One of the main ideas in organizing the Summer Institute of Cargese on "Bifurcation Phenomena in Mathematical Physics and Related Topics" was to bring together Physicists and Mathematicians working on the properties arising from the non linearity of the phenomena and of the models that are used for their description. Among these properties the existence of bifurcations is one of the most interesting, and we had a general survey of the mathematical tools used in this field. This survey was done by M. Crandall and P. Rabinowitz and the notes enclosed in these proceedings were written by E....

It has been a decade since two seminal reviews demonstrated that mixed-valence compounds share many unique and fascinating features. The insight pro vided by those early works has promoted a great deal of both experimental and theoretical study. As a result of extensive efforts, our understanding of the bonding and properties of mixed-valence compounds has advanced substantially. There has been no compre hensive treatment of mixed-valence compounds since 1967, and the meeting convened at Oxford in September, 1979, provided a unique opportunity to examine the subject and its many...

During the past few years there has been a marked increase in the use of advanced chemical methods in studies of soil and clay mineral systems, but only a relatively small number of soil and clay scientists have become intimately associ ated and acquainted with these new techniques. Perhaps the most important obstacles to technology transfer in this area are: 1) many soil and clay chemists have had insufficient opportunities to explore in depth the working principles of more recent spectroscopic developments, and therefore are unable to exploit the vast wealth of information that is available...

This volume is based on lectures and discussions presented at a NATO Advanced Study Institute on ELF and VLF Radio Wave Propagation, which was held in Norway April 1974. The study of propagation of electromagnetic waves with frequen- cies below 100 kHz has long traditions in ionospheric physics. To-day, this frequency range is still of great importance, both to the physicist, who uses the waves as diagnostic tools to study the earth's environment and to the engineer who exploits the characteris- tics of these waves to improve communications, navigation and timing systems. In recent years the...

It is general consensus that Combinatorics has developed into a full-fledged mathematical discipline whose beginnings as a charming pastime have long since been left behind and whose great signifi- cance for other branches of both pure and applied mathematics is only beginning to be realized. The last ten years have witnessed a tremendous outburst of activity both in relatively new fields such as Coding Theory and the Theory of Matroids as well as in' more time honored endeavors such as Generating Functions and the Inver- sion Calculus. Although the number of text books on these subjects is...

The present volume collects lecture notes from the session of the International School of Mathematical Physics 'Ettore Majorana' on Renormalization Theory that took place in Erice (Sicily), August 17 to August 31, 1975. The School was a NATO Advanced Study Institute sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Public Education, the Italian Minis- try of Scientific and Technological Research, and the Regional Sicilian Government. Renormalization theory has, by now, acquired forty years of history. The present volume assumes a general acquaintance with the elementary facts of the subject as they might...

Recent advances in the field of high pressure techniques influenced me to propose an Advanced Study Institute in Hi0h Pressure Chemistry. It was intended that the summer school should devote itself exclusively to the description and discussion of the effects of pressure in chemistry. Besides typical effects on matter, the application of high pressure techniques to existing research methods were to be treated, as well as pressure effects on reaction rates and equilibria. According to the concept of the Advanced Study Institute Program, the Summer School proceedings were meant to be a high...

It has long been realized that the mineral assemblages of igneous and metamorphic rocks may reflect the approach of a rock to chemical eCluilibrium during its formation. However progress in the application of chemical thermodynamics to geological systems has been hindered since the time of Bowen and the other early physical-chemical petrologists by the recurring Cluandary of the experimental geologist. His systems are complex and are experimentally intractable, but if they were not so refractory they would not be there to study at all. It is only recently that accurate measurements of the...

When Prof. Hatheron was asked to delineate the history of geostatistics, he objected that such discipline is still too "young" to be treated from a historical point of view. The more and more increasing practical applications requiring newer and newer methodologies would rather suggest the necessity of empha sizing the steps taken and the results obtained up to now. The reason of certain epistemological choices as well as the difficul ties and success in establishing a dialogue with the people most likely to benefit from the results of geostatistics are necessary premises to understand the...