"From Newton to Mandelbrot. A Primer in Theoretical Physics with Fractals for the Personal Computer" takes the student on a tour of the most important landmarks of theoretical physics: classical, quantum, and statistical mechanics, relativity, electrodynamics, and, the most modern and exciting of all, the physics of fractals. The treatment is confined to the essentials of each area, and short computer programs, numerous problems, and beautiful color illustrations round off this unusual textbook. Ideally suited for a one-year course in theoretical physics it will also prove useful in preparing and revising for exams. This edition is corrected and includes a new appendix on elementary particle physics, answers to all short questions and a MS-DOS diskette where a selection of executable programs exploring the fractal concept can be found. The Diskette The programs included on a 3 1/2" MS-DOS diskette runs on any IBM or compatible computer. System requirements: EGA or VGA graphics card, 16 colors and 1 MB RAM, MS-DOS 3.30 or higher; 386 processor or higher: - Fractal coastline - Gasket - Forest fire - Aggregation - Diffusion-limited aggregation

From Newton to Mandelbrot takes the student on a tour of the most important landmarks of theoretical physics: classical, quantum, and statistical mechanics, relativity, electrodynamics, and, the most modern and exciting of all, the physics of fractals. The treatment is confined to the essentials of each area, and short computer programs, numerous problems, and beautiful color illustrations round off this unusual textbook. Ideally suited for a one-year course in theoretical physics it will also prove useful in preparing and revising for exams. This edition is corrected and includes a new appendix on elementary particle physics, answers to all short questions, and a diskette where a selection of executable programs exploring the fractal concept can be found.

The reader will find in this volume the Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Cortina d' Ampezzo, Italy, between July 25 and August 6, 1993, under the title From Newton to Chaos: Modem Techniques for Understanding and Coping With Chaos inN-Body Dynamical Systems. This institute was the latest in a series of meetings held every three years from 1972 to 1990 in dynamical astronomy, theoretical mechanics and celestial mechanics. The proceedings from these institutes have been well-received in the international community of research workers in these disciplines. The present institute was well attended with 15 series of lectures being given by invited speakers: in addition some 40 presentations were made by the other participants. The majority of these contributions are included in these proceedings. The all-pervading influence of chaos in dynamical systems (of even a few variables) has now been universally recognised by researchers, a recognition forced on us by our ability, using powerful computer hardware and software, to tackle dynamical problems that until twenty-five years ago were intractable. Doubtless it was felt by many that these new techniques provided a break-through in celestial mechanics and its related disciplines. And so they were.

The aim of this book is to provide a basic and self-contained introduction to the ideas underpinning fractal analysis. The book illustrates some important applications issued from real data sets, real physical and natural phenomena as well as real applications in different fields, and consequently, presents to the readers the opportunity to implement fractal analysis in their specialties according to the step-by-step guide found in the book.Besides advanced undergraduate students, graduate students and senior researchers, this book may also serve scientists and research workers from industrial settings, where fractals and multifractals are required for modeling real-world phenomena and data, such as finance, medicine, engineering, transport, images, signals, among others.For the theorists, rigorous mathematical developments are established with necessary prerequisites that make the book self-containing. For the practitioner often interested in model building and analysis, we provide the cornerstone ideas.

The Mandelbrot set is a fractal shape that classifies the dynamics of quadratic polynomials. It has a remarkably rich geometric and combinatorial structure. This volume provides a systematic exposition of current knowledge about the Mandelbrot set and presents the latest research in complex dynamics. Topics discussed include the universality and the local connectivity of the Mandelbrot set, parabolic bifurcations, critical circle homeomorphisms, absolutely continuous invariant measures and matings of polynomials, along with the geometry, dimension and local connectivity of Julia sets. In addition to presenting new work, this collection documents important results hitherto unpublished or difficult to find in the literature. This book will be of interest to graduate students in mathematics, physics and mathematical biology, as well as researchers in dynamical systems and Kleinian groups.

Concisely and clearly written by two foremost scientists, this book provides a self-contained introduction to the basic concepts of fractals and demonstrates their use in a range of topics. The authors’ unified description of different dynamic problems makes the book extremely accessible.

Complexity and nonlinearity are prominent features in the evolution of matter, life, and human society. Even our mind seems to be governed by the nonlinear dynamics of the complex networks in our brain. This book considers complex systems in the physical and biological sciences, cognitive and computer sciences, social and economic sciences, and philosophy and history of science. An in terdisciplinary methodology is introduced to explain the emergence of order in nature and mind and in the econ omy and society by common principles. These methods are sometimes said to foreshadow the new sciences of complexity characterizing the scientific deve10pment of the 21 st century. The book critically an alyzes the successes and limits of this approach, its sys tematic foundations, and its historical and philosophical background. An epilogue discusses new standards of eth ical behavior which are demanded by the complex prob lems of nature and mind, economy and society.

This book attempts to answer why there is so much interest in clusters. Clusters occur on all length scales, and as a result occur in a variety of fields. Clusters are interesting scientifically, but they also have important consequences technologically. The division of the book into three parts roughly separates the field into small, intermediate, and large-scale clusters. Small clusters are the regime of atomic and molecular physics and chemistry. The intermediate regime is the transitional regime, with its characteristics including the onset of bulk-like behavior, growth and aggregation, and the beginning of materials properties. Large-scale clusters reflect more condensed-matter and materials science aspects and it is in this regime that fractals make their most dramatic appearance. This well-integrated and pedagogical overview of the wide field of clusters in which both theoretical and experimental work is covered, will be of interest not only to students, advanced undergraduates and graduate students, but also to researchers in the various subfields surveyed.

This volume focuses on the area of the physics of complex systems and provides both an overview of the field and more detailed examination of those topics within the field that are currently of greatest interest to researchers. The properties of complex systems play an important role in a variety of different and overlapping areas in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and technology. The research field of complex systems is very broad, but this volume attempts to be comprehensive. This book is a useful reference work for researchers in this area, whether graduate students or advanced academics. Up-to-date reviews of cutting-edge topics are provided, compiled by leading authorities and designed to both broaden the reader's insight and encourage the exploration of new problems in related fields. An overview of the present status of the physics of complex systems is provided on the following general topics: (1) scaling behaviours; (2) supramolecular systems; (3) aggregation, aggregation kinetics and disorderly growth mechanisms; (4) granularly matter; (5) polymers, associating polymers, polyelectrolytes and gels; (6) amphiphiles, emulsions, colloids, membranes and interface phenomena; (7) molecular motors; (8) phase separation and out of equilibrium dynamics; (9) turbulence, chaos and chaotic dynamics; (10) glass transition, supercooled fluids and (11) geometrically constrained dynamics.