Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences: Chaos, Fractals, Selforganization and Disorder: Concepts and Tools (Springer Series in Synergetics) [Hardcover]

Didier Sornette (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 3540407545 | ISBN-13: 978-3540407546 | Publication Date: February 12, 2004 | Edition: 2nd

Concepts, methods and techniques of statistical physics in the study of correlated, as well as uncorrelated, phenomena are being applied ever increasingly in the natural sciences, biology and economics in an attempt to understand and model the large variability and risks of phenomena. This is the first textbook written by a well-known expert that provides a modern up-to-date introduction for workers outside statistical physics. The emphasis of the book is on a clear understanding of concepts and methods, while it also provides the tools that can be of immediate use in applications. Although this book evolved out of a course for graduate students, it will be of great interest to researchers and engineers, as well as to post-docs in geophysics and meteorology.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Concepts, methods and techniques of statistical physics in the study of correlated, as well as uncorrelated, phenomena are being applied ever increasingly in the natural sciences, biology and economics in an attempt to understand and model the large variability and risks of phenomena. This is the first textbook written by a well-known expert that provides a modern up-to-date introduction for workers outside statistical physics. The emphasis of the book is on a clear understanding of concepts and methods, while it also provides the tools that can be of immediate use in applications. Although this book evolved out of a course for graduate students, it will be of great interest to researchers and engineers, as well as to post-docs in geophysics and meteorology. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Useful Notions of Probability Theory.- Sums of Random Variables, Random Walks and the Central Limit Theorem.- Large Deviations.- Power Law Distributions.- Fractals and Multifractals.- Rank-Ordering Statistics and Heavy Tails.- Statistical Mechanics: Probabilistic Point of View and the Concept of "Temperature".- Long-Range Correlations.- Phase Transitions: Critical Phenomena and First-Order Transitions.- Transitions, Bifurcations and Precursors.- The Renormalization Group.- The Percolation Model.- Rupture Models.- Mechanisms for Power Laws.- Self-Organized Criticality.- Introduction to the Physics of Random Systems.- Randomness and Long-Range Laplacian Interactions.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 2nd edition (February 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3540407545
• ISBN-13: 978-3540407546
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,455,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very complete, August 10, 2005

By 

N N Taleb "Nassim N Taleb" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences: Chaos, Fractals, Selforganization and Disorder: Concepts and Tools (Springer Series in Synergetics) (Hardcover)

As I am teaching the statistical mechanics part of a graduate class in mathematics,I was looking for a textbook on complex systems & statistical physics with derivations, intuitions, and some physical examples. I did not realize that I was looking too far --Sornette, with hom I correspond regularly, is well known for his contributions and his prolific output (actually some physicists make fun of the quantity of papers he writes). So his book did not come to mind. I once stumbled on a problem with the derivation of preferential attachments;he recommended his book, which I took with a grain a salt. After spending some time working the derivations on scalable laws, extreme value theory, renormalization groups in this book, I elected to use it as my textbook. There is no equivalent. I have a dozen such yellow manuals; this one is complete and ultimately clearest.
I do not know of a better textbook.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for understanding complexity, September 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences: Chaos, Fractals, Selforganization and Disorder: Concepts and Tools (Springer Series in Synergetics,) (Paperback)

Sornette's book is quite an achievement both in quantity and
quality. The presentation remains informal and quite readable; it reads like a physics textbook, not a math textbook. The references are very extensive (a total of 832! altogether) and they are a very valuable component of the book. In fact much of the book is about the reference material. You might choose to read the book instead of the 832 references... I think this is
the point...

There's probably nothing wrong with this book besides the fact that it throws it all at you at a high degree of sophistication and in as terse a way as possible, it seems. It's a unique and beautiful achievement but because it is so dense with information and insight, it seems every word counts for ten and you'll want to read several chapters again and again. Also, even though there is a clear unifying theme from chapter to chapter, the book simply ends almost like in the middle of a sentence. After machinegunning out 392 pages of material at research level spanning quite a few scientific fields, there is absolutely no attempt to put it all together. It's up to you to do it and it almost seems like the author is indirectly suggesting you start reading it all over again to "get it"... So, for the second edition, perhaps the author will be bold and add ten pages of wrap up material at the end so that this will read less like an atlas. Apart from that, it's the best!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best textbooks ever written for graduate students, April 9, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences: Chaos, Fractals, Selforganization and Disorder: Concepts and Tools (Springer Series in Synergetics) (Hardcover)

Didier Sornette who is potentialy nobelisable realises with this book a great present for everybody interested to the recent progresses toward the physics of critical phenomena.
Particularly, it shows the way that some seismologists follow toward the ultimate goal to predict the event of large earthquakes. If this task was impossible yesterday,Didier Sornette shows that it is now became realisable.