Interfaces and Free Boundaries: Modeling, Analysis and Computation

Edited by:
  • Mario Primicerio
Oxford University Press. 4/yr. £195, $335 (institutional), £176, $302 (institutional, online only), £50, $80 (individual)

The alarming loss of biodiversity is accompanied by an increasing diversity of scholarly thought, as demonstrated by the rate at which specialized journals emerge. The survival of free thinking is guaranteed by safe havens for those sharing the same interests, tools or ideas, but they are scattered across disciplines.

Interfaces and Free Boundaries is one such safe haven, offering a fertile soil for applied and pure mathematicians trying to reach a common language in this rather fragmented and interdisciplinary field. The apparently eclectic selections of contributions, ranging from superconductivity to dendritic growth, offers a culture shock at first. However, the source of this diversity is hidden in the subtitle: Modeling, Analysis and Computation. And indeed, the journal does offer common ground for those interested in the computational and mathematical tools for dealing with interfaces and free boundaries, irrespective of discipline. As a result, experimentalists should beware: the papers clearly favour rigorous mathematics above phenomenology — probably in line with the intent of the editorial board, the great majority of whom come from applied maths departments.

But should you be an experimentalist or theorist faced with a free-boundary problem, this is the place to look for expertise, papers and ideas — the four issues published so far offer a wide spectrum of articles that touch on most of the techniques needed to master this field. And all this in a single journal, doing away with the need for often fruitless database searches or trips to various libraries across the campus. The best way to get the flavour of the journal is to visit its online edition, which displays the table of contents of the issues published so far. In this respect, Oxford University Press has done an excellent job, giving the journal all the perks it needs for survival, including an online edition, electronic submissions and a pleasing appearance, with the possibility of colour pictures.

Should you run to your librarian for a subscription? Look at the online version before you drop any other journal from the shelf. But if your budget can be stretched to include it, it will be an unselfish decision for any department, since people from other departments might wish to peek too.

→http://www3.oup.co.uk/infree/?LO