As Eugene Wigner stressed, mathematics has proven unreasonably effective in the physical sciences and their technological applications. The role of mathematics in the biological, medical and social sciences has been much more modest but has recently grown thanks to the simulation capacity offered by modern computers. This book traces the history of population dynamics---a theoretical subject closely connected to genetics, ecology, epidemiology and demography---where mathematics has brought significant insights. It presents an overview of the genesis of several important themes: exponential growth, from Euler and Malthus to the Chinese one-child policy; the development of stochastic models, from Mendel's laws and the question of extinction of family names to percolation theory for the spread of epidemics, and chaotic populations, where determinism and randomness intertwine. The reader of this book will see, from a different perspective, the problems that scientists face when governments ask for reliable predictions to help control epidemics (AIDS, SARS, swine flu), manage renewable resources (fishing quotas, spread of genetically modified organisms) or anticipate demographic evolutions such as aging.

This work dealing with percolation theory clustering, criticallity, diffusion, fractals and phase transitions takes a broad approach to the subject, covering basic theory and also specialized fields like disordered systems and renormalization groups.

Why would we wish to start a 2nd edition of “Percolation theory for ?ow in porous media” only two years after the ?rst one was ?nished? There are essentially three reasons: 1) Reviews in the soil physics community have pointed out that the introductory material on percolation theory could have been more accessible. Our additional experience in teaching this material led us to believe that we could improve this aspect of the book. In the context of rewriting the ?rst chapter, however, we also expanded the discussion of Bethe lattices and their relevance for “classical” - ponents of percolation theory, thus giving more of a basis for the discussion of the relevance of hyperscaling. This addition, though it will not tend to make the book more accessible to hydrologists, was useful in making it a more complete reference, and these sections have been marked as being possible to omit in a ?rst reading. It also forced a division of the ?rst chapter into two. We hope that physicists without a background in percolation theory will now also ?nd the - troductory material somewhat more satisfactory. 2) We have done considerable further work on problems of electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and electromechanical coupling.

Percolation theory is the study of an idealized random medium in two or more dimensions. The emphasis of this book is upon core mathematical material and the presentation of the shortest and most accessible proofs. Much new material appears in this second edition including dynamic and static renormalization, strict inequalities between critical points, a sketch of the lace expansion, and several essays on related fields and applications.

Founded on the work of the renowned Advanced Combustion Engineering Research Center, the authors document and integrate current knowledge of the organic and inorganic structure of coal and its reaction processes. With the urgent need for cleaner, more efficient use of this worldwide fuel, their work will set a clear course for future research.

The random-cluster model has emerged as a key tool in the mathematical study of ferromagnetism. It may be viewed as an extension of percolation to include Ising and Potts models, and its analysis is a mix of arguments from probability and geometry. The Random-Cluster Model contains accounts of the subcritical and supercritical phases, together with clear statements of important open problems. The book includes treatment of the first-order (discontinuous) phase transition.

The study of the effects of dimensional ity and disorder on phase transitions, electronic transport, and superconductivity has become an important field of research in condensed matter physics. These effects are both classical and quantum mechanical in nature and are observed universally in urealu materials. What may at first glance seem a diverse collection of lectures which form the chapters of these proceedings is in fact, an attempt to demon strate the commonality, inter-relationship, and general applica bility of the phenomena of localization, percolation, and macro scopic quantum effects on electrical transport and superconduc tivity in disordered solids. The theory of these phenomena is presented in a complete, yet, self-contained fashion and the inter-relationship between the topics is emphasized. An extensive treatment of experimental results is also included, both those which have stimulated the theory as well as those that have confirmed it. Many of the phenomena investigated in this field also have technological significance. For example, the nature of electronic localization in metals in which one or more dimensions are con strained is very important when one attempts to predict the be havior of the metallic interconnects in ultra-miniature circuits.

This book, first published in 2006, is an account of percolation theory and its ramifications.

This introduction to some of the principal models in the theory of disordered systems leads the reader through the basics, to the very edge of contemporary research, with the minimum of technical fuss. Topics covered include random walk, percolation, self-avoiding walk, interacting particle systems, uniform spanning tree, random graphs, as well as the Ising, Potts, and random-cluster models for ferromagnetism, and the Lorentz model for motion in a random medium. This new edition features accounts of major recent progress, including the exact value of the connective constant of the hexagonal lattice, and the critical point of the random-cluster model on the square lattice. The choice of topics is strongly motivated by modern applications, and focuses on areas that merit further research. Accessible to a wide audience of mathematicians and physicists, this book can be used as a graduate course text. Each chapter ends with a range of exercises.