(Hardback)0-19-928840-2
(Paperback)0-19-928841-0
Publication date: 3 November 2005
Clarendon Press 140 pages, 216mm x 138mm
Description
A short, punchy guide to a groundbreaking development in logic
Authors are renowned for their work in this field
Profound implications for all philosophers and many linguists
Readership: Scholars and students of philosophy; logicians
Contents
I. Preliminaries
1 Introduction
2 Logical Consequence
3 Pluralism Defined
II. Logics
4 Classical Logic
5 Relevant Logic
6 Constructive Logic
7 Variations & Loose Ends
III. Objections, Replies, Other Directions
8 General Objections
9 Specific Objections
10 Other Directions
Authors, editors, and contributors
JC Beall, University of Connecticut and Greg Restall, University
of Melbourne
(Paperback)0-19-280669-6
Publication date: 13 October 2005
752 pages, 234mm x 156mm
Description
A delightful journey through modern science, full of engaging
stories on topics from aggression to quantum tangles
Author is one of the most experienced of science writers, and
combines wonderfully engaging writing with a deep and wide
understanding of science
This is a marvellously engaging tour covering the whole of modern
science, from transgenic crops to quantum tangles. Written by one
of the most experienced and well-known names in science writing,
it is also assuredly reliable science. Although arranged for
convenience and quick reference as a collection of topics in
alphabetical order, it is very different from any conventional
encyclopedia. Each topic tells a story, making the book eminently
browsable. Packed with information, yet carrying its immense
learning lightly, this is a book that would appeal to anyone with
the slightest interest in how the world works.
Readership: General readers with an interest in science: physics,
astronomy, chemistry, biology, and earth sciences.
Contents
INTRODUCTION: Welcome to the spider's web
Over 130 articles, from...
ALCOHOL: Genetic revelations of when yeast invented booze
ALTRUISM AND AGGRESSION: Looking for the origins of those human
alternatives
ANTIMATTER: Does the coat that Sakharov made really explain its
absence?
ARABIDOPSIS: The modest weed that gave plant scientists the big
picture
ASTRONAUTICS: Will interstellar pioneers be overtaken by their
grandchildren?
BERNAL'S LADDER: Pointers
BIG BANG: The inflationary Universe's sleight-of-hand
BIODIVERSITY: The mathematics of co-existence
BIOLOGICAL CLOCKS: Molecular machinery that governs life's
routines
BIOSPHERE FROM SPACE: 'I want to do the whole world'
BITS AND QUBITS: The digital world and its looming quantum shadow
BLACK HOLES: The awesome engines of quasars and active galaxies
BRAIN IMAGES: What do all the vivid movies really mean?
BRAIN RHYTHMS: The mathematics of the beat we think to
BRAIN WIRING: How do all those nerve connections know where to
go?
BUCKYBALLS AND NANOTUBES: Doing very much more with very much
less
...to...
SMALLPOX: The dairymaid's blessing and the general's curse
SOLAR WIND: How it creates the heliosphere in which we live
SPACE WEATHER: Why it is now more troublesome than in the old
days
SPARTICLES: A wished-for superworld of exotic matter and forces
SPEECH: A gene that makes us more eloquent than chimpanzees
STARBURSTS: Galactic traffic accidents and stellar baby booms
STARS: Hearing them sing and sizing them up
STEM CELLS: Tissue engineering, natural and medical
SUN'S INTERIOR: How sound waves made our mother star transparent
SUPERATOMS, SUPERFLUIDS AND SUPERCONDUCTORS: The march of the
boson armies
SUPERSTRINGS: Retuning the cosmic imagination
TIME MACHINES: The biggest issue in contemporary physics?
TRANSGENIC CROPS: For better or worse, a planetary experiment has
begun
TREE OF LIFE: Promiscuous bacteria and the course of evolution
UNIVERSE: 'It must have known we were coming'
VOLCANIC EXPLOSIONS: Where will the next big one be?
(Hardback)0-19-928176-9
(Paperback)0-19-928471-7
Publication date: 3 November 2005
Clarendon Press 384 pages, 234mm x 156mm
Description
Selections from more than twenty years' work by a leading
philosopher
Salmon's essays have been influential across a wide range of
topics
Includes unpublished material and a brand-new introduction
Readership: Scholars and students of philosophy, particularly
those working on metaphysics, mathematics, and language;
logicians, mathematicians, and linguists interested in
philosophical questions.
