This book offers an informal, easy-to-understand account of topics in modern physics and mathematics. The focus is, in particular, on statistical mechanics, soft matter, probability, chaos, complexity, and models, as well as their interplay. The book features 28 key entries and it is carefully structured so as to allow readers to pursue different paths that reflect their interests and priorities, thereby avoiding an excessively systematic presentation that might stifle interest. While the majority of the entries concern specific topics and arguments, some relate to important protagonists of science, highlighting and explaining their contributions. Advanced mathematics is avoided, and formulas are introduced in only a few cases. The book is a user-friendly tool that nevertheless avoids scientific compromise. It is of interest to all who seek a better grasp of the world that surrounds us and of the ideas that have changed our perceptions.

Chaos theory challenges the presumption that the cosmos is orderly, linear, and predictable-but it does not imply pure randomness and chance events. Rather, chaos-informed postmodernist analysis introduces a new vision by celebrating unexpected, surprise, ironic, contradictory, and emergent elements. Scholars in many disciplines are taking this perspective as an alternative to the entrenched structural functionalism and empiricism rooted in linear science. In the early 1990s studies began to emerge applying chaos theory to criminology, law, and social change. This book brings together some of the key thinkers in these areas. Part I situates chaos theory as a constitutive thread in contemporary critical thought in criminology and law. It seeks to provide the reader with a sensitivity to how chaos theory fits within the postmodern perspective and an understanding of its conceptual tools. Part II comprises chapters on applying the chaos perspective to critical criminology and law and, beyond, to peacemaking. Part III presents studies in chaos-informed perspectives on new social movement theory, social change, and the development of social justice. While the book emphasizes the usefulness of the conceptual tools of chaos theory in critical criminology and law, its ultimate goal goes beyond theory-building to provide vistas for understanding the contemporary social scene and for the development of the new just society.

Focuses on the latest research in the field of differential equations in engineering applications Discusses the most recent research findings that are occurring across different institutions Identifies the gaps in the knowledge of differential equations Presents the most fruitful areas for further research in advanced processes Offers the most forthcoming studies in modeling and simulation along with real-world case studies

Chaos is the idea that a system will produce very different long-term behaviors when the initial conditions are perturbed only slightly. Chaos is used for novel, time- or energy-critical interdisciplinary applications. Examples include high-performance circuits and devices, liquid mixing, chemical reactions, biological systems, crisis management, secure information processing, and critical decision-making in politics, economics, as well as military applications, etc. This book presents the latest investigations in the theory of chaotic systems and their dynamics. The book covers some theoretical aspects of the subject arising in the study of both discrete and continuous-time chaotic dynamical systems. This book presents the state-of-the-art of the more advanced studies of chaotic dynamical systems.

A hundred years ago it became known that deterministic systems can exhibit very complex behavior. By proving that ordinary differential equations can exhibit strange behavior, Poincare undermined the founda tions of Newtonian physics and opened a window to the modern theory of nonlinear dynamics and chaos. Although in the 1930s and 1940s strange behavior was observed in many physical systems, the notion that this phenomenon was inherent in deterministic systems was never suggested. Even with the powerful results of S. Smale in the 1960s, complicated be havior of deterministic systems remained no more than a mathematical curiosity. Not until the late 1970s, with the advent of fast and cheap comput ers, was it recognized that chaotic behavior was prevalent in almost all domains of science and technology. Smale horseshoes began appearing in many scientific fields. In 1971, the phrase 'strange attractor' was coined to describe complicated long-term behavior of deterministic systems, and the term quickly became a paradigm of nonlinear dynamics. The tools needed to study chaotic phenomena are entirely different from those used to study periodic or quasi-periodic systems; these tools are analytic and measure-theoretic rather than geometric. For example, in throwing a die, we can study the limiting behavior of the system by viewing the long-term behavior of individual orbits. This would reveal incomprehensibly complex behavior. Or we can shift our perspective: Instead of viewing the long-term outcomes themselves, we can view the probabilities of these outcomes. This is the measure-theoretic approach taken in this book."

