This open access book, published in the Soft and Biological Matter series, presents an introduction to selected research topics in the broad field of flowing matter, including the dynamics of fluids with a complex internal structure -from nematic fluids to soft glasses- as well as active matter and turbulent phenomena. Flowing matter is a subject at the crossroads between physics, mathematics, chemistry, engineering, biology and earth sciences, and relies on a multidisciplinary approach to describe the emergence of the macroscopic behaviours in a system from the coordinated dynamics of its microscopic constituents. Depending on the microscopic interactions, an assembly of molecules or of mesoscopic particles can flow like a simple Newtonian fluid, deform elastically like a solid or behave in a complex manner. When the internal constituents are active, as for biological entities, one generally observes complex large-scale collective motions. Phenomenology is further complicated by the invariable tendency of fluids to display chaos at the large scales or when stirred strongly enough. This volume presents several research topics that address these phenomena encompassing the traditional micro-, meso-, and macro-scales descriptions, and contributes to our understanding of the fundamentals of flowing matter. This book is the legacy of the COST Action MP1305 “Flowing Matter”.

Flowing matter is all around us, from daily-life vital processes (breathing, blood circulation), to industrial, environmental, biological, and medical sciences. Complex states of flowing matter are equally present in fundamental physical processes, far remote from our direct senses, such as quantum-relativistic matter under ultra-high temperature conditions (quark-gluon plasmas). Capturing the complexities of such states of matter stands as one of the most prominent challenges of modern science, with multiple ramifications to physics, biology, mathematics, and computer science. As a result, mathematical and computational techniques capable of providing a quantitative account of the way that such complex states of flowing matter behave in space and time are becoming increasingly important. This book provides a unique description of a major technique, the Lattice Boltzmann method to accomplish this task. The Lattice Boltzmann method has gained a prominent role as an efficient computational tool for the numerical simulation of a wide variety of complex states of flowing matter across a broad range of scales; from fully-developed turbulence, to multiphase micro-flows, all the way down to nano-biofluidics and lately, even quantum-relativistic sub-nuclear fluids. After providing a self-contained introduction to the kinetic theory of fluids and a thorough account of its transcription to the lattice framework, this text provides a survey of the major developments which have led to the impressive growth of the Lattice Boltzmann across most walks of fluid dynamics and its interfaces with allied disciplines. Included are recent developments of Lattice Boltzmann methods for non-ideal fluids, micro- and nanofluidic flows with suspended bodies of assorted nature and extensions to strong non-equilibrium flows beyond the realm of continuum fluid mechanics. In the final part, it presents the extension of the Lattice Boltzmann method to quantum and relativistic matter, in an attempt to match the major surge of interest spurred by recent developments in the area of strongly interacting holographic fluids, such as electron flows in graphene.

This open access book, published in the Soft and Biological Matter series, presents an introduction to selected research topics in the broad field of flowing matter, including the dynamics of fluids with a complex internal structure -from nematic fluids to soft glasses- as well as active matter and turbulent phenomena. Flowing matter is a subject at the crossroads between physics, mathematics, chemistry, engineering, biology and earth sciences, and relies on a multidisciplinary approach to describe the emergence of the macroscopic behaviours in a system from the coordinated dynamics of its microscopic constituents. Depending on the microscopic interactions, an assembly of molecules or of mesoscopic particles can flow like a simple Newtonian fluid, deform elastically like a solid or behave in a complex manner. When the internal constituents are active, as for biological entities, one generally observes complex large-scale collective motions. Phenomenology is further complicated by the invariable tendency of fluids to display chaos at the large scales or when stirred strongly enough. This volume presents several research topics that address these phenomena encompassing the traditional micro-, meso-, and macro-scales descriptions, and contributes to our understanding of the fundamentals of flowing matter. This book is the legacy of the COST Action MP1305 “Flowing Matter”.

The third volume of this invaluable sourcebook covers three main subject areas: the metaphysics of Aristotle's logical works; logic; and the higher metaphysics of Neoplatonism.

Nature continuously presents a huge number of complex and multi-scale phenomena, which in many cases, involve the presence of one or more fluids flowing, merging and evolving around us. Since its appearance on the surface of Earth, Mankind has tried to exploit and tame fluids for their purposes, probably starting with Hero's machinery to open the doors of the Temple of Serapis in Alexandria to arrive to modern propulsion systems and actuators. Today we know that fluid mechanics lies at the basis of countless scientific and technical applications from the smallest physical scales (nanofluidics, bacterial motility, and diffusive flows in porous media), to the largest (from energy production in power plants to oceanography and meteorology). It is essential to deepen the understanding of fluid behaviour across scales for the progress of Mankind and for a more sustainable and efficient future. Since the very first years of the Third Millennium, the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) has seen an exponential growth of applications, especially in the fields connected with the simulation of complex and soft matter flows. LBM, in fact, has shown a remarkable versatility in different fields of applications from nanoactive materials, free surface flows, and multiphase and reactive flows to the simulation of the processes inside engines and fluid machinery. LBM is based on an optimized formulation of Boltzmann's Kinetic Equation, which allows for the simulation of fluid particles, or rather quasi-particles, from a mesoscopic point of view thus allowing the inclusion of more fundamental physical interactions in respect to the standard schemes adopted with Navier-Stokes solvers, based on the continuum assumption. In this book, the authors present the most recent advances of the application of the LBM to complex flow phenomena of scientific and technical interest with particular focus on the multi-scale modeling of heterogeneous catalysis within nano-porous media and multiphase, multicomponent flows.