Contents
Introduction
I. Ontology
1 Existence (1987)
2 Nonexistence (1998)
3 Mythical Objects (2002)
II. Necessity
4 Modal Logic Kalish-and-Montague Style (1994)
5 Impossible Worlds (1984)
6 An Empire of Thin Air (1988)
7 The Logic of What Might Have Been (1989)
III. Identity
8 The fact that x=y (1987)
9 This Side of Paradox (1993)
10 Identity Facts (2003)
11 Personal Identity: What's the Problem? (1995)
IV. Philosophy of Mathematics
12 Wholes, Parts, and Numbers (1997)
13 The Limits of Human Mathematics (2001)
V. Theory of Meaning and Reference
14 On Content (1992)
15 On Designating (1997)
16 A Problem in the Frege-Church Theory of Sense and Denotation (1993)
17 The Very Possibility of Language (2001)
18 Tense and Intension (2003)
19 Pronouns as Variables (2005)
Authors, editors, and contributors
Nathan Salmon, University of California, Santa Barbara
(Hardback)0-19-856820-7
Publication date: 15 December 2005
256 pages, 234mm x 156mm
Series: Oxford Lecture Series in Mathematics and Its Applications
Description
First text to summarise the results of the Frobenius problem
All main theorems treated
Methods thoroughly illustrated with examples
During the early part of the last century, Ferdinand Georg
Frobenius (1849-1917) raised he following problem, known as the
Frobenius Problem (FP): given relatively prime positive integers
a1,...,an, find the largest natural number (called the Frobenius
number and denoted by g(a1,...,an) that is not representable as a
nonnegative integer combination of a1,...,an, .
At first glance FP may look deceptively specialized. Nevertheless
it crops up again and again in the most unexpected places and has
been extremely useful in investigating many different problems. A
number of methods, from several areas of mathematics, have been
used in the hope of finding a formula giving the Frobenius number
and algorithms to calculate it. The main intention of this book
is to highlight such methods, ideas, viewpoints and applications
to a broader audience.
Readership: Graduates and researchers in pure mathematics,
particularly number theory
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 Algorithmic Aspects
2 The Frobenius Number for Small n
3 The General Problem
4 Sylvester Denumerant
5 Integers without Representation
6 Generalizations and Related Problems
7 Numerical Semigroups
8 Applications of the Frobenius Number
9 Appendix A
Bibliography
Authors, editors, and contributors
Jorge L. Ramirez Alfonsin, Maitre de Conferences, Universite
Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6
(Hardback)0-19-856607-7
Publication date: 26 January 2006
300 pages, 25 line figures, 234mm x 156mm
Series: Oxford Lecture Series in Mathematics and Its Applications
Description
Covers the most recent ideas and concepts in the developing area
of fixed-parameter algorithms
Growing and highly topical area
Numerous real-life case studies
Aimed at graduate and research mathematicians, programmers,
algorithm designers, and computer scientists
A fixed-parameter is an algorithm that provides an optimal
solution to a combinatorial problem. This research-level text is
an application-oriented introduction to the growing and highly
topical area of the development and analysis of efficient fixed-parameter
algorithms for hard problems.
The book is divided into three parts: a broad introduction that
provides the general philosophy and motivation; followed by
coverage of algorithmic methods developed over the years in fixed-parameter
algorithmics forming the core of the book; and a discussion of
the essentials from parameterized hardness theory with a focus on
W[1]-hardness which parallels NP-hardness, then stating some
relations to polynomial-time approximation algorithms, and
finishing up with a list of selected case studies to show the
wide range of applicability of the presented methodology.
Aimed at graduate and research mathematicians, programmers,
algorithm designers, and computer scientists, the book introduces
the basic techniques and results and provides a fresh view on
this highly innovative field of algorithmic research.
Readership: Graduate and research mathematicians, programmers,
algorithm designers, and computer scientists
Contents
Part I: Foundations
1 Introduction to Fixed-Parameter Algorithms
2 Preliminaries and Agreements
3 Parameterized Complexity Theory - A Primer
4 Vertex Cover - An Illustrative Example
5 The Art of Problem Parameterization
6 Summary and Concluding Remarks
Part II: Algorithmic Methods
7 Data Reduction and Problem Kernels
8 Depth-Bounded Search Trees
9 Dynamic Programming
10 Tree Decompositions of Graphs
11 Further Advanced Techniques
12 Summary and Concluding Remarks
Part III: Some Theory, Some Case Studies
13 Parameterized Complexity Theory
14 Connections to Approximation Algorithms
15 Selected Case Studies
16 Zukunftsmusik
References
Index
Authors, editors, and contributors
Rolf Niedermeier, Universitaet Jena
(Hardback)0-19-857047-3
Publication date: 24 November 2005
144 pages, 19 figures, 196mm x 129mm
Description
Presentation of Quantum Physics through recent experiments,
without mathematics.
Written for a broad scientific and general audience.
Unique, up-to-date account of Quantum Physics, well-written, in a
lively style.