From its original meaning as a gaping void, or the emptiness that precedes the whole of creation, chaos has taken on the exclusive meaning of confusion, pandemonium and mayhem. This definition has become the overarching word to describe any challenge to the established order; be it railway strikes or political dissent, any unexpected event is routinely described in the media and popular parlance as 'chaos'. In his incisive new study, Stuart Walton argues that this is a pitifully one-dimensional view of the world, as he looks to many of the great social, political, artistic and philosophical advances that have emerged from periods of disorder and from the refusal to think within the standard paradigms. Exploring this worldview, Walton contends that we are superstitious about states of affairs in which anything could happen because we have been taught to prefer the imposition of rules in every aspect of our lives, from our diets to our romances. Indeed, in An Excursion through Chaos he demonstrates how it is these very restrictions that are responsible for the alienation that has characterised postwar society, a state of disengagement that could have been avoided if we had taken a less fearful attitude towards the unravelling of order.

Chaos in science has always been a fascinating realm since it challenges the usual scientific approach of reductionism. While carefully distinguishing between complexity, holism, randomness, incompleteness, nondeterminism and stochastic behaviour the authors show that, although many aspects of chaos have been phenomenologically understood, most of its defining principles are still difficult to grasp and formulate. Demonstrating that chaos escapes all traditional methods of description, the authors set out to find new methods to deal with this phenomenon and illustrate their constructive approach with many examples from physics, biology and information technology. While maintaining a high level of rigour, an overly complicated mathematical apparatus is avoided in order to make this book accessible, beyond the specialist level, to a wider interdisciplinary readership.

This important book presents the most important articles by leading scholars in their fields which bring together three basic aspects of research into nonlinear dynamics and economics. The first papers deal with the theoretical methods used in analysing chaotic dynamics and the statistical tools to detect the presence of non linearities in economic data. The following articles discuss the models which are currently being used to stimulate nonlinear economic phenomena. The final papers apply these methods to a number of economic time series. The editor has written a new introduction to accompany the piece.

The study of nonlinear dynamical systems has been gathering momentum since the late 1950s. It now constitutes one of the major research areas of modern theoretical physics. The twin themes of fractals and chaos, which are linked by attracting sets in chaotic systems that are fractal in structure, are currently generating a great deal of excitement. The degree of structure robustness in the presence of stochastic and quantum noise is thus a topic of interest. Chaos, Noise and Fractals discusses the role of fractals in quantum mechanics, the influence of phase noise in chaos and driven optical systems, and the arithmetic of chaos. The book represents a balanced overview of the field and is a worthy addition to the reading lists of researchers and students interested in any of the varied, and sometimes bizarre, aspects of this intriguing subject.

The classical three-body problem is of great importance for its applications to astronomy and space navigation, and also as a simple model of a non-integrable Hamiltonian dynamical system. A central role is played by periodic orbits, of which a large number have been computed numerically. Here the author explains and organizes this material through a systematic study of generating families, which are the limits of families of periodic orbits when the mass ratio of the two main bodies becomes vanishingly small. The most critical part is the study of bifurcations. Many cases are distinguished and studied separately and detailed recipies are given. Their use is illustrated by determining generating families, and comparing them with numerical computations for the Earth+Moon and Sun-Jupiter systems.

