Unsolved Problems of Noise and Fluctuations: UPoN'99: Second International Conference, Adelaide, Australia 11-15 July 1999 (AIP Conference Proceedings)

Noise and fluctuations are at the seat of all physical systems. The advertised scope of the conference included gravitational wave detection, quantum fluctuations, quantum Brownian motion, Brownian ratchets, stochastic resonance, biological systems, semiconductors, electronic devices, sandpile physics, optical phenomena and all types of stochastic phenomena. This solicited a wide range of papers from cosmology to biology to electronic devices. Using the study of fluctuations as the unifying theme for these diverse disciplines is a new and exciting concept. UpoN is a unique conference in that it focuses on open questions and problems, rather than answers. 90% of the solution is asking the right question. The discovery of a problem is often more profound than the discovery of a solution. In the spirit of this conference, authors were asked to (1) conclude each manuscript with a section called "Conclusions and Open Questions" and (2) ask questions to the audience at the end of their oral presentation. An important characteristic of this conference is that refereeing of all papers was carried out to a high standard by the International Scientific Advisory Committee using a strict double-blind refereeing process.