Proceedings of a NATO ARW held in Leeds, UK, September 11-15, 1989

This richly illustrated book explores the fascinating and ubiquitous occurrence of spirals and vortices in human culture and in nature. Spiral forms have been used as elements in the arts for thousands of years, whereas their role in nature and science – from DNA and sea shells to galaxies – is still a topic of investigation in numerous fields. Following an introduction to the cultural history of spiral forms, the book presents contributions from leading experts, who describe the origins, mechanisms and dynamics of spirals and vortices in their special fields. As a whole the book provides a valuable source of information, while also taking the reader on an aesthetic and scientific journey through the world of spiral forms.

This book brings together a comprehensive account of major developments in the theory and applications of nonlinear dispersive waves, nonlinear water waves, KdV and nonlinear Schrodinger equations, Davey-Stewartson equation, Benjamin-Ono equation and nonlinear instability phenomena. In order to give the book a wider readership, chapters have been written by internationally known researchers who have made significant contributions to nonlinear waves and nonlinear instability. This volume will be invaluable to applied mathematicians, physicists, geophysicists, oceanographers, engineering scientists, and to anyone interested in nonlinear dynamics.

TIlis volume contains the contributions to the Euromech Colloquium No. 241 on Nonlinear Waves in Active Media at the Institute of Cybernetics of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Tallinn, Estonia, USSR, September 27-30, 1988. The Co-chairmen of the Euromech Colloquium felt that it would be a good service to the community to publish these proceedings. First, the topic itself dealing with various wave processes with energy influx is extremely interesting and attracted a much larger number of participants than usual - a clear sign of its importance to the scientific community. Second, Euromech No. 241 was actually the first Euromech Colloquium held in the Soviet Union and could thus be viewed as a milestone in the extending scientific contacts between East and West. At the colloquium 50 researchers working in very different branches of sci ence met to lecture on their results and to discuss problems of common interest. An introductory paper by I. Engelbrecht presents the common motivation and background of the topics covered. Altogether 36 speakers presented their lectures, of which 30 are gathered here. The remaining six papers which will appear elsewhere are listed on page X. In addition, three contributions by authors who could not attend the colloquium are included. The two lectures given by A.S. Mikhailov, V.S. Davydov and V.S. Zykov are here published as one long paper.