Complexity from Microscopic to Macroscopic Scales: Coherence and Large Deviations

✍ Scribed by Harry Thomas (auth.), A. T. Skjeltorp, T. Vicsek (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 237
• Series: NATO Science Series 63
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Many mesoscopic systems display `adaptive' behaviour - changes in some physical property that results from a small change in an internal or external driving force. There is a kind of progression in adaptive phenomena, from quantum mesoscopics to complex, evolved cooperative systems and large scale events like turbulence. The field of mesoscopic magnetism, especially quantum coherence and quantum tunnelling in spin systems, and the coupling between mesoscopic magnetism and mesoscopic transport is currently a very active area of solid state physics. `Dephasing' is an important concept in mesoscopic systems like these. A basic question is the limit at which quantum mechanics breaks down and what it can be replaced with. Another interesting crossover is that between complexity and large excursions or events, with turbulence as a prototype example. The book also contains a discussion of finance. Qualitatively speaking, turbulence and financial markets are apparently similar, so our understanding of turbulence may be relevant to understanding price fluctuations.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xv
Physics of Computation: From Classical to Quantum....Pages 1-20
Irreversibility and Dephasing from Vacuum Fluctuations....Pages 21-47
Of Decoherent Electrons and Disordered Conductors....Pages 49-81
Spintronics and Quantum Dots for Quantum Computing and Quantum Communication....Pages 83-104
Spin – Polarized Electronics Using Dilute Magnetic Semiconductors....Pages 105-114
The evolution of evolutionary engines....Pages 115-129
Computational Complexity in Physics....Pages 131-135
When Topology Meets Dynamics: Braids of Particle Motion and Chirality....Pages 137-149
Turbulence and Financial Market Data Analyzed with Respect to Their Scale Dependent Complexity....Pages 151-169
Collective Behaviour of People....Pages 171-180
Where is Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand?....Pages 181-214
Cellular Model of Superconducting Vortex Dynamics....Pages 215-227
Back Matter....Pages 229-230

✦ Subjects

Condensed Matter Physics;Quantum Physics;Classical Continuum Physics;Biophysics and Biological Physics;Magnetism, Magnetic Materials