This book is about the dynamics of coupled map lattices (CML) and of related spatially extended systems. It will be useful to post-graduate students and researchers seeking an overview of the state-of-the-art and of open problems in this area of nonlinear dynamics. The special feature of this book is that it describes the (mathematical) theory of CML and some related systems and their phenomenology, with some examples of CML modeling of concrete systems (from physics and biology). More precisely, the book deals with statistical properties of (weakly) coupled chaotic maps, geometric aspects of (chaotic) CML, monotonic spatially extended systems, and dynamical models of specific biological systems.

For this printing of R. Bowen's book, J.-R. Chazottes has retyped it in TeX for easier reading, thereby correcting typos and bibliographic details.

From the Preface by D. Ruelle: "Rufus Bowen has left us a masterpiece of mathematical exposition... Here a number of results which were new at the time are presented in such a clear and lucid style that Bowen's monograph immediately became a classic. More than thirty years later, many new results have been proved in this area, but the volume is as useful as ever because it remains the best introduction to the basics of the ergodic theory of hyperbolic systems."

This book is about the dynamics of coupled map lattices (CML) and of related spatially extended systems. It will be useful to post-graduate students and researchers seeking an overview of the state-of-the-art and of open problems in this area of nonlinear dynamics. The special feature of this book is that it describes the (mathematical) theory of CML and some related systems and their phenomenology, with some examples of CML modeling of concrete systems (from physics and biology). More precisely, the book deals with statistical properties of (weakly) coupled chaotic maps, geometric aspects of (chaotic) CML, monotonic spatially extended systems, and dynamical models of specific biological systems.