be applied to unlock the mysteries of the human mind. Drawing upon cutting-edge research, the text has been updated and enhanced with a new chapter on emotions and the emerging field of affective science. An extensive online set of resources is available to aid both instructors and students.

Mathematical models of bond markets are of interest to researchers working in applied mathematics, especially in mathematical finance. This book concerns bond market models in which random elements are represented by Lévy processes. These are more flexible than classical models and are well suited to describing prices quoted in a discontinuous fashion. The book's key aims are to characterize bond markets that are free of arbitrage and to analyze their completeness. Nonlinear stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs) are an important tool in the analysis. The authors begin with a relatively elementary analysis in discrete time, suitable for readers who are not familiar with finance or continuous time stochastic analysis. The book should be of interest to mathematicians, in particular to probabilists, who wish to learn the theory of the bond market and to be exposed to attractive open mathematical problems.

The new edition of this popular textbook provides a fundamental approach to phase transformations and thermodynamics of materials. Explanations are emphasised at the level of atoms and electrons, and it comprehensively covers the classical topics from classical metallurgy to nanoscience and magnetic phase transitions. The book has three parts, covering the fundamentals of phase transformations, the origins of the Gibbs free energy, and the major phase transformations in materials science. A fourth part on advanced topics is available online. Much of the content from the first edition has been expanded, notably precipitation transformations in solids, heterogeneous nucleation, and energy, entropy and pressure. Three new chapters have been added to cover interactions within microstructures, surfaces, and solidification. Containing over 170 end-of-chapter problems, it is a valuable companion for graduate students and researchers in materials science, engineering, and applied physics.

The theory of Hardy spaces is a cornerstone of modern analysis. It combines techniques from functional analysis, the theory of analytic functions and Lesbesgue integration to create a powerful tool for many applications, pure and applied, from signal processing and Fourier analysis to maximum modulus principles and the Riemann zeta function. This book, aimed at beginning graduate students, introduces and develops the classical results on Hardy spaces and applies them to fundamental concrete problems in analysis. The results are illustrated with numerous solved exercises that also introduce subsidiary topics and recent developments. The reader's understanding of the current state of the field, as well as its history, are further aided by engaging accounts of important contributors and by the surveys of recent advances (with commented reference lists) that end each chapter. Such broad coverage makes this book the ideal source on Hardy spaces.

This compact guide presents the key features of general relativity, to support and supplement the presentation in mainstream, more comprehensive undergraduate textbooks, or as a re-cap of essentials for graduate students pursuing more advanced studies. It helps students plot a careful path to understanding the core ideas and basics of differential geometry, as applied to general relativity, without overwhelming them. While the guide doesn't shy away from necessary technicalities, it emphasises the essential simplicity of the main physical arguments. Presuming a familiarity with special relativity (with a brief account in an appendix), it describes how general covariance and the equivalence principle motivate Einstein's theory of gravitation. It then introduces differential geometry and the covariant derivative as the mathematical technology which allows us to understand Einstein's equations of general relativity. The book is supported by numerous worked exampled and problems, and impor

This compact guide presents the key features of general relativity, to support and supplement the presentation in mainstream, more comprehensive undergraduate textbooks, or as a re-cap of essentials for graduate students pursuing more advanced studies. It helps students plot a careful path to understanding the core ideas and basics of differential geometry, as applied to general relativity, without overwhelming them. While the guide doesn't shy away from necessary technicalities, it emphasises the essential simplicity of the main physical arguments. Presuming a familiarity with special relativity (with a brief account in an appendix), it describes how general covariance and the equivalence principle motivate Einstein's theory of gravitation. It then introduces differential geometry and the covariant derivative as the mathematical technology which allows us to understand Einstein's equations of general relativity. The book is supported by numerous worked exampled and problems, and impor

This two-volume text in harmonic analysis introduces a wealth of analytical results and techniques. It is largely self-contained and useful to graduates and researchers in pure and applied analysis. Numerous exercises and problems make the text suitable for self-study and the classroom alike. The first volume starts with classical one-dimensional topics: Fourier series; harmonic functions; Hilbert transform. Then the higher-dimensional Calderón–Zygmund and Littlewood–Paley theories are developed. Probabilistic methods and their applications are discussed, as are applications of harmonic analysis to partial differential equations. The volume concludes with an introduction to the Weyl calculus. The second volume goes beyond the classical to the highly contemporary and focuses on multilinear aspects of harmonic analysis: the bilinear Hilbert transform; Coifman–Meyer theory; Carleson's resolution of the Lusin conjecture; Calderón's commutators and the Cauchy integral on Lipschitz curves. T

This two-volume text in harmonic analysis introduces a wealth of analytical results and techniques. It is largely self-contained and useful to graduates and researchers in pure and applied analysis. Numerous exercises and problems make the text suitable for self-study and the classroom alike. The first volume starts with classical one-dimensional topics: Fourier series; harmonic functions; Hilbert transform. Then the higher-dimensional Calderón–Zygmund and Littlewood–Paley theories are developed. Probabilistic methods and their applications are discussed, as are applications of harmonic analysis to partial differential equations. The volume concludes with an introduction to the Weyl calculus. The second volume goes beyond the classical to the highly contemporary and focuses on multilinear aspects of harmonic analysis: the bilinear Hilbert transform; Coifman–Meyer theory; Carleson's resolution of the Lusin conjecture; Calderón's commutators and the Cauchy integral on Lipschitz curves. T

