Phase Transitions / / Ricard Solé.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Solé, Ricard,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2011]; ©2011
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Language: English
• Series: Primers in Complex Systems ; 3
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 p.) :; 6 halftones. 67 line illus. 1 table.
• Other title: Frontmatter --; CONTENTS --; PREFACE --; 1. Phase Changes --; 2. Stability and Instability --; 3. Bifurcations and Catastrophes --; 4. Percolation --; 5. Random Graphs --; 6. Life Origins --; 7. Virus Dynamics --; 8. Cell Structure --; 9. Epidemic Spreading --; 10. Gene Networks --; 11. Cancer Dynamics --; 12. Ecological Shifts --; 13. Information and Traffic Jams --; 14. Collective Intelligence --; 15. Language --; 16. Social Collapse --; References --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9781400838929; 9783110442502
• DOI: 10.1515/9781400838929?locatt=mode:legacy
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Ricard Solé.

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 Solé 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.