Y. Kuramoto – författare

The 6th Kyoto Summer Institute devoted to "Chaos and Statistical Mechanics" was held from September 12 to 15, 1983, at the Research Institute forMathematical Sciences, Kyoto University, and at Hotel Kuniso. The meeting was aimed at clari- fying various aspects of chaotic systems appearing in different scientific disci- pl ines, critically examining related mathematical methods developed so far, thus preparing for possible breakthroughs, among others, for the opening of a new period of statistical mechanics of deterministic systems. The number of partici- pants was 135,of which 24 were from abroad. We believe that the well-prepared lecture of each speaker and lively discussions among many participants from various research fields led the meeting to a successful conclusion. The 6th KSI was organized by the Research Institute for Fundamental Physics. A number of young chaos researchers in Japan also participated actively in the organization. We were also in close contact with the organizer of the IUTAM Sym- posium on "Turbulence and Chaotic Phenomena in Fluids" (Kyoto Kaikan Conference Hall, Kyoto, September 5-10 1983).This volume contains most of the lectures presented at the 6th KSI. We are very grateful to all the authors for their efforts in preparing such excellent manuscripts. The 6th KSI was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and the Yamada Science Foundation. The organizing committee acknowledges gratefully their generous financial support. Finally, than'ks are due to Dr. M. Toya and Miss T. Sumide for their invaluable assistance.

Tbis book is intended to provide a few asymptotic methods which can be applied to the dynamics of self-oscillating fields of the reaction-diffusion type and of some related systems. Such systems, forming cooperative fields of a large num­ of interacting similar subunits, are considered as typical synergetic systems. ber Because each local subunit itself represents an active dynamical system function­ ing only in far-from-equilibrium situations, the entire system is capable of showing a variety of curious pattern formations and turbulencelike behaviors quite unfamiliar in thermodynamic cooperative fields. I personally believe that the nonlinear dynamics, deterministic or statistical, of fields composed of similar active (Le., non-equilibrium) elements will form an extremely attractive branch of physics in the near future. For the study of non-equilibrium cooperative systems, some theoretical guid­ ing principle would be highly desirable. In this connection, this book pushes for­ ward a particular physical viewpoint based on the slaving principle. The dis­ covery of tbis principle in non-equilibrium phase transitions, especially in lasers, was due to Hermann Haken. The great utility of this concept will again be dem­ onstrated in tbis book for the fields of coupled nonlinear oscillators.