Noise and Nonlinear Phenomena in Nuclear Systems

The main goal of the meeting was to facilitate and encourage the application of recent developments in the physical and mathematical sciences to the analysis of deterministic and stochastic processes in nuclear engineering. In contrast with the rapid growth (triggered by computer developments) of nonlinear analysis in other branches of the physical sciences, the theoretical analysis of nuclear reactors is still based on linearized models of the neutronics and thermal-hydraulic feedback loop, an approach that ignores some intrinsic nonlinearities of the real system. The subject of noise was added because of the importance of the noise technique in detecting abnormalities associated with perturbations of sufficient amplitude to generate nonlinear processes. Consequently the organizers of the meeting invited a group of leading researchers in the field of noise and nonlinear phenomena in nuclear systems to report on recent advances in their area of research. A selected subgroup of researchers in areas outside the reactor field provided enlightenment on new theoretical developments of immediate relevance to nuclear dynamics theory.