Clusters represent a new class of materials with totally new applications. This broad-ranging book presents and evaluates some of the latest developments in this area. The authors present some of the important recent advances made through the use of new experimental techniques and theoretical approaches.

The field of cluster science is currently attracting considerable interest, not only from a fundamental standpoint, but also through its future applications to electronic, optical, magnetic, and other devices. Synthesizing specific clus- ters as a unit of useful nanostructures or controlling them as an assembly of nanocomposites is one of the ultimate purposes in this field. In order to understand how to synthesize individual clusters and t_o investigate physical properties, chemical reactions, structural stability, response to external fields, aggregation, phase transition, and other aspects...

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the Second International Conference on Numerical Analysis and Its Applications, NAA 2000, held in Rousse, Bulgaria in June 2000.The 90 revised papers presented were carefully selected for inclusion in the book during the two rounds of inspection and reviewing. All current aspects of numerical analysis are addressed. Among the application fields covered are computational sciences and engineering, chemistry, physics, economics, simulation, etc.