Author: Paulo Murilo C. de Oliveira
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3322910091
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 156
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Book Description
This book for physicists, biologists, computer scientists, economists or social scientists shows in selected examples how computer simulation methods which are typical to statistical physics have been applied in other areas outside of physics. Our main part deals with the biology of ageing, while other examples are the functioning of the immune system, the structure of DNA, the fluctuations on the stock market, theories for sociology and for World War II. Are leaky water faucets similar to our heartbeats? Throughout the book we emphasize microscopic models dealing with the action of individuals, whether they are cells of the immune system or traders speculating on the currency market. Complete computer programs are given and explained for biological ageing. The references try to introduce the expert from the covered other fields to the relevant physics literature; and they also show the physicists the way into the biological literature on ageing.
Author: Serge Galam
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461420326
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 450
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Book Description
Do humans behave much like atoms? Sociophysics, which uses tools and concepts from the physics of disordered matter to describe some aspects of social and political behavior, answers in the affirmative. But advocating the use of models from the physical sciences to understand human behavior could be perceived as tantamount to dismissing the existence of human free will and also enabling those seeking manipulative skills . This thought-provoking book argues it is just the contrary. Indeed, future developments and evaluation will either show sociophysics to be inadequate, thus supporting the hypothesis that people can primarily be considered to be free agents, or valid, thus opening the path to a radically different vision of society and personal responsibility. This book attempts to explain why and how humans behave much like atoms, at least in some aspects of their collective lives, and then proposes how this knowledge can serve as a unique key to a dramatic leap forwards in achieving more social freedom in the real world. At heart, sociophysics and this book are about better comprehending the richness and potential of our social interaction, and so distancing ourselves from inanimate atoms.
Author: Paul Bourgine
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540247084
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 479
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Book Description
The social sciences study knowing subjects and their interactions. A "cog nitive turn", based on cognitive science, has the potential to enrich these sciences considerably. Cognitive economics belongs within this movement of the social sciences. It aims to take into account the cognitive processes of individuals in economic theory, both on the level of the agent and on the level of their dynamic interactions and the resulting collective phenomena. This is an ambitious research programme that aims to link two levels of com plexity: the level of cognitive phenomena as studied and tested by cognitive science, and the level of collective phenomena produced by the economic in teractions between agents. Such an objective requires cooperation, not only between economists and cognitive scientists but also with mathematicians, physicists and computer scientists, in order to renew, study and simulate models of dynamical systems involving economic agents and their cognitive mechanisms. The hard core of classical economics is the General Equilibrium Theory, based on the optimising rationality of the agent and on static concepts of equilibrium, following a point of view systemised in the framework of Game Theory. The agent is considered "rational" if everything takes place as if he was maximising a function representing his preferences, his utility function.
Author: Dietrich Stauffer
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9810245246
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 351
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Book Description
This volume is based on an international school on ?Scaling and Disordered Systems? organized by M R H Khajehpour, M R Kolahchi and M Sahimi. Despite the common theme, it covers fields as diverse as basic and applied percolation, and biological prey-predator and ageing simulations. The advantages of computer simulation thus become particularly clear in the reviews, which have been written by leading experts.
Author: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9789812702746
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 344
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Book Description
Fractal geometry, together with the broader fields of nonlinear dynamics and complexity, represented a large segment of modern science at the end of the 20th century. Penetration of the resulting new paradigms into practically all academic disciplines has confirmed the fundamental assertion of universal formalism common to a wide range of human endeavors. This book contains an extended article by B B Mandelbrot, reviewing his contribution to fractal geometry and outlining some unsolved problems, with illustrations especially of finance and physics. It covers a range of multidisciplinary topics OCo from the biology of aging, through the self-similar shape of plants, image decompression and solar magnetic fields, to sound reflection in the street. The book is a treasure trove for innovative researchers working in fields related to fractal geometry. The proceedings have been selected for coverage in: . OCo Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings- (ISTP- / ISI Proceedings). OCo Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings). OCo CC Proceedings OCo Engineering & Physical Sciences."
