Böcker i Primers in Complex Systems-serien

How do ant colonies get anything done, when no one is in charge? An ant colony operates without a central control or hierarchy, and no ant directs another. Instead, ants decide what to do based on the rate, rhythm, and pattern of individual encounters and interactions--resulting in a dynamic network that coordinates the functions of the colony. Ant Encounters provides a revealing and accessible look into ant behavior from this complex systems perspective. Focusing on the moment-to-moment behavior of ant colonies, Deborah Gordon investigates the role of interaction networks in regulating colony behavior and relations among ant colonies. She shows how ant behavior within and between colonies arises from local interactions of individuals, and how interaction networks develop as a colony grows older and larger. The more rapidly ants react to their encounters, the more sensitively the entire colony responds to changing conditions. Gordon explores whether such reactive networks help a colony to survive and reproduce, how natural selection shapes colony networks, and how these structures compare to other analogous complex systems. Ant Encounters sheds light on the organizational behavior, ecology, and evolution of these diverse and ubiquitous social insects.

Phase transitions--changes between different states of organization in a complex system--have long helped to explain physics concepts, such as why water freezes into a solid or boils to become a gas. How might phase transitions shed light on important problems in biological and ecological complex systems? Exploring the origins and implications of sudden changes in nature and society, Phase Transitions examines different dynamical behaviors in a broad range of complex systems. Using a compelling set of examples, from gene networks and ant colonies to human language and the degradation of diverse ecosystems, the book illustrates the power of simple models to reveal how phase transitions occur. Introductory chapters provide the critical concepts and the simplest mathematical techniques required to study phase transitions. In a series of example-driven chapters, Ricard Sole shows how such concepts and techniques can be applied to the analysis and prediction of complex system behavior, including the origins of life, viral replication, epidemics, language evolution, and the emergence and breakdown of societies. Written at an undergraduate mathematical level, this book provides the essential theoretical tools and foundations required to develop basic models to explain collective phase transitions for a wide variety of ecosystems.

Chaos and Dynamical Systems presents an accessible, clear introduction to dynamical systems and chaos theory, important and exciting areas that have shaped many scientific fields. While the rules governing dynamical systems are well-specified and simple, the behavior of many dynamical systems is remarkably complex. Of particular note, simple deterministic dynamical systems produce output that appears random and for which long-term prediction is impossible. Using little math beyond basic algebra, David Feldman gives readers a grounded, concrete, and concise overview.In initial chapters, Feldman introduces iterated functions and differential equations. He then surveys the key concepts and results to emerge from dynamical systems: chaos and the butterfly effect, deterministic randomness, bifurcations, universality, phase space, and strange attractors. Throughout, Feldman examines possible scientific implications of these phenomena for the study of complex systems, highlighting the relationships between simplicity and complexity, order and disorder.Filling the gap between popular accounts of dynamical systems and chaos and textbooks aimed at physicists and mathematicians, Chaos and Dynamical Systems will be highly useful not only to students at the undergraduate and advanced levels, but also to researchers in the natural, social, and biological sciences.