Proceedings of the Gibbs Symposium


Book Description

This volume, a joint publication with the American Institute of Physics, contains the proceedings of a symposium honoring the memory of Josiah Willard Gibbs, one of the giants of theoretical physics. Three articles provide perspectives on Gibbs, the man, and on the place his work occupies in the history of science. There are also contributions from leading scientists on statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, geophysics, number theory, general relativity, and economics.




International Symposium On Solid Ionic and Ionic-Electronic Conductors


Book Description

Solid Ionic and Ionic-Electronic Conductors presents a selection of papers gathered from the International Conference on Solid Ionic and Ionic-Electronic Conductors, held in Rome in September 1976. The collection emphasizes studies on lithium ion conductors and solid electrolytes. The conference covers a broad range of topics on solid ionic and ionic-electronic conductors. A considerable amount of papers are written on Li-ion conductors, where topics on conductivity data for several lithium ion conductors; new Li-ion conductors with several different structure types; and the crystal structure of a group of ternary copper compounds of the composition CuTeX are presented. Papers dealing with investigations and applications of solid electrolytes are also substantial and cover topics on iodine diffusion and gettering in solid electrolyte batteries; the application of solid electrolytes to the thermodynamic study of some alkaline earths silicates; and properties and applications of sulfate-based solid electrolytes. Electronics engineers, physicists, researchers, materials engineers, and businessmen in the electronics industry will find the contents of the book insightful.




Ludwig Boltzmann


Book Description

The book presents the life and personality, the scientific and philosophical work of Ludwig Boltzmann, one of the great scientists who marked the passage from 19th to 20th century physics. His rich and tragic life, ending by suicide at the age of 62, is described in detail. A substantialpart of the book is devoted to discussing his scientific and philosophical ideas and placing them in the context of the second half of the 19th century. The fact that Boltzmann was the man who did most to establish that there is a microscopic, atomic structure underlying macroscopic bodies isdocumented, as is Boltzmann's influence on modern physics, especially through the work of Planck on light quanta and of Einstein on Brownian motion. Boltzmann was the centre of a scientific revolution, and he has been proved right on many crucial issues. He anticipated Kuhn's theory of scientificrevolutions and proposed a theory of knowledge based on Darwin. His basic results, when properly understood, can also be stated as mathematical theorems. Some of these have been proved; others are still at the level of likely but unproven conjectures. The main text of this biography is writtenalmost entirely without equations. Mathematical appendices deepen knowledge of some technical aspects of the subject.







Differential Equations


Book Description

Presents recent developments in the areas of differential equations, dynamical systems, and control of finke and infinite dimensional systems. Focuses on current trends in differential equations and dynamical system research-from Darameterdependence of solutions to robui control laws for inflnite dimensional systems.




40 Years of Entropy and the Glass Transition


Book Description

Articles: configurational entropy approach to the kinetics of glasses; entropy theory and glass transition: a test by Monte Carlo simulation; entropy and fragility in supercooling liquids; entropy crises in glasses and random heteropolymers; Adams-Gibbs formulation of enthalpy relaxation near the glass transition; evidence for glass and spin-glass phase transitions from the dynamic susceptibility; entropy, free volume, and cooperative relaxation; and confirmational entropy contributions to the glass temperature of blends of miscible polymers. Charts, tables and graphs.




Quantum Field Theory II: Quantum Electrodynamics


Book Description

And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. Genesis 1,3 Light is not only the basis of our biological existence, but also an essential source of our knowledge about the physical laws of nature, ranging from the seventeenth century geometrical optics up to the twentieth century theory of general relativity and quantum electrodynamics. Folklore Don’t give us numbers: give us insight! A contemporary natural scientist to a mathematician The present book is the second volume of a comprehensive introduction to themathematicalandphysicalaspectsofmodernquantum?eldtheorywhich comprehends the following six volumes: Volume I: Basics in Mathematics and Physics Volume II: Quantum Electrodynamics Volume III: Gauge Theory Volume IV: Quantum Mathematics Volume V: The Physics of the Standard Model Volume VI: Quantum Gravitation and String Theory. It is our goal to build a bridge between mathematicians and physicists based on the challenging question about the fundamental forces in • macrocosmos (the universe) and • microcosmos (the world of elementary particles). The six volumes address a broad audience of readers, including both und- graduate and graduate students, as well as experienced scientists who want to become familiar with quantum ?eld theory, which is a fascinating topic in modern mathematics and physics.




Immanent Reasoning or Equality in Action


Book Description

This monograph proposes a new way of implementing interaction in logic. It also provides an elementary introduction to Constructive Type Theory (CTT). The authors equally emphasize basic ideas and finer technical details. In addition, many worked out exercises and examples will help readers to better understand the concepts under discussion. One of the chief ideas animating this study is that the dialogical understanding of definitional equality and its execution provide both a simple and a direct way of implementing the CTT approach within a game-theoretical conception of meaning. In addition, the importance of the play level over the strategy level is stressed, binding together the matter of execution with that of equality and the finitary perspective on games constituting meaning. According to this perspective the emergence of concepts are not only games of giving and asking for reasons (games involving Why-questions), they are also games that include moves establishing how it is that the reasons brought forward accomplish their explicative task. Thus, immanent reasoning games are dialogical games of Why and How.




Catastrophe Theory


Book Description

The new edition of this non-mathematical review of catastrophe theory contains updated results and many new or expanded topics including delayed loss of stability, shock waves, and interior scattering. Three new sections offer the history of singularity and its applications from da Vinci to today, a discussion of perestroika in terms of the theory of metamorphosis, and a list of 93 problems touching on most of the subject matter in the book.




Thermodynamics


Book Description

This book places thermodynamics on a system-theoretic foundation so as to harmonize it with classical mechanics. Using the highest standards of exposition and rigor, the authors develop a novel formulation of thermodynamics that can be viewed as a moderate-sized system theory as compared to statistical thermodynamics. This middle-ground theory involves deterministic large-scale dynamical system models that bridge the gap between classical and statistical thermodynamics. The authors' theory is motivated by the fact that a discipline as cardinal as thermodynamics--entrusted with some of the most perplexing secrets of our universe--demands far more than physical mathematics as its underpinning. Even though many great physicists, such as Archimedes, Newton, and Lagrange, have humbled us with their mathematically seamless eurekas over the centuries, this book suggests that a great many physicists and engineers who have developed the theory of thermodynamics seem to have forgotten that mathematics, when used rigorously, is the irrefutable pathway to truth. This book uses system theoretic ideas to bring coherence, clarity, and precision to an extremely important and poorly understood classical area of science.