"Universal scaling behavior is an attractive feature in statistical physics because a wide range of models can be classified purely in terms of their collective behavior due to a diverging correlation length. This book provides a comprehensive overview of dynamical universality classes occurring in nonequilibrium systems defined on regular lattices. The factors determining these diverse universality classes have yet to be fully understood, but the book attempts to summarize our present knowledge, taking them into account systematically." "The book helps the reader to navigate in the zoo of basic models and classes that were investigated in the past decades, using field theoretical formalism and topological diagrams of phase spaces. The extensions in this book include new topics like local scale invariance, tricritical points, phase space topologies, nonperturbative renormalization group results and disordered systems that are discussed in more detail. This book also aims to be more pedagogical, providing more background and derivation of results."--BOOK JACKET.

Universal scaling behavior is an attractive feature in statistical physics because a wide range of models can be classified purely in terms of their collective behavior due to a diverging correlation length. This book provides a comprehensive overview of dynamical universality classes occurring in nonequilibrium systems defined on regular lattices. The factors determining these diverse universality classes have yet to be fully understood, but the book attempts to summarize our present knowledge, taking them into account systematically.The book helps the reader to navigate in the zoo of basic models and classes that were investigated in the past decades, using field theoretical formalism and topological diagrams of phase spaces. Based on a review in Rev. Mod. Phys. by the author, it incorporates surface growth classes, classes of spin models, percolation and multi-component system classes as well as damage spreading transitions. (The success of that review can be quantified by the more than one hundred independent citations of that paper since 2004.)The extensions in this book include new topics like local scale invariance, tricritical points, phase space topologies, nonperturbative renormalization group results and disordered systems that are discussed in more detail. This book also aims to be more pedagogical, providing more background and derivation of results. Topological phase space diagrams introduced by Kamenev (Physical Review E 2006) very recently are used as a guide for one-component, reaction-diffusion systems.

The physics of non-equilibrium many-body systems is a rapidly expanding area of theoretical physics. Traditionally employed in laser physics and superconducting kinetics, these techniques have more recently found applications in the dynamics of cold atomic gases, mesoscopic and nano-mechanical systems, and quantum computation. This book provides a detailed presentation of modern non-equilibrium field-theoretical methods, applied to examples ranging from biophysics to the kinetics of superfluids and superconductors. A highly pedagogical and self-contained approach is adopted within the text, making it ideal as a reference for graduate students and researchers in condensed matter physics. In this Second Edition, the text has been substantially updated to include recent developments in the field such as driven-dissipative quantum systems, kinetics of fermions with Berry curvature, and Floquet kinetics of periodically driven systems, among many other important new topics. Problems have been added throughout, structured as compact guided research projects that encourage independent exploration.

This book describes two main classes of non-equilibrium phase-transitions: static and dynamics of transitions into an absorbing state, and dynamical scaling in far-from-equilibrium relaxation behavior and ageing.

This thesis presents the application of non-perturbative, or functional, renormalization group to study the physics of critical stationary states in systems out-of-equilibrium. Two different systems are thereby studied. The first system is the diffusive epidemic process, a stochastic process which models the propagation of an epidemic within a population. This model exhibits a phase transition peculiar to out-of-equilibrium, between a stationary state where the epidemic is extinct and one where it survives. The present study helps to clarify subtle issues about the underlying symmetries of this process and the possible universality classes of its phase transition. The second system is fully developed homogeneous isotropic and incompressible turbulence. The stationary state of this driven-dissipative system shows an energy cascade whose phenomenology is complex, with partial scale-invariance, intertwined with what is called intermittency. In this work, analytical expressions for the space-time dependence of multi-point correlation functions of the turbulent state in 2- and 3-D are derived. This result is noteworthy in that it does not rely on phenomenological input except from the Navier-Stokes equation and that it becomes exact in the physically relevant limit of large wave-numbers. The obtained correlation functions show how scale invariance is broken in a subtle way, related to intermittency corrections.

This book offers an in-depth study of two well-known models of “avalanche” dynamics, modified minimally by the inclusion of relaxation. Many complex systems respond to continuous inputs of energy by accumulation of stress over time, interrupted by sudden energy releases called avalanches. The first model studied is the viscoelastic interface driven over disorder, which is shown to display the fundamental features of friction. In the mean-field limit, the friction force derived semi-analytically is compatible with laboratory experiments (displaying both velocity weakening and contact aging). In two dimensions, large-scale numerical simulations are in good agreement with the basic features of real earthquakes (Gutenberg-Richter Law, aftershock migration). The second model is a non-Markovian variant of Directed Percolation, in which we observe that the universality class is only partly modified by relaxation, a promising finding with respect to our first model.

The book you hold in your hands is the outcome of the “2014 Interdisciplinary Symposium on Complex Systems” held in the historical city of Florence. The book consists of 37 chapters from 4 areas of Physical Modeling of Complex Systems, Evolutionary Computations, Complex Biological Systems and Complex Networks. All 4 parts contain contributions that give interesting point of view on complexity in different areas in science and technology. The book starts with a comprehensive overview and classification of complexity problems entitled Physics in the world of ideas: Complexity as Energy” , followed by chapters about complexity measures and physical principles, its observation, modeling and its applications, to solving various problems including real-life applications. Further chapters contain recent research about evolution, randomness and complexity, as well as complexity in biological systems and complex networks. All selected papers represent innovative ideas, philosophical overviews and state-of-the-art discussions on aspects of complexity. The book will be useful as an instructional material for senior undergraduate and entry-level graduate students in computer science, physics, applied mathematics and engineering-type work in the area of complexity. The book will also be valuable as a resource of knowledge for practitioners who want to apply complexity to solve real-life problems in their own challenging applications.

Phase transitions occur throughout nature. The most familiar example is the one that occurs in water – the abrupt, discontinuous transition from a liquid to a gas or a solid, induced by a subtle environmental change. Practically magical, the ever-so-slight shift of temperature or pressure can induce an astonishing transition from one entity to another entity that bears little resemblance to the first. So "convenient" a feature is seen throughout the domains of physics and chemistry, and one is therefore led to wonder whether it might also be common to biology. Indeed, many of the most fundamental cellular processes are arguably attributable to radical structural shifts triggered by subtle changes that cross a critical threshold. These processes include transport, motion, signaling, division, and other fundamental aspects of cellular function. Largely on the basis of this radical concept, a symposium was organized in Poitiers, France, to bring together people who have additional evidence for the role of phase transitions in biology, and this book is a compendium of some of the more far-reaching of those presentations, as well as several others that seemed to the editors to be compelling. The book should be suitable for anyone interested in the nature of biological function, particularly those who tire of lumbering along well trodden pathways of pursuit, and are eager to hear something fresh. The book is replete with fresh interpretations of familiar phenomena, and should serve as an excellent gateway to deeper understanding.