WORLD SCIENTIFIC LECTURE NOTES IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS – serie

This review volume is devoted to a discussion of analogies and differences of complex production systems — natural, as in biological cells, or man-made, as in economic systems or industrial production. Taking this unified look at production is based on two observations: Cells and many biological networks are complex production units that have evolved to solve production problems in a reliable and optimal way in a highly stochastic environment. On the other hand, industrial production is becoming increasingly complex and often hard to predict. As a result, modeling and control of such production networks involve many different spatial and temporal scales and decision policies for many different structures. The common themes of industrial and biological production include evolution and optimization, synchronization and self-organization, robust operation despite high stochasticity, and hierarchical dynamics. The mathematical techniques used come from dynamical systems theory, transport equations, control theory, pattern formation, graph theory, discrete event simulations, stochastic processes, and others. The application areas range from semiconductor production to supply chains, protein networks, slime molds, social networks, and whole economies.

Nonlinear dynamics of complex processes is an active research field with large numbers of publications in basic research, and broad applications from diverse fields of science. Nonlinear dynamics as manifested by deterministic and stochastic evolution models of complex behavior has entered statistical physics, physical chemistry, biophysics, geophysics, astrophysics, theoretical ecology, semiconductor physics and -optics, etc. This field of research has induced a new terminology in science connected with new questions, problems, solutions and methods. New scenarios have emerged for spatio-temporal structures in dynamical systems far from equilibrium. Their analysis and possible control are intriguing and challenging aspects of the current research.The duality of fundamental and applied research is a focal point of its main attractivity and fascination. Basic topics and foundations are always linked to concrete and precise examples. Models and measurements of complex nonlinear processes evoke and provoke new fundamental questions that diversify and broaden the mathematical concepts and tools. In return, new mathematical approaches to modeling and analysis enlarge the scope and efficiency of applied research.

The science of complex materials continues to engage researchers from a vast range of disciplines, including physics, mathematics, computational science, and virtually all domains of engineering.This volume presents a unique multidisciplinary panorama of the current research in complex materials. The contributions explore an array of problems reflecting recent developments in four main areas: characterization and modeling of disordered packings, micromechanics and continuum theory; discrete element method; statistical mechanics. The common theme is the quest to unravel the connection between the microscopic and macroscopic properties of complex materials.

This book is conceptualised from a successful course in recent years on cellular biophysics as part of the Masters program in Biophysics at the University of Barcelona. It develops a physical approach to biological processes that aims at a quantitative understanding of fundamental mechanisms and organizational principles behind biological complexity. The focus is on the mechanical aspects at different scales, from molecular force generation to collective cell migration, all treated in a comprehensive and unified manner.It is also self-contained and presents the basic concepts from physics and biology that may complement the different backgrounds of potential students. Whenever possible, the presentation is illustrated with simple quantitative models and many of the examples found are solved explicitly. A collection of additional problems and exercises is also included.

This book arose from a conference organized under the auspices of the Australian Research Council's Complex Open Systems Research Network (which has become the most prominent for complex systems in the world — just Google “complex systems network”), the ANU Centre for Complex Systems, and the Asia-Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics. The book is unique in the scope of its coverage of applications of complex systems science: Extraterrestrial — astrophysical, solar and space plasmas; Earth System — climate, ecosystems; Human systems — brain dynamics, social networks, financial statistics, advanced technologies.It also presents up-to-date discussions of new theoretical approaches, in particular those based on entropy and entropy production maximization, a field still under development but with much promise for providing a much-needed unifying principle for complex systems science.The authors are at the forefront of their fields, and organized their chapters to effectively bring out common features of complex systems. A comprehensive and common lexicon of keywords has been used to unify indexing, thus making the book an invaluable introduction to anyone seeking an overview of complex systems science.

This review volume, co-edited by Nobel laureate G Ertl, provides a broad overview on current studies in the understanding of design and control of complex chemical systems of various origins, on scales ranging from single molecules and nano-phenomena to macroscopic chemical reactors. Self-organizational behavior and the emergence of coherent collective dynamics in reaction–diffusion systems, reactive soft matter and chemical networks are covered. Special attention is paid to the applications in molecular cell biology and to the problems of biological evolution, synthetic biology and design of artificial living cells. Starting with a detailed introduction on the history of research on complex chemical systems, its current state of the art and perspectives, the book comprises 19 chapters that survey the current progress in particular research fields. The reviews, prepared by leading international experts, yield together a fascinating picture of a rapidly developing research discipline that brings chemical engineering to new frontiers.