Includes modern topics like cryptography, entanglement,
teleportation.
Quantum physics is often perceived as a weird and abstract
theory, which physicists must use in order to make correct
predictions. But many recent experiments have shown that the
weirdness of the theory simply mirrors the weirdness of phenomena:
it is Nature itself, and not only our description of it, that
behaves in an astonishing way. This book selects those, among
these typical quantum phenomena, whose rigorous description
requires neither the formalism, nor an important background in
physics. The first part of the book deals with the phenomenon of
single-particle interference, covering the historical questions
of wave-particle duality, objective randomness and the boundary
between the quantum and the classical world, but also the recent
idea of quantum cryptography. The second part introduces the
modern theme of entanglement, by presenting two-particle
interference phenomena and discussing Bell's inequalities. A
concise review of the main interpretations of quantum physics is
provided.
Readership: A broad scientific and general audience. Also
university and high school teachers involved in explaining
quantum physics at a general level.
Contents
0 Preface
1.Quantum Interferences
1 The Heart of the Matter
2 Taking a Closer Look
3 Dimensions and Borderlines
4 Authority Ruled Down
5 A Nice Idea
2. Quantum Correlations
6 Indistinguisability at a Distance
7 On the Origin of Correlations
8 Paris, Innsbruck, Geneva
9 Roads for an Explanantion
Epilogue
Authors, editors, and contributors
Valerio Scarani, Department of Physics, University of Geneva
Rachael Thew
(Hardback)0-19-850802-6
Publication date: 31 March 2006
560 pages, 123 line drawings, 240mm x 168mm
Series: Oxford Graduate Texts
Description
Illustrates the basic material, as well as some of the deepest
and most advanced concepts in plain language and with simple
mathematical tools
Presents core of Analytical Mechanics, and some of its most
relevant applications e.g. to Astronomy, Statistical Mechanics,
Continuum Mechanics
Readership of graduate students in theoretical physics,
mechanical engineering, and applied mathematics
Contains many problems throughout the book, as well as a section
of solutions attached to each chapter
Only prerequisite is basic calculus. Advanced mathematics is
explained in a simple, student-friendly style
Analytical Mechanics is the investigation of motion with the
rigorous tools of mathematics. Rooted in the works of Lagrange,
Euler, Poincare (to mention just a few), it is a very classical
subject with fascinating developments and still rich of open
problems. It addresses such fundamental questions as: Is the
solar system stable? Is there a unifying 'economy' principle in
mechanics? How can a point mass be described as a 'wave'? And has
remarkable applications to many branches of physics (Astronomy,
Statistical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics).
This book was written to fill a gap between elementary
expositions and more advanced (and clearly more stimulating)
material. It takes up the challenge to explain the most relevant
ideas (generally highly non-trivial) and to show the most
important applications using a plain language and 'simple'
mathematics, often through an original approach. Basic calculus
is enough for the reader to proceed through the book. New
mathematical concepts are fully introduced and illustrated in a
simple, student-friendly language. More advanced chapters can be
omitted while still following the main ideas. Anybody wishing to
go deeper in some direction will find at least the flavour of
recent developments and many bibliographical references. The
theory is always accompanied by examples. Many problems are
suggested and some are completely worked out at the end of each
chapter. The book may effectively be used (and has been used at
several Italian Universities) for undergraduate as well as for
PhD courses in Physics and Mathematics at various levels.
Readership: Advanced undergraduate and graduate students of
applied mathematics, theoretical physics, and mechanical
engineering.
Contents
1 Geometric and Kinematic Foundations of Lagrangian Mechanics
2 Dynamics: General Laws and the Dynamics of a Point Particle
3 One-dimensional Motion
4 The Dynamics of Discrete Systems. Lagrangian Formalism
5 Motion in a Central Field
6 Rigid Bodies: Geometry and Kinematics
7 The Mechanics of Rigid Bodies: Dynamics
8 Analytical Mechanics: Hamiltonian Formalism
9 Analytical Mechanics: Variational Principles
10 Analytical Mechanics: Canonical Formalism
11 Analytical Mechanics: Hamilton-Jacobi Theory and Integrability
12 Analytical Mechanics: Canonical Perturbation Theory
13 Analytical Mechanics: An Introduction to Ergodic Theory and to Chaotic Motion
14 Statistical Mechanics: Kinetic Theory
15 Statistical Mechanics: Gibbs Sets
16 langrangian Formalism in Continuum Mechanics
Appendices
Authors, editors, and contributors
Antonio Fasano, Dipartimento di Matematica, Universita di Firenze
and Stefano Marmi, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa
Beatrice Pelloni, Department of Mathematics, University of
Reading