This two-volume text in harmonic analysis introduces a wealth of analytical results and techniques. It is largely self-contained and will be useful to graduate students and researchers in both pure and applied analysis. Numerous exercises and problems make the text suitable for self-study and the classroom alike. This first volume starts with classical one-dimensional topics: Fourier series; harmonic functions; Hilbert transform. Then the higher-dimensional Calderón–Zygmund and Littlewood–Paley theories are developed. Probabilistic methods and their applications are discussed, as are applications of harmonic analysis to partial differential equations. The volume concludes with an introduction to the Weyl calculus. The second volume goes beyond the classical to the highly contemporary and focuses on multilinear aspects of harmonic analysis: the bilinear Hilbert transform; Coifman–Meyer theory; Carleson's resolution of the Lusin conjecture; Calderón's commutators and the Cauchy integral

Providing a fundamental introduction to all aspects of modern plasma chemistry, this book describes mechanisms and kinetics of chemical processes in plasma, plasma statistics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and electrodynamics, as well as all major electric discharges applied in plasma chemistry. Fridman considers most of the major applications of plasma chemistry, from electronics to thermal coatings, from treatment of polymers to fuel conversion and hydrogen production and from plasma metallurgy to plasma medicine. It is helpful to engineers, scientists and students interested in plasma physics, plasma chemistry, plasma engineering and combustion, as well as chemical physics, lasers, energy systems and environmental control. The book contains an extensive database on plasma kinetics and thermodynamics and numerical formulas for practical calculations related to specific plasma-chemical processes and applications. Problems and concept questions are provided, helpful in courses relate

Continuum mechanics underlies many geological and geophysical phenomena, from earthquakes and faults to the fluid dynamics of the Earth. This interdisciplinary book provides geoscientists, physicists and applied mathematicians with a class-tested, accessible overview of continuum mechanics. Starting from thermodynamic principles and geometrical insights, the book surveys solid, fluid and gas dynamics. In later review chapters, it explores new aspects of the field emerging from nonlinearity and dynamical complexity and provides a brief introduction to computational modeling. Simple, yet rigorous, derivations are used to review the essential mathematics. The author emphasizes the full three-dimensional geometries of real-world examples, enabling students to apply this in deconstructing solid earth and planet-related problems. Problem sets and worked examples are provided, making this a practical resource for graduate students in geophysics, planetary physics and geology and a beneficial

Hidden Markov processes (HMPs) are important objects of study in many areas of pure and applied mathematics, including information theory, probability theory, dynamical systems and statistical physics, with applications in electrical engineering, computer science and molecular biology. This collection of research and survey papers presents important new results and open problems, serving as a unifying gateway for researchers in these areas. Based on talks given at the Banff International Research Station Workshop, 2007, this volume addresses a central problem of the subject: computation of the Shannon entropy rate of an HMP. This is a key quantity in statistical physics and information theory, characterising the fundamental limit on compression and closely related to channel capacity, the limit on reliable communication. Also discussed, from a symbolic dynamics and thermodynamical viewpoint, is the problem of characterizing the mappings between dynamical systems which map Markov measur

Bridging the gap between laser physics and applied mathematics, this book offers a new perspective on laser dynamics. Combining fresh treatments of classic problems with up-to-date research, asymptotic techniques appropriate for nonlinear dynamical systems are shown to offer a powerful alternative to numerical simulations. The combined analytical and experimental description of dynamical instabilities provides a clear derivation of physical formulae and an evaluation of their significance. Starting with the observation of different time scales of an operating laser, the book develops approximation techniques to systematically explore their effects. Laser dynamical regimes are introduced at different levels of complexity, from standard turn-on experiments to stiff, chaotic, spontaneous or driven pulsations. Particular attention is given to quantitative comparisons between experiments and theory. The book broadens the range of analytical tools available to laser physicists and provides a

Constraints are everywhere: most computational problems can be described in terms of restrictions imposed on the set of possible solutions, and constraint programming is a problem-solving technique that works by incorporating those restrictions in a programming environment. It draws on methods from combinatorial optimisation and artificial intelligence, and has been successfully applied in a number of fields from scheduling, computational biology, finance, electrical engineering and operations research through to numerical analysis. This textbook for upper-division students provides a thorough and structured account of the main aspects of constraint programming. The author provides many worked examples that illustrate the usefulness and versatility of this approach to programming, as well as many exercises throughout the book that illustrate techniques, test skills and extend the text. Pointers to current research, extensive historical and bibliographic notes, and a comprehensive list

If you're looking to understand photonic crystals, this systematic, rigorous, and pedagogical introduction is a must. Here you'll find intuitive analytical and semi-analytical models applied to complex and practically relevant photonic crystal structures. You will also be shown how to use various analytical methods borrowed from quantum mechanics, such as perturbation theory, asymptotic analysis, and group theory, to investigate many of the limiting properties of photonic crystals which are otherwise difficult to rationalize using only numerical simulations. An introductory review of nonlinear guiding in photonic lattices is also presented, as are the fabrication and application of photonic crystals. In addition, end-of-chapter exercise problems with detailed analytical and numerical solutions allow you to monitor your understanding of the material presented. This accessible text is ideal for researchers and graduate students studying photonic crystals in departments of electrical engi

Providing a fundamental introduction to all aspects of modern plasma chemistry, this book describes mechanisms and kinetics of chemical processes in plasma, plasma statistics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and electrodynamics, as well as all major electric discharges applied in plasma chemistry. Fridman considers most of the major applications of plasma chemistry, from electronics to thermal coatings, from treatment of polymers to fuel conversion and hydrogen production and from plasma metallurgy to plasma medicine. It is helpful to engineers, scientists and students interested in plasma physics, plasma chemistry, plasma engineering and combustion, as well as chemical physics, lasers, energy systems and environmental control. The book contains an extensive database on plasma kinetics and thermodynamics and numerical formulas for practical calculations related to specific plasma-chemical processes and applications. Problems and concept questions are provided, helpful in courses relate