Author: Luca Peliti
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691248451
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 577
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Book Description
The essential introduction to modern statistical mechanics—now completely updated and expanded Statistical mechanics is one of the most exciting areas of physics today and has applications to subjects ranging from economics and social behavior to algorithmic theory and evolutionary biology. Statistical Mechanics in a Nutshell provides a self-contained introduction to this rapidly developing field. Starting with the basics of kinetic theory and requiring only a background in elementary calculus and mechanics, this concise book discusses the most important developments of recent decades and guides readers to the very threshold of today’s cutting-edge research. Features a new chapter on stochastic thermodynamics with an introduction to the thermodynamics of information—the first treatment of its kind in an introductory textbook Offers a more detailed account of numerical simulations, including simulated annealing and other accelerated Monte Carlo methods The chapter on complex systems now features an accessible introduction to the replica theory of spin glasses and the Hopfield theory of neural networks, with an emphasis on applications Provides a new discussion of defect-mediated transitions and their implications for two-dimensional melting An invaluable resource for graduate students and advanced undergraduates seeking a compact primer on the core ideas of statistical mechanics Solutions manual (available only to instructors)
Author: Stanislaw Raczynski
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811393370
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 156
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Book Description
This book presents examples of and the latest simulation studies on artificial societies and populations, highlighting innovative implementations of various models of artificial societies and populations using a new, C++-related simulation tool. It demonstrates that the prey-predator models—including spatial distribution, moving patterns, limited renewable food, fear, gregarious (herd) instinct, clustering, epidemics, and competition—are more complex than other publications have suggested, and highlights the great discrepancy between agent-based and conventional continuous models. The book also discusses the modeling and simulation of self-organization and interactions between organizations, including terror organizations, offering fascinating insights into organizational dynamics. The book provides a broad range of examples and comparisons with the classical dynamics approach, showing readers how to construct models of complex systems. It starts with descriptions of the behavior of interacting individuals and also includes important information on the macro-behavior of the whole system.
Author: Didier Sornette
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691175950
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 448
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Book Description
The scientific study of complex systems has transformed a wide range of disciplines in recent years, enabling researchers in both the natural and social sciences to model and predict phenomena as diverse as earthquakes, global warming, demographic patterns, financial crises, and the failure of materials. In this book, Didier Sornette boldly applies his varied experience in these areas to propose a simple, powerful, and general theory of how, why, and when stock markets crash. Most attempts to explain market failures seek to pinpoint triggering mechanisms that occur hours, days, or weeks before the collapse. Sornette proposes a radically different view: the underlying cause can be sought months and even years before the abrupt, catastrophic event in the build-up of cooperative speculation, which often translates into an accelerating rise of the market price, otherwise known as a "bubble." Anchoring his sophisticated, step-by-step analysis in leading-edge physical and statistical modeling techniques, he unearths remarkable insights and some predictions--among them, that the "end of the growth era" will occur around 2050. Sornette probes major historical precedents, from the decades-long "tulip mania" in the Netherlands that wilted suddenly in 1637 to the South Sea Bubble that ended with the first huge market crash in England in 1720, to the Great Crash of October 1929 and Black Monday in 1987, to cite just a few. He concludes that most explanations other than cooperative self-organization fail to account for the subtle bubbles by which the markets lay the groundwork for catastrophe. Any investor or investment professional who seeks a genuine understanding of looming financial disasters should read this book. Physicists, geologists, biologists, economists, and others will welcome Why Stock Markets Crash as a highly original "scientific tale," as Sornette aptly puts it, of the exciting and sometimes fearsome--but no longer quite so unfathomable--world of stock markets.
Author: Arnab Chatterjee
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 884700389X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 251
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Book Description
We all know the hard fact: neither wealth nor income is ever uniform for us all. Justified or not, they are unevenly distributed; few are rich and many are poor! Investigations for more than hundred years and the recent availability of the income distribution data in the internet (made available by the finance ministries of various countries; from the tax return data of the income tax departments) have revealed some remarkable features. Irrespective of many differences in culture, history, language and, to some extent, the economic policies followed in different countries, the income distribution is seen to fol low a particular universal pattern. So does the wealth distribution. Barring an initial rise in population with income (or wealth; for the destitutes), the population decreases either exponentially or in a log-normal way for the ma jority of 'middle income' group, and it eventually decreases following a power law (Pareto law, following Vilfredo Pareto's observation in 1896) for the rich est 5-10 % of the population! This seems to be an universal feature - valid for most of the countries and civilizations; may be in ancient Egypt as well! Econophysicists tried to view this as a natural law for a statistical ma- body-dynamical market system, analogous to gases, liquids or solids: classical or quantum.
Author: Hideki Takayasu
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9784431289142
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 410
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Book Description
The proceedings of the Third Nikkei Econophysics Symposium, "Business Models in the 21st Century - Risk Management and Expectations for Econophysics," held in Tokyo in November 2004, are gathered herein. Cutting-edge research on the practical application of econophysics is included, covering such topics as the predictability of markets, the analysis of rare events, the mechanism of crashes and bubbles, markets’ correlation and risk management, investment strategy, stochastic market simulations, agent-based market simulations, wealth distribution, and network structures in economics, most of which are beyond the scope of standard financial technology. New market models and financial-data analysis methods are introduced, and dynamic aspects of markets and economy are highlighted. Professionals, researchers, and students will find an invaluable resource in this first book of its kind to summarize the latest work in the field of econophysics.
