This book is a compilation of the review papers, expositions and some of the technical works of Leo Kadanoff, a theoretical physicist. The idea is to put together a group of not-too-technical writing in which he discusses some issues in condensed matter physics, hydrodynamics, applied mathematics and national policy. The first section contains review papers on hydrodynamics, condensed matter physics and field theory. Next, is a selection of papers on scaling and universality, particularly applied to phase changes. A change of pace is provided by a series of papers on the critical analysis of...

"World Scientific has made available a collection of Leo's reviews, essays columns and commentaries which is a feast in several senses: the strategy and tactics of science, the science itself, the history of several important developments in science, and as a bonus a beautifully illustrated collection of essays on computational science. The average reader may find this, the final section of the book, most interesting, but for me the account of his discovery of scaling, for which, inexplicably, he did not receive the Nobel prize, is most intriguing. Leo's combination of verve, frankness and...

This is an introduction to the basic tools of mathematics needed to understand the relation between knot theory and quantum gravity. The book begins with a rapid course on manifolds and differential forms, emphasizing how these provide a proper language for formulating Maxwell's equations on arbitrary spacetimes. The authors then introduce vector bundles, connections and curvature in order to generalize Maxwell theory to the Yang-Mills equations. The relation of gauge theory to the newly discovered knot invariants such as the Jones polynomial is sketched. Riemannian geometry is then...

Interest in the automatic processing and analysis of document images has been rapidly increasing during the past few years. This book consists of 14 revised and expanded contributions that were originally presented at the IAPR workshop on Structural and Syntatic Pattern Recognition, held in Bern, Switzerland, in 1992. It addresses the different subfields of document image analysis, including preprocessing and segmentation, form processing, handwriting recognition, line drawing and map processing, and contextual processing.

An introduction to the foundations of mathematics. The use of the constructive method in arithmetic and the axiomatic method in geometry gives a unitary understanding of the backgrounds of geometry, of its development and of its organic link with the study of real numbers and algebraic structures.

Soft computing is a new, emerging discipline rooted in a group of technologies that aim to exploit the tolerance for imprecision and uncertainty in achieving solutions to complex problems. The principal components of soft computing are fuzzy logic, neurocomputing, genetic algorithms and probabilistic reasoning. This volume is a collection of up-to-date articles giving a snapshot of the current state of the field. It covers the whole expanse, from theoretical foundations to applications. The contributors are among the world leaders in the field.

Basic procedures for designing and analyzing electronic systems are largely based on the assumptions of linear behaviour of the system. Nonlinearities inherent in all real applications are very often causing unexpected and even strange behaviour. This book presents an electronic engineer's perspective on chaos and complex behaviour, starting from basic mathematical notions which enable understanding of the observed phenomena and guide the reader through methodology and tools used in the laboratory and numerical experiments to interpretation and explanation of basic mechanisms. On typical...

Authoritative and visionary, this festschrift features 12 highly readable expositions of virtually all currently active aspects of nonlinear science. It has been painstakingly researched and written by leading scientists and eminent expositors, including L Shilnikov, R Seydel, I Prigogine, W Porod, C Mira, M Lakshmanan, W Lauterborn, A Holden, H Haken, C Grebogi, E Doedel and L Chua; each chapter addresses a current and intensively researched area of nonlinear science and chaos, including nonlinear dynamics, mathematics, numerics and technology. Handsomely produced with high resolution color...

The book presents macroscopic irreversible thermodynamics in its realm and splendor by appealing to the notion of internal variables of state. This applies to both fluids and solids with or without microstructures of mechanical or electromagnetic origin. This unmatched richness of essentially nonlinear behaviours is the result of the use of modern mathematical techniques such as convex analysis in a clear-cut framework which allows one to put under the umbrella of irreversible thermodynamics behaviours which until now were commonly thought of as either not easily covered, or even impossible...

Bifurcation and Chaos has dominated research in nonlinear dynamics for over two decades and numerous introductory and advanced books have been published on this subject. There remains, however, a dire need for a textbook which provides a pedagogically appealing yet rigorous mathematical bridge between these two disparate levels of exposition. This book is written to serve the above unfulfilled need.

Following the footsteps of Poincare, and the renowned Andronov school of nonlinear oscillations, this book focuses on the qualitative study of high-dimensional nonlinear dynamical systems. Many...