Thomas Gilbert

Gregoire Nicolis

Markus Kirkilionis

The European Conference on Complex Systems, held under the patronage of the Complex Systems Society, is an annual event that has become the leading European conference devoted to complexity science. ECCS'12, its ninth edition, took place in Brussels, during the first week of September 2012. It gathered about 650 scholars representing a wide range of topics relating to complex systems research, with emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches. More specifically, the following tracks were covered: 1. Foundations of Complex Systems 2. Complexity, Information and Computation 3. Prediction, Policy and Planning, Environment 4. Biological Complexity 5. Interacting Populations, Collective Behavior 6. Social Systems, Economics and Finance This book contains a selection of the contributions presented at the conference and its satellite meetings. Its contents reflect the extent, diversity and richness of research areas in the field, both fundamental and applied.

Proceedings of the European Conference on Complex Systems 2012

Vasileios Basios

This volume provides a self-contained survey of the mechanisms presiding information processing and communication. The main thesis is that chaos and complexity are the basic ingredients allowing systems composed of interesting subunits to generate and process information and communicate in a meaningful way. Emphasis is placed on communication in the form of games and on the related issue of decision making under conditions of uncertainty. Biological, cognitive, physical, engineering and societal systems are approached from a unifying point of view, both analytically and by numerical simulation, using the methods of nonlinear dynamics and probability theory. Epistemological issues in connection with incompleteness and self-reference are also addressed. Contents:Glimpses at Nonlinear Dynamics & Chaos:Bohmian Trajectories in the Scattering Problem (G Contopoulos, N Delis and C Efthymiopoulos)Scaling Properties of the Lorenz System and Dissipative Nambu Mechanics (Minos Axenides and Emmanuel Floratos)Extreme Events in Nonlinear Lattices (G P Tsironis, N Lazarides, A Maluckov and Lj Hadžievski)Coarse Graining Approach to Chaos (Donal MacKernan)Fractal Parameter Space of Lorenz-like Attractors: A Hierarchical Approach (Tingli Xing, Jeremy Wojcik, Michael A Zaks and Andrey Shilnikov)Chaos and Information:Quantum Theory of Jaynes' Principle, Bayes' Theorem, and Information (Hermann Haken)Information Processing with Page–Wootters States (Stam Nicolis)Stochastic Resonance and Information Processing (C Nicolis)Selforganization of Symbols and Information (Werner Ebeling and Rainer Feistel)Biological Information Processing:Historical Contingency in Controlled Evolution (Peter Schuster)Long-Range Order and Fractality in the Structure and Organization of Eukaryotic Genomes (Dimitris Polychronopoulos, Giannis Tsiagkas, Labrini Athanasopoulou, Diamantis Sellis and Yannis Almirantis)Towards Resolving the Enigma of HOX Gene Collinearity (Spyros Papageorgiou)Complexity, Chaos & Cognition:Thermodynamics of Cerebral Cortex Assayed by Measures of Mass Action (Walter J Freeman)Describing the Neuron Axons Network of the Human Brain by Continuous Flow Models (J Hizanidis, P Katsaloulis, D A Verganelakis and A Provata)Cognition and Language: From Apprehension to Judgment — Quantum Conjectures (F T Arecchi)Dynamical Systems++ for a Theory of Biological System (Kunihiko Kaneko)Logic Dynamics for Deductive Inference — Its Stability and Neural Basis (Ichiro Tsuda)Dynamical Games and Collective Behaviours:Microscopic Approach to Species Coexistence Based on Evolutionary Game Dynamics (Celso Grebogi, Ying-Cheng Lai and Wen-Xu Wang)Phase Transitions in Models of Bird Flocking (H Christodoulidi, K van der Weele, Ch G Antonopoulos and T Bountis)Animal Construction as a Free Boundary Problem: Evidence of Fractal Scaling Laws (S C Nicolis)Extended Self Organised Criticality in Asynchronously Tuned Cellular Automata (Yukio-Pegio Gunji)Epilogue:A Posthumous Dialogue with John Nicolis: IERU (Otto E Rössler)Appendix:Selected References from John Nicolis' Bibliography Readership: Graduate students, researchers, and academics from various fields interested in chaos, information processing and complexity science. Key Features:Highlights the universality, relevance and interdisciplinary dimension of chaos and complexityBrings together topics and issues that have so far been addressed independently of each other and establishes unexpected connectionsProvides complementary coverage of problems of concern as viewed by different well-established expertsKeywords:Nonlinear Dynamics;Chaos;Self-Organization;Emergence;Probability and Information;Predictability;Non-Equilibrium Systems;Irreversibility;Systems Biology

The Legacy of John S Nicolis

Chaos, Information Processing and Paradoxical Games

Catherine Nicolis

This book provides a self-contained presentation of the physical and mathematical laws governing complex systems. Complex systems arising in natural, engineering, environmental, life and social sciences are approached from a unifying point of view using an array of methodologies such as microscopic and macroscopic level formulations, deterministic and probabilistic tools, modeling and simulation. The book can be used as a textbook by graduate students, researchers and teachers in science, as well as non-experts who wish to have an overview of one of the most open, markedly interdisciplinary and fast-growing branches of present-day science. Contents:The Phenomenology of Complex Systems:Complexity, a New ParadigmSignatures of ComplexityOnset of ComplexityFour Case StudiesSumming UpDeterministic View:Dynamical Systems, Phase Space, StabilityLevels of DescriptionNormal FormsThe Limit of UniversalityDeterministic ChaosEmergenceCoupling-Induced ComplexityModeling Complexity Beyond Physical ScienceProbabilistic Description:Need for a Probabilistic ApproachProbability Distributions and Their Evolution LawsThe Retrieval of UniversalityComplexity in the Probabilistic DescriptionEmergence RevisitedTransitions Between StatesSimulating Complex SystemsDisorder-Generated ComplexityComplexity, Entropy and Information:Information EntropyDynamical EntropiesInformation Entropy ProductionLarge Deviations, Fluctuation Theorems and the Probabilistic Properties of Time SequencesAlgorithmic Complexity and ComputationDynamical Systems as Information Sources: Scaling Rules and SelectionFurther Information MeasuresSumming UpPrediction:Communicating with a Complex SystemClassical Approaches and Their LimitationsNonlinear Data AnalysisThe Monitoring of Complex FieldsThe Predictability HorizonRecurrenceExtreme EventsSelected Topics:The Arrow of TimeNanosystemsAtmospheric DynamicsClimate DynamicsNetworksPerspectives on Biological ComplexityEquilibrium Versus Nonequilibrium in Complexity and Self-OrganizationEpistemological Insights from Complex SystemsOutlook. The Future of Complexity Readership: Graduate students, researchers, academics and professionals interested in nonlinear science. Keywords:Nonlinear Dynamics;Chaos;Self-Organization;Emergence;Probability and Information;Predictability;Non-Equilibrium Systems;Irreversibility;Systems BiologyKey Features:A unique vision highlighting complexity as part of fundamental science and a clear, unifying presentation of the concepts and tools needed to analyze complex systemsIllustrates the interdisciplinary dimension of complexity research through representative examples pertaining to problems of current concernNew edition, including a large collection of exercises and problems with hints for solution and an updated survey of the literatureReviews: “The book can be used as a textbook by graduate students, researchers and teachers in science, as well as non-experts who wish to have an overview of the field.” Zentralblatt MATH

Gregoire Nicolis

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