Statistical physics is one of the fundamental branches of modern science. It provides a useful tool constructing a bridge from the microscopic to the macroscopic world. In the last forty years, most of the extensive applications have been made successfully in a variety of fields, such as physics, chemistry, biology, materials science, and even astronomy, where many new concepts and methods have been developed.The purpose of this meeting is to provide an opportunity for young researchers in experimental, theoretical and computational fields to communicate with one another using the common language of statistical physics, and thus foster many-body interactions among themselves.
This invaluable book presents a concise but systematic account of the formation of spatial flow structures in a horizontal fluid layer heated from below. Flows of this type, known as Rayleigh-Bénard convection, show important features of behaviour inherent not only in various hydrodynamic-instability phenomena but also in nonlinear pattern-forming processes in other contexts. The book describes the basic methods of investigating convection patterns, and the types of two- and three-dimensional flows, pattern defects, and sequences of convection-regime changes.The author pays special attention to the question of how various factors (mainly reducible to initial and boundary conditions) determine the shapes and sizes of the structures which develop. In this way, the role of order and disorder in flow patterns, as a factor strongly affecting the character of the evolution of structures, is revealed. The presentation emphasizes the physical picture of these phenomena, without excessive mathematical detail.
This Brief describes six basic models of buoyancy-driven convection in a fluid layer: three configurations of internally heated convection and three configurations of Rayleigh-Bénard convection. The author discusses the main quantities that characterize heat transport in each model, along with the constraints on these quantities. This presentation is the first to place the various models in a unified framework, and similarities and differences between the cases are highlighted. Necessary and sufficient conditions for convective motion are given. For the internally heated cases only, parameter-dependent lower bounds on the mean fluid temperature are proven, and results of past simulations and laboratory experiments are summarized and reanalyzed. The author poses several open questions for future study.
"When all has been said, one important fact emerges: this book is a valuable compendium of results that every expert in hydrodynamics, gas dynamics, or dynamical meteorology will want to keep by … [their]side and refer to frequently." — Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society This unique graduate-level monograph offers a heavily mathematical treatment of the vorticity of fluids. The subject's wealth of applications extends to many areas of physics and engineering, and the book will also appeal to mathematically oriented historians of science. Starting with consideration of geometrical and kinematical preliminaries, the text advances to examinations of vorticity, the vorticity field, vorticity measures, and vorticity averages. Subsequent chapters explore Bernoullian theorems, convection and diffusion of vorticity, and circulation-preserving motions.
Clouds play a critical role in the Earth's climate, general atmospheric circulation, and global water balance. Clouds are essential elements in mesoscale meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, air pollution, atmosphericradiation, and weather forecasting, and thus must be understood by any student or researcher in the atmospheric sciences.Cloud Dynamics provides a skillful and comprehensive examination of the nature of clouds--what they look like and why, how scientists observe them, and the basic dynamics and physics that underlie them. The book describes the mechanics governing each type of cloud that occurs in Earth's atmosphere, and the organization of various types of clouds in larger weather systems such as fronts, thunderstorms, and hurricanes.This book is aimed specifically at graduate students, advanced undergraduates, practicing researchers either already in atmospheric science or moving in from a related scientific field, and operational meteorologists. Some prior knowledge of atmospheric dynamics and physics is helpful, but a thorough overview of the necessary prerequisites is supplied. - Provides a complete treatment of clouds integrating the analysis of air motions with cloud structure, microphysics, and precipitation mechanics - Describes and explains the basic types of clouds and cloud systems that occur in the atmosphere-fog, stratus, stratocumulus, altocumulus, altostratus, cirrus, thunderstorms, tornadoes, waterspouts, orographically induced clouds, mesoscale convection complexes, hurricanes, fronts, and extratropical cyclones - Presents a photographic guide, presented in the first chapter, linking the examination of each type of cloud with an image to enhance visual retention and understanding - Summarizes the fundamentals, both observational and theoretical, of atmospheric dynamics, thermodynamics, cloud microphysics, and radar meteorology, allowing each type of cloud to be examined in depth - Integrates the latest field observations, numerical model simulations, and theory - Supplies a theoretical treatment suitable for the advanced undergraduate or graduate level
Heat provides the energy that drives almost all geological phenomena and sets the temperature at which these phenomena operate. This book explains the key physical principles of heat transport with simple physical arguments and scaling laws that allow quantitative evaluation of heat flux and cooling conditions in a variety of geological settings and systems. The thermal structure and evolution of magma reservoirs, the crust, the lithosphere and the mantle of the Earth are reviewed within the context of plate tectonics and mantle convection - illustrating how theoretical arguments can be combined with field and laboratory data to arrive at accurate interpretations of geological observations. Appendices contain data on the thermal properties of rocks, surface heat flux measurements and rates of radiogenic heat production. This book can be used for advanced courses in geophysics, geodynamics and magmatic processes, and is a reference for researchers in geoscience, environmental science, physics, engineering and fluid dynamics.
The impact of Benard's discovery on 20th century physics is crucial to any modern research area such as fluid dynamics, nonlinear dynamics, and non-equilibrium thermodynamics, just to name a few. This centenary review shows the broad scope and development including modern applications, edited and written by experts in the field.