The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics and physical chemistry fields with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Filled with cutting-edge research reported in a cohesive manner not found elsewhere in the literature, each volume of the Advances in Chemical Physics series serves as the perfect supplement to any advanced graduate class devoted to the study of chemical physics.

The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics and physical chemistry fields with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Filled with cutting-edge research reported in a cohesive manner not found elsewhere in the literature, each volume of the Advances in Chemical Physics series serves as the perfect supplement to any advanced graduate class devoted to the study of chemical physics.

The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics and physical chemistry fields with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Filled with cutting-edge research reported in a cohesive manner not found elsewhere in the literature, each volume of the Advances in Chemical Physics series serves as the perfect supplement to any advanced graduate class devoted to the study of chemical physics.

Recent advances from internationally recognized researchers Advances in Chemical Physics is the only series of volumes available to represent the cutting edge of research in the discipline. It creates a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the chemical physics field. Volume 128 continues to report recent developments with significant, up-to-date chapters by internationally recognized researchers. Volume 128 includes: "Nucleation in Polymer Crystallization," by M. Muthukumar; "Theory of Constrained Brownian Motion," by David C. Morse; "Superparamagnetism and Spin-glass Dynamics of Interacting Magnetic Nanoparticle Systems," by Petra E. Jönnson; "Wavepacket Theory of Photodissociation and Reactive Scattering," by Gabriel G. Balint-Kurti; and "The Momentum Density Perspective of the Electronic Structure of Atoms and Molecules," by Ajit J. Thakkar. Students and professionals in chemical physics and physical chemistry, as well as those working in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and polymer industries, will find Advances in Chemical Physics, Volume 128 to be an indispensable survey of the field.

A 'stochastic' process is a 'random' or 'conjectural' process, and this book is concerned with applied probability and statistics. Whilst maintaining the mathematical rigour this subject requires, it addresses topics of interest to engineers, such as problems in modelling, control, reliability maintenance, data analysis and engineering involvement with insurance.This book deals with the tools and techniques used in the stochastic process – estimation, optimisation and recursive logarithms – in a form accessible to engineers and which can also be applied to Matlab. Amongst the themes covered in the chapters are mathematical expectation arising from increasing information patterns, the estimation of probability distribution, the treatment of distribution of real random phenomena (in engineering, economics, biology and medicine etc), and expectation maximisation. The latter part of the book considers optimization algorithms, which can be used, for example, to help in the better utilization of resources, and stochastic approximation algorithms, which can provide prototype models in many practical applications.*An engineering approach to applied probabilities and statistics *Presents examples related to practical engineering applications, such as reliability, randomness and use of resources*Readers with varying interests and mathematical backgrounds will find this book accessible

The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics and physical chemistry fields with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Filled with cutting-edge research reported in a cohesive manner not found elsewhere in the literature, each volume of the Advances in Chemical Physics series serves as the perfect supplement to any advanced graduate class devoted to the study of chemical physics.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop, Cap d'Agde, France, September 9-14, 1990

The 6th Kyoto Summer Institute devoted to "Chaos and Statistical Mechanics" was held from September 12 to 15, 1983, at the Research Institute forMathematical Sciences, Kyoto University, and at Hotel Kuniso. The meeting was aimed at clari fying various aspects of chaotic systems appearing in different scientific disci pl ines, critically examining related mathematical methods developed so far, thus preparing for possible breakthroughs, among others, for the opening of a new period of statistical mechanics of deterministic systems. The number of partici pants was 135,of which 24 were from abroad. We believe that the well-prepared lecture of each speaker and lively discussions among many participants from various research fields led the meeting to a successful conclusion. The 6th KSI was organized by the Research Institute for Fundamental Physics. A number of young chaos researchers in Japan also participated actively in the organization. We were also in close contact with the organizer of the IUTAM Sym posium on "Turbulence and Chaotic Phenomena in Fluids" (Kyoto Kaikan Conference Hall, Kyoto, September 5-10 1983). This volume contains most of the lectures presented at the 6th KSI. We are very grateful to all the authors for their efforts in preparing such excellent manuscripts. The 6th KSI was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and the Yamada Science Foundation. The organizing committee acknowledges gratefully their generous financial support. Finally, than'ks are due to Dr. M. Toya and Miss T. Sumide for their invaluable assistance.

This volume contains most of the lectures presented at the meeting held in Carry-le nd Rouet from the 2 to the 4th June 1980 and entitled "Numerical Methods in the Study of Critical Phenomena". Scientific subjects are becoming increasingly differentiated, and the number of journals and meetings devoted to them is continually increasing. Thus it has become very difficult for the non-specialist to approach subjects with which he is not familiar. Hence the purpose of our meeting was to bring together scientists from different disciplines to study a common subject and to stimulate discussion' between participants. We hope this goal was reached. The lectures are grouped in five chapters and, inside the first and the second chapter, under two headings. In each group they are classified in alphabetical order by author. We are pleased to publish these Proceedings in a series whose multidisciplinary character has been emphasized from the beginning. We are indebted to all who provided us with their help, particularly to Mrs. A. Litman of the Centre International de Rencontres Mathematiques at Luminy (C.I.R.M.) whose kindness and efficiency are well known; from the practical point of view, the meetings were organized within the scientific framework of the G.I.S. No.19 (C.N.R.S.), with the participation of the University of Grenoble.

Tbis book is intended to provide a few asymptotic methods which can be applied to the dynamics of self-oscillating fields of the reaction-diffusion type and of some related systems. Such systems, forming cooperative fields of a large num of interacting similar subunits, are considered as typical synergetic systems. ber Because each local subunit itself represents an active dynamical system function ing only in far-from-equilibrium situations, the entire system is capable of showing a variety of curious pattern formations and turbulencelike behaviors quite unfamiliar in thermodynamic cooperative fields. I personally believe that the nonlinear dynamics, deterministic or statistical, of fields composed of similar active (Le., non-equilibrium) elements will form an extremely attractive branch of physics in the near future. For the study of non-equilibrium cooperative systems, some theoretical guid ing principle would be highly desirable. In this connection, this book pushes for ward a particular physical viewpoint based on the slaving principle. The dis covery of tbis principle in non-equilibrium phase transitions, especially in lasers, was due to Hermann Haken. The great utility of this concept will again be dem onstrated in tbis book for the fields of coupled nonlinear oscillators.