Phase Theory

This book provides a detailed and up to date review of the framework of phases (Chomsky 2000 and subsequent work). It explores the interaction between the narrow syntactic computation and the external systems from a minimalist perspective. As has sometimes been noted, "Phase Theory" is the current way to study the cyclic nature of the system, and 'phases' are therefore the natural locality hallmark, being directly relevant for phenomena such as binding, agreement, movement, islands, reconstruction, or stress assignment. This work discusses the different approaches to phases that have been proposed in the recent literature, arguing in favor of the thesis that the points of cyclic transfer are to be related to uninterpretable morphology (the ?-features on the heads C and v*). This take on phases is adopted in order to investigate raising structures, binding, subjunctive dependents, and object shift (word order) in Romance languages, as well as the nature of islands.

"This research survey combines an introduction to Phase Theory with an assessment of the state of the art in Phase Theory. The term Phase Theory refers to a set of theoretical innovations in post-2000 minimalism (Chomsky 2000RFA-087, 2001RFA-088, 2004RFA-089, 2005RFA-090, 2008RFA-092). One of the core ideas in minimalism is the idea that the language faculty is an optimal solution to the constraints imposed on it by the two cognitive systems with which it interacts:"--

An introduction to the role of Berry phases in our modern understanding of the physics of electrons in solids.

The overarching goal of this volume is to explore a number of recent developments in Phase Theory (both theoretical and empirical), thus contributing to our overall understanding of the concept of phases. The volume is divided into three parts, of which the first focuses on the traditional role played by phases in defining successive cyclicity, while at the same time examining the interaction between that traditional role and Chomsky (2013)’s proposal about labeling. The second part focuses on the question of whether only the highest projection of the clausal and nominal domain, CP and DP, are phases or whether those domains also contain an internal phase: vP and NP/NumP/QP, while the third part contains two chapters that focus on the extent to which ellipsis can be used as a reliable diagnostic for phasehood. As a whole, the volume provides a detailed and in-depth view on a number of recent developments in Phase Theory, which will likely continue to dominate the debate for several years to come.

Theory of Phase Transitions: Rigorous Results is inspired by lectures on mathematical problems of statistical physics presented in the Mathematical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest. The aim of the book is to expound a series of rigorous results about the theory of phase transitions. The book consists of four chapters, wherein the first chapter discusses the Hamiltonian, its symmetry group, and the limit Gibbs distributions corresponding to a given Hamiltonian. The second chapter studies the phase diagrams of lattice models that are considered at low temperatures. The notions of a ground state of a Hamiltonian and the stability of the set of the ground states of a Hamiltonian are also introduced. Chapter 3 presents the basic theorems about lattice models with continuous symmetry, and Chapter 4 focuses on the second-order phase transitions and on the theory of scaling probability distributions, connected to these phase transitions. Specialists in statistical physics and other related fields will greatly benefit from this publication.

The Boundary Theory of Phase Diagrams and Its Application -- Rules for Phase Diagram Construction with Phase Regions and Their Boundaries presents a novel theory of phase diagrams. Thoroughly revised on the basis of the Chinese edition and rigorously reviewed, this book inspects the general feature and structure of phase diagrams, and reveals that there exist actually two categories of boundaries. This innovative boundary theory has solved many difficulties in understanding phase diagrams, and also finds its application in constructing multi-component phase diagrams or in calculating high-pressure phase diagrams. Researchers and engineers as well as graduate students in the areas of chemistry, metallurgy and materials science will benefit from this book. Prof. Muyu Zhao was the recipient of the 1998 Prize for Progress in Science and Technology (for his work on the boundary theory of phase diagrams) awarded by the National Commission of Education, China, and many other prizes.

Containing a summary of several recent results on Markov-based input modeling in a coherent notation, this book introduces and compares algorithms for parameter fitting and gives an overview of available software tools in the area. Due to progress made in recent years with respect to new algorithms to generate PH distributions and Markovian arrival processes from measured data, the models outlined are useful alternatives to other distributions or stochastic processes used for input modeling. Graduate students and researchers in applied probability, operations research and computer science along with practitioners using simulation or analytical models for performance analysis and capacity planning will find the unified notation and up-to-date results presented useful. Input modeling is the key step in model based system analysis to adequately describe the load of a system using stochastic models. The goal of input modeling is to find a stochastic model to describe a sequence of measurements from a real system to model for example the inter-arrival times of packets in a computer network or failure times of components in a manufacturing plant. Typical application areas are performance and dependability analysis of computer systems, communication networks, logistics or manufacturing systems but also the analysis of biological or chemical reaction networks and similar problems. Often the measured values have a high variability and are correlated. It’s been known for a long time that Markov based models like phase type distributions or Markovian arrival processes are very general and allow one to capture even complex behaviors. However, the parameterization of these models results often in a complex and non-linear optimization problem. Only recently, several new results about the modeling capabilities of Markov based models and algorithms to fit the parameters of those models have been published.​

Phase Locked Loops (PLLs) are electronic circuits used for frequency control. Anything using radio waves, from simple radios and cell phones to sophisticated military communications gear uses PLLs.The communications industry’s big move into wireless in the past two years has made this mature topic red hot again. The fifth edition of this classic circuit reference comes complete with extremely valuable PLL design software written by Dr. Best. The software alone is worth many times the price of the book. The new edition also includes new chapters on frequency synthesis, CAD for PLLs, mixed-signal PLLs, and a completely new collection of sample communications applications.