A First Course in Chaotic Dynamical Systems: Theory and Experiment, Second Edition The long-anticipated revision of this well-liked textbook offers many new additions. In the twenty-five years since the original version of this book was published, much has happened in dynamical systems. Mandelbrot and Julia sets were barely ten years old when the first edition appeared, and most of the research involving these objects then centered around iterations of quadratic functions. This research has expanded to include all sorts of different types of functions, including higher-degree polynomials, rational maps, exponential and trigonometric functions, and many others. Several new sections in this edition are devoted to these topics. The area of dynamical systems covered in A First Course in Chaotic Dynamical Systems: Theory and Experiment, Second Edition is quite accessible to students and also offers a wide variety of interesting open questions for students at the undergraduate level to pursue. The only prerequisite for students is a one-year calculus course (no differential equations required); students will easily be exposed to many interesting areas of current research. This course can also serve as a bridge between the low-level, often non-rigorous calculus courses, and the more demanding higher-level mathematics courses. Features More extensive coverage of fractals, including objects like the Sierpinski carpet and others that appear as Julia sets in the later sections on complex dynamics, as well as an actual chaos "game." More detailed coverage of complex dynamical systems like the quadratic family and the exponential maps. New sections on other complex dynamical systems like rational maps. A number of new and expanded computer experiments for students to perform. About the Author Robert L. Devaney is currently professor of mathematics at Boston University. He received his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley under the direction of Stephen Smale. He taught at Northwestern University and Tufts University before coming to Boston University in 1980. His main area of research is dynamical systems, primarily complex analytic dynamics, but also including more general ideas about chaotic dynamical systems. Lately, he has become intrigued with the incredibly rich topological aspects of dynamics, including such things as indecomposable continua, Sierpinski curves, and Cantor bouquets.

'This book offers one of the few places where a collection of results from the literature can be found ... The book has an extensive bibliography ... It is very nice to have the compendium of results that is presented here.'zbMATHA mathematical billiard is a mechanical system consisting of a billiard ball on a table of any form (which can be planar or even a multidimensional domain) but without billiard pockets. The ball moves and its trajectory is defined by the ball's initial position and its initial speed vector. The ball's reflections from the boundary of the table are assumed to have the property that the reflection and incidence angles are the same. This book comprehensively presents known results on the behavior of a trajectory of a billiard ball on a planar table (having one of the following forms: circle, ellipse, triangle, rectangle, polygon and some general convex domains). It provides a systematic review of the theory of dynamical systems, with a concise presentation of billiards in elementary mathematics and simple billiards related to geometry and physics.The description of these trajectories leads to the solution of various questions in mathematics and mechanics: problems related to liquid transfusion, lighting of mirror rooms, crushing of stones in a kidney, collisions of gas particles, etc. The analysis of billiard trajectories can involve methods of geometry, dynamical systems, and ergodic theory, as well as methods of theoretical physics and mechanics, which has applications in the fields of biology, mathematics, medicine, and physics.

Covering a broad range of topics, this text provides a comprehensive survey of the modeling of chaotic dynamics and complexity in the natural and social sciences. Its attention to models in both the physical and social sciences and the detailed philosophical approach make this a unique text in the midst of many current books on chaos and complexity. Including an extensive index and bibliography along with numerous examples and simplified models, this is an ideal course text.

A periodically forced mathematical pendulum is one of the typical and popular nonlinear oscillators that possess complex and rich dynamical behaviors. Although the pendulum is one of the simplest nonlinear oscillators, yet, until now, we are still not able to undertake a systematical study of periodic motions to chaos in such a simplest system due to lack of suitable mathematical methods and computational tools. To understand periodic motions and chaos in the periodically forced pendulum, the perturbation method has been adopted. One could use the Taylor series to expend the sinusoidal function to the polynomial nonlinear terms, followed by traditional perturbation methods to obtain the periodic motions of the approximated differential system.This book discusses Hamiltonian chaos and periodic motions to chaos in pendulums. This book first detects and discovers chaos in resonant layers and bifurcation trees of periodic motions to chaos in pendulum in the comprehensive fashion, which is a base to understand the behaviors of nonlinear dynamical systems, as a results of Hamiltonian chaos in the resonant layers and bifurcation trees of periodic motions to chaos. The bifurcation trees of travelable and non-travelable periodic motions to chaos will be presented through the periodically forced pendulum.

Several distinctive aspects make Dynamical Systems unique, including:
o treating the subject from a mathematical perspective with the proofs of most of the results included
o providing a careful review of background materials
o introducing ideas through examples and at a level accessible to a beginning graduate student
o focusing on multidimensional systems of real variables

The book treats the dynamics of both iteration of functions and solutions of ordinary differential equations. Many concepts are first introduced for iteration of functions where the geometry is simpler, but results are interpreted for differential equations. The dynamical systems approach of the book concentrates on properties of the whole system or subsets of the system rather than individual solutions. The more local theory discussed deals with characterizing types of solutions under various hypothesis, and later chapters address more global aspects.

