Welcome to the companion site of the book “Chaos: from simple models to complex systems” by
Massimo Cencini, Fabio Cecconi and Angelo Vulpiani
World Scientific, Singapore,
September 2009.
ISBN 978-981-4277-65-5
Online Errata: please inform us about any error or misprint, we will soon post the correction on this website.
Chaos: from simple models to complex systems aims to guide science and engineering students through chaos and nonlinear dynamics from classical examples to the most recent fields of research. The first part, intended for undergraduate and graduate students, is a gentle and self-contained introduction to the concepts and main tools for the characterization of deterministic chaotic systems, with emphasis to statistical approaches. The second part can be used as a reference by researchers as it focuses on more advanced topics including the characterization of chaos with tools of information theory and applications encompassing fluid and celestial mechanics, chemistry and biology.
The book is novel in devoting attention to a few topics often overlooked in introductory textbooks and which are usually found only in advanced surveys such as: information and algorithmic complexity theory applied to chaos and generalization of Lyapunov exponents to account for spatiotemporal and non-infinitesimal perturbations.
The selection of topics, numerous illustrations, exercises and proposals for computer experiments make the book ideal for both introductory and advanced courses.
Contents:
•First Encounter with Chaos
•The Language of Dynamical Systems
•Examples of Chaotic Behaviors
•Probabilistic Approach to Chaos
•Characterization of Chaotic Dynamical Systems
•From Order to Chaos in Dissipative Systems
•Chaos in Hamiltonian Systems
•Chaos and Information Theory
•Coarse-Grained Information and Large Scale Predictability
•Chaos in Numerical and Laboratory Experiments
•Chaos in Low Dimensional Systems
•Spatiotemporal Chaos
•Turbulence as a Dynamical System Problem
•Chaos and Statistical Mechanics: Fermi-Pasta-Ulam a Case Study
Readership: Students and researchers in science (physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology) and engineering.
