A Primer on Complex Systems: With Applications to Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas

Raúl Sánchez · David Newman

Mrt. 2018 · Lecture Notes in Physics Boek 943 · Springer

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The purpose of this book is to illustrate the fundamental concepts of complexity and complex behavior and the best methods to characterize this behavior by means of their applications to some current research topics from within the fields of fusion, earth and solar plasmas. In this sense, it is a departure from the many books already available that discuss general features of complexity.
The book is divided in two parts. In the first part the most important properties and features of complex systems are introduced, discussed and illustrated. The second part discusses several instances of possible complex phenomena in magnetized plasmas and some of the analysis tools that were introduced in the first part are used to characterize the dynamics in these systems. A list of problems is proposed at the end of each chapter.
This book is intended for graduate and post-graduate students with a solid college background in mathematics and classical physics, who intend to work in the field of plasma physics and, in particular, plasma turbulence. It will also be of interest to senior scientists who have so far approached these systems and problems from a different perspective and want a new fresh angle.

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Raul Sanchez is a full professor of Physics at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, SPAIN. He served as Vice-chancellor for Undergraduate Studies of this university from 2011 to 2015. Previously, he spent almost a decade at the Fusion Energy Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Tennessee, USA), first as a post-doctoral fellow (1998-99) and later as a senior staff scientist (2005-2011). During his more than twenty five years in research, he has authored more than a hundred refereed publications in the fields of nuclear fusion, plasma physics, turbulence, computational physics and complex systems. He was the recipient of the Spanish “Miguel Catalán” Science Award in 2009 for scientists younger than forty.

David Newman is a full professor of Physics at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, and the Director of the Center for Complex Studies there. He held the prestigious Eugene Wigner Fellowship at the Fusion Energy Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Tennessee, USA), where he was a staff scientist from 1993 to1998. During his more than thirty years in research, he has authored more than 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals in the fields of complex systems, turbulence, plasma physics, nuclear fusion and electric power networks. He was the recipient of the US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and the US Department of Energy Young Scientist Award in 1997. He was selected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2011.