The main goal is to offer to readers a panorama of recent progress in nonlinear physics, complexity and transport with attractive chapters readable by a broad audience. It allows to gain an insight into these active fields of research and notably promotes the interdisciplinary studies from mathematics to experimental physics. To reach this aim, the book collects a selection of contributions to the third edition of the CCT conference (Marseilles, 1-5 June 2015).

Chaos theory has firmly established itself in many of the physical sciences, such as geology and fluid dynamics. This edited volume helps locate this revolutionary theory in sociology as well as the other social sciences. Doors previously closed to social scientists may be opened by this dynamic theory, which attempts to capture movement and change in exciting new ways. Editors Raymond A. Eve, Sara Horsfall, and Mary Lee, with guidance from Editorial Advisor Frederick Turner, provide a timely and well-chosen collection of articles, which first examines the emerging myths and theories surrounding the study of chaos and complexity. In the volumeAEs second part, methodological matters are considered. Finally, conceptual models and applications are presented. "Postmodern science" has provided and refined conceptual tools that have special value for the social sciences. This perceptive and thorough volume will be useful to sociologists and other social scientists interested in chaos and complexity theory.

Self-organized criticality, the spontaneous development of systems to a critical state, is the first general theory of complex systems with a firm mathematical basis. This theory describes how many seemingly desperate aspects of the world, from stock market crashes to mass extinctions, avalanches to solar flares, all share a set of simple, easily described properties.
..".a'must read'...Bak writes with such ease and lucidity, and his ideas are so intriguing...essential reading for those interested in complex systems...it will reward a sufficiently skeptical reader." -NATURE
..".presents the theory (self-organized criticality) in a form easily absorbed by the non-mathematically inclined reader." -BOSTON BOOK REVIEW
"I picture Bak as a kind of scientific musketeer; flamboyant, touchy, full of swagger and ready to join every fray... His book is written with panache. The style is brisk, the content stimulating. I recommend it as a bracing experience." -NEW SCIENTIST

This book focuses on the computational analysis of nonlinear vibrations of structural members (beams, plates, panels, shells), where the studied dynamical problems can be reduced to the consideration of one spatial variable and time. The reduction is carried out based on a formal mathematical approach aimed at reducing the problems with infinite dimension to finite ones. The process also includes a transition from governing nonlinear partial differential equations to a set of finite number of ordinary differential equations.Beginning with an overview of the recent results devoted to the analysis and control of nonlinear dynamics of structural members, placing emphasis on stability, buckling, bifurcation and deterministic chaos, simple chaotic systems are briefly discussed. Next, bifurcation and chaotic dynamics of the Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beams including the geometric and physical nonlinearity as well as the elastic-plastic deformations are illustrated. Despite the employed classical numerical analysis of nonlinear phenomena, the various wavelet transforms and the four Lyapunov exponents are used to detect, monitor and possibly control chaos, hyper-chaos, hyper-hyper-chaos and deep chaos exhibited by rectangular plate-strips and cylindrical panels.The book is intended for post-graduate and doctoral students, applied mathematicians, physicists, teachers and lecturers of universities and companies dealing with a nonlinear dynamical system, as well as theoretically inclined engineers of mechanical and civil engineering.

This book aims to provide a lively working knowledge of the thermodynamic control of microscopic simulations, while summarizing the historical development of the subject, along with some personal reminiscences. Many computational examples are described so that they are well-suited to learning by doing. The contents enhance the current understanding of the reversibility paradox and are accessible to advanced undergraduates and researchers in physics, computation, and irreversible thermodynamics.

