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This monograph provides a concise presentation of a mathematical approach to metastability, a wide-spread phenomenon in the dynamics of non-linear systems - physical, chemical, biological or economic - subject to the action of temporal random forces typically referred to as noise, based on potential theory of reversible Markov processes. The authors shed new light on the metastability phenomenon as a sequence of visits of the path of the process to different metastable sets, and focuses on the precise analysis of the respective hitting probabilities and hitting times of these sets. The theory is illustrated with many examples, ranging from finite-state Markov chains, finite-dimensional diffusions and stochastic partial differential equations, via mean-field dynamics with and without disorder, to stochastic spin-flip and particle-hop dynamics and probabilistic cellular automata, unveiling the common universal features of these systems with respect to their metastable behaviour. The monograph will serve both as comprehensive introduction and as reference for graduate students and researchers interested in metastability.

This book has been long awaited in the "interacting particle systems" community. Begun by Claude Kipnis before his untimely death, it was completed by Claudio Landim, his most brilliant student and collaborator. It presents the techniques used in the proof of the hydrodynamic behavior of interacting particle systems.

The European Congress of Mathematics, held every four years, has established itself as a major international mathematical event. Following those in Paris, 1992, Budapest, 1996, and Barcelona, 2000, the Fourth European Congress of Mathematics took place in Stockholm, Sweden, June 27 to July 2, 2004, with 913 participants from 65 countries. Apart from seven plenary and thirty three invited lectures, there were six Science Lectures covering the most relevant aspects of mathematics in science and technology. Moreover, twelve projects of the EU Research Training Networks in Mathematics and Information Sciences, as well as Programmes from the European Science Foundation in Physical and Engineering Sciences, were presented. Ten EMS Prizes were awarded to young European mathematicians who have made a particular contribution to the progress of mathematics. Five of the prizewinners were independently chosen by the 4ECM Scientific Committee as plenary or invited speakers. The other five prizewinners gave their lectures in parallel sessions. Most of these contributions are now collected in this volume, providing a permanent record of so much that is best in mathematics today.

This volume contains refereed research or review papers presented at the 6th Seminar on Stochastic Processes, Random Fields and Applications, which took place at the Centro Stefano Franscini (Monte Verità) in Ascona, Switzerland, in May 2008. The seminar focused mainly on stochastic partial differential equations, especially large deviations and control problems, on infinite dimensional analysis, particle systems and financial engineering, especially energy markets and climate models. The book will be a valuable resource for researchers in stochastic analysis and professionals interested in stochastic methods in finance.

Probabilistic approaches have played a prominent role in the study of complex physical systems for more than thirty years. This volume collects twenty articles on various topics in this field, including self-interacting random walks and polymer models in random and non-random environments, branching processes, Parisi formulas and metastability in spin glasses, and hydrodynamic limits for gradient Gibbs models. The majority of these articles contain original results at the forefront of contemporary research; some of them include review aspects and summarize the state-of-the-art on topical issues – one focal point is the parabolic Anderson model, which is considered with various novel aspects including moving catalysts, acceleration and deceleration and fron propagation, for both time-dependent and time-independent potentials. The authors are among the world’s leading experts. This Festschrift honours two eminent researchers, Erwin Bolthausen and Jürgen Gärtner, whose scientific work has profoundly influenced the field and all of the present contributions.

This book on complexity science comprises a collection of chapters on methods and principles from a wide variety of disciplinary fields — from physics and chemistry to biology and the social sciences.In this two-part volume, the first part is a collection of chapters introducing different aspects in a coherent fashion, and providing a common basis and the founding principles of the different complexity science approaches; the next provides deeper discussions of the different methods of use in complexity science, with interesting illustrative applications.The fundamental topics deal with self-organization, pattern formation, forecasting uncertainties, synchronization and revolutionary change, self-adapting and self-correcting systems, and complex networks. Examples are taken from biology, chemistry, engineering, epidemiology, robotics, economics, sociology, and neurology.

This two-volume set LNCS 7902 and 7903 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, IWANN 2013, held in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain, in June 2013. The 116 revised papers were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions for presentation in two volumes. The papers explore sections on mathematical and theoretical methods in computational intelligence, neurocomputational formulations, learning and adaptation emulation of cognitive functions, bio-inspired systems and neuro-engineering, advanced topics in computational intelligence and applications

The concept of entropy arose in the physical sciences during the nineteenth century, particularly in thermodynamics and statistical physics, as a measure of the equilibria and evolution of thermodynamic systems. Two main views developed: the macroscopic view formulated originally by Carnot, Clausius, Gibbs, Planck, and Caratheodory and the microscopic approach associated with Boltzmann and Maxwell. Since then both approaches have made possible deep insights into the nature and behavior of thermodynamic and other microscopically unpredictable processes. However, the mathematical tools used have later developed independently of their original physical background and have led to a plethora of methods and differing conventions. The aim of this book is to identify the unifying threads by providing surveys of the uses and concepts of entropy in diverse areas of mathematics and the physical sciences. Two major threads, emphasized throughout the book, are variational principles and Ljapunov functionals. The book starts by providing basic concepts and terminology, illustrated by examples from both the macroscopic and microscopic lines of thought. In-depth surveys covering the macroscopic, microscopic and probabilistic approaches follow. Part I gives a basic introduction from the views of thermodynamics and probability theory. Part II collects surveys that look at the macroscopic approach of continuum mechanics and physics. Part III deals with the microscopic approach exposing the role of entropy as a concept in probability theory, namely in the analysis of the large time behavior of stochastic processes and in the study of qualitative properties of models in statistical physics. Finally in Part IV applications in dynamical systems, ergodic and information theory are presented. The chapters were written to provide as cohesive an account as possible, making the book accessible to a wide range of graduate students and researchers. Any scientist dealing with systems that exhibit entropy will find the book an invaluable aid to their understanding.