This second review volume is a follow-up to the book “Engineering of Chemical Complexity” that appeared in 2013. Co-edited by the Nobel laureate Gerhard Ertl, this book provides a broad perspective over the current research aimed at understanding, the design and control of complex chemical systems of various origins, on the scales ranging from single molecules and nano-phenomena to macroscopic chemical reactors. Self-organization behavior and emergence of coherent collective dynamics in reaction–diffusion systems, in active soft matter and biochemical networks are discussed. Special attention is paid to applications in cell biology, to molecular motors and microfluidics effects. The reviews, prepared by leading international experts from the EU, USA, Russia and Japan, together yield a fascinating picture of a rapidly developing research discipline that brings chemical engineering to new frontiers.

This book is an inspirational introduction to modern research directions and scholarship in nonlinear dynamics, and will also be a valuable reference for researchers in the field. With the scholarly level aimed at the beginning graduate student, the book will have broad appeal to those with an undergraduate background in mathematical or physical sciences.In addition to pedagogical and new material, each chapter reviews the current state of the area and discusses classic and open problems in engaging, surprisingly non-technical ways. The contributors are Brian Davies (bifurcations in maps), Nalini Joshi (integrable systems and asymptotics), Alan Newell (wave turbulence and pattern formation), Mark Ablowitz (nonlinear waves), Carl Weiss (spatial solitons), Cathy Holmes (Hamiltonian systems), Tony Roberts (dissipative fluid mechanics), Jorgen Frederiksen (two-dimensional turbulence), and Mike Lieberman (Fermi acceleration).

Synchronization processes bring about dynamical order and lead to spontaneous development of structural organization in complex systems of various origins, from chemical oscillators and biological cells to human societies and the brain. This book provides a review and a detailed theoretical analysis of synchronization phenomena in complex systems with different architectures, composed of elements with periodic or chaotic individual dynamics. Special attention is paid to statistical concepts, such as nonequilibrium phase transitions, order parameters and dynamical glasses.

This book is based on the lectures delivered at the 19th Canberra International Physics Summer School held at the Australian National University in Canberra (Australia) in January 2006.The problem of turbulence and coherent structures is of key importance in many fields of science and engineering. It is an area which is vigorously researched across a diverse range of disciplines such as theoretical physics, oceanography, atmospheric science, magnetically confined plasma, nonlinear optics, etc. Modern studies in turbulence and coherent structures are based on a variety of theoretical concepts, numerical simulation techniques and experimental methods, which cannot be reviewed effectively by a single expert.The main goal of these lecture notes is to introduce state-of-the-art turbulence research in a variety of approaches (theoretical, numerical simulations and experiments) and applications (fluids, plasmas, geophysics, nonlinear optical media) by several experts. A smooth introduction is presented to readers who are not familiar with the field, while reviewing the most recent advances in the area. This collection of lectures will provide a useful review for both postgraduate students and researchers new to the advancements in this field, as well as specialists seeking to expand their knowledge across different areas of turbulence research.

This book is based on the proceedings of the COSNet/CSIRO Workshop on Turbulence and Coherent Structures held at the Australian National University in Canberra in January 2006.It codifies recent developments in our understanding of the dynamics and statistical dynamics of turbulence and coherent structures in fluid mechanics, atmospheric and oceanic dynamics, plasma physics, and dynamical systems theory. It brings together articles by internationally acclaimed researchers from around the world including Dijkstra (Utrecht), Holmes (Princeton), Jimenez (UPM and Stanford), Krommes (Princeton), McComb (Edinburgh), Chong (Melbourne), Dewar (ANU), Watmuff (RMIT) and Frederiksen (CSIRO).The book will prove a useful resource for researchers as well as providing an excellent reference for graduate students working in this frontier area.

This collection of review articles is devoted to the modeling of ecological, epidemiological and evolutionary systems. Theoretical mathematical models are perhaps one of the most powerful approaches available for increasing our understanding of the complex population dynamics in these natural systems. Exciting new techniques are currently being developed to meet this challenge, such as generalized or structural modeling, adaptive dynamics or multiplicative processes. Many of these new techniques stem from the field of nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory, where even the simplest mathematical rule can generate a rich variety of dynamical behaviors that bear a strong analogy to biological populations.