Chaos in Dynamical Systems

Edward Ott is currently on the faculty of the University of Maryland where he holds the title of Distinguished University Professor of Physics and of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Before coming to Maryland in 1979, he was a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Cornell University (1968–1979). Prof. Ott's early research was on plasma physics and charged particle beams, including research on space plasmas, fusion plasmas, intense ion beams, and electromagnetic wave generation by electron beams. Since the early 1980s, Prof. Ott's main research interests have been in nonlinear dynamics and its applications to problems in science and engineering. Some of this work includes contributions in the areas of bifurcations of chaotic sets, the fractal dimension of strange attractors, the structure of basin boundaries, applications of chaotic dynamics to problems in fluids and plasmas, and the control and synchronization of chaos. Prof. Ott has also been active in the education of students in nonlinear dynamics. He is an author of over 300 research articles in scientific journals.

From reviews of the previous edition: '… a stimulating selection of topics that could be taught a la carte in postgraduate courses. The book is given unity by a preoccupation with scaling arguments, but covers almost all aspects of the subject (dimensions of strange attractors, transitions to chaos, thermodynamic formalism, scattering quantum chaos and so on … Ott has managed to capture the beauty of this subject in a way that should motivate and inform the next generation of students in applied dynamical systems.' Nature

• Preface; 1. Introduction and overview; 2. One-dimensional maps; 3. Strange attractors and fractal dimensions; 4. Dynamical properties of chaotic systems; 5. Nonattracting chaotic sets; 6. Quasiperiodicity; 7. Chaos in Hamiltonian systems; 8. Chaotic transitions; 9. Multifractals; 10. Control and synchronization of chaos; 11. Quantum chaos.