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Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2013

Joseph L. McCauley
Affiliation:
University of Houston
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Summary

The study of deterministic chaos by iterated maps goes back to the mathematician H. Poincaré, but did not become a part of theoretical physics until after M. Feigenbaum's discovery, and analysis by a renormalization group method, of universal critical exponents at the transition to chaos in a class of one-dimensional maps (one-dimensional maps had also been studied as paradigms of chaos in higher-dimensional systems by Lorenz and Grossmann). Since the discovery of universality at transitions to chaos, and the observation of period-doubling sequences by A. Libchaber and his co-workers in fluid mechanics experiments, much has been written about deterministic chaos and fractals. However, one thing must be stated in the beginning: although this book is primarily about iterated maps, the method of analysis and choice of emphasis make it very different from all of the others. It is written for those who not only want an introduction to modern developments in nonlinear dynamics and fractals, but also want to understand the following questions: How can a deterministic trajectory be unpredictable? How can nonperiodic chaotic trajectories be computed? Is information loss avoidable or necessary in a deterministic chaotic system? Are deterministic chaotic orbits random? What are multifractals, and where do they come from? Why do we study iterated maps instead of differential equations?

Type
Chapter
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Chaos, Dynamics, and Fractals
An Algorithmic Approach to Deterministic Chaos
, pp. xiii - xxii
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1993

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  • Preface
  • Joseph L. McCauley, University of Houston
  • Book: Chaos, Dynamics, and Fractals
  • Online publication: 05 October 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511564154.002
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  • Preface
  • Joseph L. McCauley, University of Houston
  • Book: Chaos, Dynamics, and Fractals
  • Online publication: 05 October 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511564154.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preface
  • Joseph L. McCauley, University of Houston
  • Book: Chaos, Dynamics, and Fractals
  • Online publication: 05 October 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511564154.002
Available formats
×