This volume contains the lectures and invited seminars pre sented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on NON-EQUILIBRIUM COOPERATIVE PHENOMENA IN PHYSICS AND RELATED FIELDS that was held at EL ESCORIAL (MADRID), SPAIN, on August 1-11, 1983. Most nonlinear problems in dissipative systems, i . e . , most mathematical models in SYNERGETICS are highly trans disciplinary in practice and the list of lecturers and participants at the ASI reflects this di versi ty both in background and interest. The presentation of the material fell into two main categories: tutopia~ Zectures on some basic ideas and methods, both experimental and theoretical, intended to lay a common base for all participants, and a series of more specific lectures and seminars, serving the purpose of exemplying selected but typical applications in their current state of development. Topics were chosen for their basic interest as well as for their potential for applications (laser, hydrodynamics, liquid crystals, EHD, combustion, thermoelasticity, etc. ). We had more seminars and some of the oral presentations were supported or complemented with 16 mm films and on occasion with experimental demonstrations including a special seminar, a social one on broken symmetries in Art and Music. There is here no record of these non-standard acti vi ties. We had, indeed, quite a heavy load for which I was fully responsible. However, the reader and, above all, the participants at the ASI ought to be aware of the fact that in Spain, with.

Klappentext

This volume contains the lectures and invited seminars pre­ sented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on NON-EQUILIBRIUM COOPERATIVE PHENOMENA IN PHYSICS AND RELATED FIELDS that was held at EL ESCORIAL (MADRID), SPAIN, on August 1-11, 1983. Most nonlinear problems in dissipative systems, i . e . , most mathematical models in SYNERGETICS are highly trans disciplinary in practice and the list of lecturers and participants at the ASI reflects this di versi ty both in background and interest. The presentation of the material fell into two main categories: tutopia~ Zectures on some basic ideas and methods, both experimental and theoretical, intended to lay a common base for all participants, and a series of more specific lectures and seminars, serving the purpose of exemplying selected but typical applications in their current state of development. Topics were chosen for their basic interest as well as for their potential for applications (laser, hydrodynamics, liquid crystals, EHD, combustion, thermoelasticity, etc. ). We had more seminars and some of the oral presentations were supported or complemented with 16 mm films and on occasion with experimental demonstrations including a special seminar, a social one on broken symmetries in Art and Music. There is here no record of these non-standard acti vi ties. We had, indeed, quite a heavy load for which I was fully responsible. However, the reader and, above all, the participants at the ASI ought to be aware of the fact that in Spain, with.

Inhalt
A. Introduction: Synergetics and Non-Equilibrium Phase Transitions.- Synergetics.- Phase transition analogies: magnets, lasers and fluid flows.- B. Lasers and Quantum Optics.- Collective phenomena in Quantum Optics.- Optical Bistability and related topics.- Laser with intracavity absorber: Q-switching and multistable nonlinear oscillations and chaos.- Non-linear operation of CO2 lasers with intracavity saturable absorbers.- Structurally stable bifurcations in optical bistability.- C. Action of Intense Laser Fields.- Allowed nuclear beta decay in an intense laser field.- D. Instabilities and Convection in Liquids and Liquid Crystals.- Thermohydrodynamic instabilities: Buoyancy-thermocapillary convection.- Thermohydrodynamic instability in nematic liquid crystals: a summary of arguments and conditions for some simple geometries.- Neutron scattering studies of phase transitions in equilibrium and nonequilibrium systems.- Electrothermal instabilities in dielectric liquids.- Electrohydrodynamic instabilities in nematic with homeotropic boundaries.- E. Convection Diffusion and Reaction.- Gyrotactic buoyant convection and spontaneous pattern formation in algal cell cultures.- Experimental investigations of precipitation patterns.- F. Combustion.- Optical diagnosis in flows Applications Experiments in Combustion.- Theory of gaseous combustion.- Bifurcation in Heterogeneous Combustion.- G. Instabilities and Nonlinear Phenomena in Solids.- Thermoelasticity and mechanical instabilities.- Non-Equilibrium effects seen in molecular dynamics calculations of Shock waves in Solids.- H. Deterministic (Continuous and Discrete) Mathematics of Nonlinear Problems.- Current topics in reaction-diffusion systems.- Discrete nonlinear dynamics.- Deterministic diffusion A quality ofChaos.- I. Stochastic Description of Non Linear Problems.- Stochastic space-time problems.- Stochastic theory of transition phenomena in nonequilibrium systems.- Non-equilibrium systems with random control paramenters.- Non-white noise triggered oscillations in nonlinear chemical process.- About some simple Fokker-Planck models.- Dynamics of symmetry breaking: phase coherence in finite and random system.- Pictures of participants.- Participants.- Author Index.