Dynamics of Hierarchical Systems: An Evolutionary Approach: 25 (Springer Series in Synergetics, 25) - Softcover

Nicolis, John S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3642696945 ISBN 13: 9783642696947

Publisher: Springer, 2011

Synopsis

The main aim of these lectures is to tri gger the interest of the restless under­ graduate student of physical, mathematical, engineering, or biological sciences in the new and exciting multidisciplinary area of the evolution of "large-scale" dynamical systems. This text grew out of a synthesis of rather heterogeneous mate­ rial that I presented on various occasions and in different contexts. For example, from lectures given since 1972 to first- and final-year undergraduate and first­ year graduate students at the School of Engineering of the University of Patras and from informal seminars offered to an international group of graduate and post­ doctoral students and faculty members at the University of Stuttgart in the aca­ demic year 1982-1983. Those who search for rigor or even formality in this book are bound to be rather disappointed. My intention is to start from "scratch" if possible, keeping the rea­ soning heuristic and tied as closely as possible to physical intuition; I assume as prerequisites just basic knowledge of (classical) physics (at the level of the Berkeley series or the Feynman lectures), calculus, and some elements of probabil­ ity theory. This does not mean that I intended to write an easy book, but rather to eliminate any difficulty for an eager reader who, in spite of incomplete for­ malistic training, would like to become acquainted with the physical ideas and con­ cepts underlying the evolution and dynamics of complex systems.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3642696945
• ISBN 13: 9783642696947
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 412