Mathematics And The Natural Sciences: The Physical Singularity Of Life

Mathematics And The Natural Sciences: The Physical Singularity Of Life PDF Author: Giuseppe Longo
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1908977795
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
This book identifies the organizing concepts of physical and biological phenomena by an analysis of the foundations of mathematics and physics. Our aim is to propose a dialog between different conceptual universes and thus to provide a unification of phenomena. The role of “order” and symmetries in the foundations of mathematics is linked to the main invariants and principles, among them the geodesic principle (a consequence of symmetries), which govern and confer unity to various physical theories. Moreover, an attempt is made to understand causal structures, a central element of physical intelligibility, in terms of both symmetries and symmetry breakings. A distinction between the principles of (conceptual) construction and of proofs, both in physics and in mathematics, guides most of the work.The importance of mathematical tools is also highlighted to clarify differences in the models for physics and biology that are proposed by continuous and discrete mathematics, such as computational simulations.Since biology is particularly complex and not as well understood at a theoretical level, we propose a “unification by concepts” which in any case should precede mathematization. This constitutes an outline for unification also based on highlighting conceptual differences, complex points of passage and technical irreducibilities of one field to another. Indeed, we suppose here a very common monist point of view, namely the view that living objects are “big bags of molecules”. The main question though is to understand which “theory” can help better understand these bags of molecules. They are, indeed, rather “singular”, from the physical point of view. Technically, we express this singularity through the concept of “extended criticality”, which provides a logical extension of the critical transitions that are known in physics. The presentation is mostly kept at an informal and conceptual level./a

Mathematics And The Natural Sciences: The Physical Singularity Of Life

Mathematics And The Natural Sciences: The Physical Singularity Of Life PDF Author: Giuseppe Longo
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1908977795
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book identifies the organizing concepts of physical and biological phenomena by an analysis of the foundations of mathematics and physics. Our aim is to propose a dialog between different conceptual universes and thus to provide a unification of phenomena. The role of “order” and symmetries in the foundations of mathematics is linked to the main invariants and principles, among them the geodesic principle (a consequence of symmetries), which govern and confer unity to various physical theories. Moreover, an attempt is made to understand causal structures, a central element of physical intelligibility, in terms of both symmetries and symmetry breakings. A distinction between the principles of (conceptual) construction and of proofs, both in physics and in mathematics, guides most of the work.The importance of mathematical tools is also highlighted to clarify differences in the models for physics and biology that are proposed by continuous and discrete mathematics, such as computational simulations.Since biology is particularly complex and not as well understood at a theoretical level, we propose a “unification by concepts” which in any case should precede mathematization. This constitutes an outline for unification also based on highlighting conceptual differences, complex points of passage and technical irreducibilities of one field to another. Indeed, we suppose here a very common monist point of view, namely the view that living objects are “big bags of molecules”. The main question though is to understand which “theory” can help better understand these bags of molecules. They are, indeed, rather “singular”, from the physical point of view. Technically, we express this singularity through the concept of “extended criticality”, which provides a logical extension of the critical transitions that are known in physics. The presentation is mostly kept at an informal and conceptual level./a

Mathematics and the Natural Sciences

Mathematics and the Natural Sciences PDF Author: Francis Bailly
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1848166931
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
The book aims at the identification of the organising concepts of some physical and biological phenomena, by means of an analysis of the foundations of mathematics and of physics. This is done in the perspective of unifying phenomena, of bringing different conceptual universes into dialog. The analysis of the role of “order” and of symmetries in the foundations of mathematics is linked to the main invariants and principles, among which the geodesic principle (a consequence of symmetries), which govern and confer unity to the various physical theories. Moreover, we attempt to understand causal structures, a central element of physical intelligibility, in terms of symmetries and their breakings. The importance of the mathematical tool is also highlighted, enabling us to grasp the differences in the models for physics and biology which are proposed by continuous and discrete mathematics, such as computational simulations. A distinction between principles of (conceptual) construction and principles of proofs, both in physics and in mathematics, guides this part of the work.As for biology, being particularly difficult and not as thoroughly examined at a theoretical level, we propose a “unification by concepts”, an attempt which should always precede mathematisation. This constitutes an outline for unification also basing itself upon the highlighting of conceptual differences, of complex points of passage, of technical irreducibilities of one field to another. Indeed, a monist point of view such as ours should not make us blind: we, the living objects, are surely just big bags of molecules or, at least, this is our main metaphysical assumption. The point though is: which theory can help us to better understand these bags of molecules, as they are, indeed, rather “singular”, from the physical point of view. Technically, this singularity is expressed by the notion of “extended criticality”, a notion that logically extends the pointwise critical transitions in physics.

Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science

Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science PDF Author: Hermann Weyl
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691141206
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
History of mathematics.

Mathematics for Natural Scientists

Mathematics for Natural Scientists PDF Author: Lev Kantorovich
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 149392785X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
This book covers a course of mathematics designed primarily for physics and engineering students. It includes all the essential material on mathematical methods, presented in a form accessible to physics students, avoiding precise mathematical jargon and proofs which are comprehensible only to mathematicians. Instead, all proofs are given in a form that is clear and convincing enough for a physicist. Examples, where appropriate, are given from physics contexts. Both solved and unsolved problems are provided in each section of the book. Mathematics for Natural Scientists: Fundamentals and Basics is the first of two volumes. Advanced topics and their applications in physics are covered in the second volume.

Mathematics Applied to Deterministic Problems in the Natural Sciences

Mathematics Applied to Deterministic Problems in the Natural Sciences PDF Author: C. C. Lin
Publisher: SIAM
ISBN: 9780898712292
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 646

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Book Description
This book addresses the construction, analysis, and intepretation of mathematical models that shed light on significant problems in the physical sciences, with exercises that reinforce, test and extend the reader's understanding. It may be used as an upper level undergraduate or graduate textbook as well as a reference for researchers.

Mathematical Analysis of Problems in the Natural Sciences

Mathematical Analysis of Problems in the Natural Sciences PDF Author: Vladimir Zorich
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642148131
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 133

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Book Description
Based on a two-semester course aimed at illustrating various interactions of "pure mathematics" with other sciences, such as hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, statistical physics and information theory, this text unifies three general topics of analysis and physics, which are as follows: the dimensional analysis of physical quantities, which contains various applications including Kolmogorov's model for turbulence; functions of very large number of variables and the principle of concentration along with the non-linear law of large numbers, the geometric meaning of the Gauss and Maxwell distributions, and the Kotelnikov-Shannon theorem; and, finally, classical thermodynamics and contact geometry, which covers two main principles of thermodynamics in the language of differential forms, contact distributions, the Frobenius theorem and the Carnot-Caratheodory metric. It includes problems, historical remarks, and Zorich's popular article, "Mathematics as language and method."

Mathematics And Science

Mathematics And Science PDF Author: Ronald E Mickens
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814531928
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
The purpose of this review volume is to present the opinions of a number of distinguished individuals who have given careful thought as to why mathematics is so “unreasonably effective” when applied to the analysis of the natural sciences.

Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses

Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses PDF Author: Eugene Paul Wigner
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642783740
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 631

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Book Description
Among the founding fathers of modern quantum physics few have contributed to our basic understanding of its concepts as much as E.P. Wigner. His articles on the epistemology of quantum mechanics and the measurement problem, and the basic role of symmetries were of fundamental importance for all subsequent work. He was also the first to discuss the concept of consciousness from the point of view of modern physics. G.G. Emch edited most of those papers and wrote a very helpful introduction into Wigner's contributions to Natural Philosophy. The book should be a gem for all those interested in the history and philosophy of science.

Evolutionary Equations with Applications in Natural Sciences

Evolutionary Equations with Applications in Natural Sciences PDF Author: Jacek Banasiak
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319113224
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 505

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Book Description
With the unifying theme of abstract evolutionary equations, both linear and nonlinear, in a complex environment, the book presents a multidisciplinary blend of topics, spanning the fields of theoretical and applied functional analysis, partial differential equations, probability theory and numerical analysis applied to various models coming from theoretical physics, biology, engineering and complexity theory. Truly unique features of the book are: the first simultaneous presentation of two complementary approaches to fragmentation and coagulation problems, by weak compactness methods and by using semigroup techniques, comprehensive exposition of probabilistic methods of analysis of long term dynamics of dynamical systems, semigroup analysis of biological problems and cutting edge pattern formation theory. The book will appeal to postgraduate students and researchers specializing in applications of mathematics to problems arising in natural sciences and engineering.

Historical Encyclopedia of Natural and Mathematical Sciences

Historical Encyclopedia of Natural and Mathematical Sciences PDF Author: Ari Ben-Menahem
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540688315
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 6070

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Book Description
This 5,800-page encyclopedia surveys 100 generations of great thinkers, offering more than 2,000 detailed biographies of scientists, engineers, explorers and inventors who left their mark on the history of science and technology. This six-volume masterwork also includes 380 articles summarizing the time-line of ideas in the leading fields of science, technology, mathematics and philosophy.