The book deals with modern methods of nonlinear stability theory applied to problems of continuous media mechanics in the presence of interfaces, with applications to materials science, chemical engineering, heat transfer technologies, as well as in combustion and other reaction-diffusion systems. Interfaces play a dominant role at small scales, and their correct modeling is therefore also crucial in the rapidly expanding fields of microfluidics and nanotechnologies. To this aim, the book combines contributions of eminent specialists in the field, with a special emphasis on rigorous and predictive approaches. Other goals of this volume are to allow the reader to identify key problems of high scientific value, and to see the similarity between a variety of seemingly different physical problems.

During the past year we have submitted six papers for publication, three related to the dynamics of macroscopic interfaces, and ultimately all related to solidification, and three related to the internal structure of disorderly materials, with possible applications to the processing of composite materials. In addition to completing all these projects during the past year, we have begun two new projects, one on pattern formation and one on aggregation within a composite system. A brief description is given of this research in this paper.

Spontaneous pattern formation in nonlinear dissipative systems far from equilibrium occurs in a variety of settings in nature and technology, and has applications ranging from nonlinear optics through solid and fluid mechanics, physical chemistry and chemical engineering to biology. This book explores the forefront of current research, describing in-depth the analytical methods that elucidate the complex evolution of nonlinear dissipative systems.

Fully illustrated mathematical guide to pattern formation. Includes instructive exercises and examples.

Energy consumption in fabrication of materials for all applications is process dependent. Improvements in the ability to process materials are of great importance to the DOE mission. This project addresses basic science questions related to the processing of materials and is aimed at understanding growth of interfaces and evolution of patterns on interfaces, both macroscopic and microscopic. Three laboratory experiments are proposed: A study of the changes in patterns available to the growth of a macroscopic interface when that interface is grown over one of a variety of ''microscopic'' lattices; a study of reversible aggregation of colloidal particles in a mixed solvent, and of the interactions and relaxations of both solvent and suspended particles when thermodynamic conditions are changed for a liquid matrix with suspended particles or fibres; and, an investigation of the sedimentation of particles in a quasi-two-dimensional viscous fluid, with attention both to the dynamics of the flow and to the roughness of the resulting surface of settled particles.

For the last several years, the study of interfacial instability and pattern formation phenomena has preoccupied many researchers in the broad area of nonlinear science. These phenomena occur in a variety of dynamical sys tems far from equilibrium. In many practically very important physical sys tems some fascinating patterns are always displayed at the interface between solid and liquid or between two liquids. Two prototypes of these phenomena are dendrite growth in solidification and viscous fingering in a Hele-Shaw cell. These two phenomena occur in completely different scientific fields, but both are described by similar nonlinear free boundary problems of partial differential-equation systems; the boundary conditions on the interface for both cases contain a curvature operator involving the surface tension, which is nonlinear. Moreover, both cases raise the same challenging theoretical is sues, interfacial instability mechanisms and pattern selection, and it is now found that these issues can be solved by the same analytical approach. Thus, these two phenomena are regarded as special examples of a class of nonlinear pattern formation phenomena in nature, and they are the prominent topics of the new interdisciplinary field of nonlinear science. This research monograph is based on a series of lectures I have given at McGill University, Canada (1993-1994), Northwestern Poly technical In stitute, China (1994), Aachen University, Germany (1994), and the CRM summer school at Banff, Alberta, Canada (1995).