This volume provides a self-contained survey of the mechanisms presiding information processing and communication. The main thesis is that chaos and complexity are the basic ingredients allowing systems composed of interesting subunits to generate and process information and communicate in a meaningful way. Emphasis is placed on communication in the form of games and on the related issue of decision making under conditions of uncertainty. Biological, cognitive, physical, engineering and societal systems are approached from a unifying point of view, both analytically and by numerical simulation, using the methods of nonlinear dynamics and probability theory. Epistemological issues in connection with incompleteness and self-reference are also addressed.

The book Complexity and Control: Towards a Rigorous Behavioral Theory of Complex Dynamical Systems is a graduate-level monographic textbook, intended to be a novel and rigorous contribution to modern Complexity Theory.This book contains 11 chapters and is designed as a one-semester course for engineers, applied and pure mathematicians, theoretical and experimental physicists, computer and economic scientists, theoretical chemists and biologists, as well as all mathematically educated scientists and students, both in industry and academia, interested in predicting and controlling complex dynamical systems of arbitrary nature.

These are exciting times for mathematics, science, and technology. One of the fields that has been receiving great attention is Chaos Theory. Actually, this is not a single discipline, but a potpourri of nonlinear dynamics, nonequilibrium thermodynamics, information theory, and fractal geometry. In the less than two decades that Chaos Theory has become a major part of mathematics and physics, it has become evident that the old paradigm of determinism is insufficient if we are to understand - and perhaps solve - real life problems. Curiously, many of these problems are deterministic, but they are intertwined with randomness and chance. Thus the deterministic laws of physics coexist with the laws of probability. Consequently, uncertainty arises and unpredictability occurs, characteristic of complex systems. In its short lifetime Chaos Theory has already helped us gain insights into problems that in the past we found intractable. Examples of such problems include weather, turbulence, cardiological and neurophysiological episodes, economic restructuring, financial transactions, policy analysis, and decision making. Admittedly, we can as yet solve only relatively simple problems, but much progress has been made and we are now able to observe complex problems from new vantage points that provide us with numerous benefits. One such benefit is the universality of Chaos Theory in its applicability to different situations, which enables us to look at communal problems in an interdisciplinary manner, so that persons of different backgrounds can communicate with one another. Chaos Theory also enables us to reason in a holistic manner, rather than being constrained by simplistic reductionism.Finally, it is gratifying that the mathematics is not intimidating, and one can accomplish much with a personal computer or even a handheld calculator.

Dynamical evolution over long time scales is a prominent feature of all the systems we intuitively think of as complex - for example, ecosystems, the brain or the economy. In physics, the term ageing is used for this type of slow change, occurring over time scales much longer than the patience, or indeed the lifetime, of the observer. The main focus of this book is on the stochastic processes which cause ageing, and the surprising fact that the ageing dynamics of systems which are very different at the microscopic level can be treated in similar ways.The first part of this book provides the necessary mathematical and computational tools and the second part describes the intuition needed to deal with these systems. Some of the first few chapters have been covered in several other books, but the emphasis and selection of the topics reflect both the authors' interests and the overall theme of the book. The second part contains an introduction to the scientific literature and deals in some detail with the description of complex phenomena of a physical and biological nature, for example, disordered magnetic materials, superconductors and glasses, models of co-evolution in ecosystems and even of ant behaviour. These heterogeneous topics are all dealt with in detail using similar analytical techniques.This book emphasizes the unity of complex dynamics and provides the tools needed to treat a large number of complex systems of current interest. The ideas and the approach to complex dynamics it presents have not appeared in book form until now.

Robust chaos is defined by the absence of periodic windows and coexisting attractors in some neighborhoods in the parameter space of a dynamical system. This unique book explores the definition, sources, and roles of robust chaos. The book is written in a reasonably self-contained manner and aims to provide students and researchers with the necessary understanding of the subject. Most of the known results, experiments, and conjectures about chaos in general and about robust chaos in particular are collected here in a pedagogical form. Many examples of dynamical systems, ranging from purely mathematical to natural and social processes displaying robust chaos, are discussed in detail. At the end of each chapter is a set of exercises and open problems (more than 260 in the whole book) intended to reinforce the ideas and provide additional experiences for both readers and researchers in nonlinear science in general, and chaos theory in particular.