Synergetics: An Introduction. Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions and Self- Organization in Physics, Chemistry and Biology - Hardcover

Hermann Haken

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3540078851 ISBN 13: 9783540078852

Publisher: Springer, 1977

Synopsis

Over the past years the field of synergetics has been mushrooming. An ever­ increasing number of scientific papers are published on the subject, and numerous conferences all over the world are devoted to it. Depending on the particular aspects of synergetics being treated, these conferences can have such varied titles as "Nonequilibrium Nonlinear Statistical Physics," "Self-Organization," "Chaos and Order," and others. Many professors and students have expressed the view that the present book provides a good introduction to this new field. This is also reflected by the fact that it has been translated into Russian, Japanese, Chinese, German, and other languages, and that the second edition has also sold out. I am taking the third edition as an opportunity to cover some important recent developments and to make the book still more readable. First, I have largely revised the section on self-organization in continuously extended media and entirely rewritten the section on the Benard instability. Sec­ ond, because the methods of synergetics are penetrating such fields as eco­ nomics, I have included an economic model on the transition from full employ­ ment to underemployment in which I use the concept of nonequilibrium phase transitions developed elsewhere in the book. Third, because a great many papers are currently devoted to the fascinating problem of chaotic motion, I have added a section on discrete maps. These maps are widely used in such problems, and can reveal period-doubling bifurcations, intermittency, and chaos.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This book is an often-requested reprint of two classic texts by H. Haken: "Synergetics. An Introduction" and "Advanced Synergetics." Synergetics, an interdisciplinary research program initiated by H. Haken in 1969, deals with the systematic and methodological approach to the rapidly growing field of complexity. Going well beyond qualitative analogies between complex systems in fields as diverse as physics, chemistry, biology, sociology and economics, Synergetics uses tools from theoretical physics and mathematics to construct an unifying framework within which quantitative descriptions of complex, self-organizing systems can be made.

This may well explain the timelessness of H. Haken's original texts on this topic, which are now recognized as landmarks in the field of complex systems. They provide both the beginning graduate student and the seasoned researcher with solid knowledge of the basic concepts and mathematical tools. Moreover, they admirably convey the spirit of the pioneering work by the founder of Synergetics through the essential applications contained herein that have lost nothing of their paradigmatic character since they were conceived.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1977
• ISBN 10: 3540078851
• ISBN 13: 9783540078852
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English