Control Theory in Physics and other Fields of Science

Michael Schulz, geb. 1959 in Staßfurt, studierte Physik an der Technischen Hochschule Merseburg, wo er 1987 promovierte. Von 1987-89 arbeitete er zunächst als Wissenschaftler an der TH Merseburg, später an der SUNY in Albany. Nach einigen Jahren als Privatdozent an der Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg war er ab 1996 als Heisenberg-Stipendiat an mehreren Forschungsinstituten tätig und ist momentan Hochschuldozent an der Universität Ulm. Sein Forschungsgebiet ist die Statistische Physik kondensierter Materie und die Dynamik komplexer Systeme im Nichtgleichgewicht.

Introduction.
- Deterministic Control Theory.
- Linear QuadraticProblems.
- Control of Fields.
- Chaos Control.
- Non-Equilibrium Statistical Physics.
- Optimal Control of Stochastic Processes.
- Filters and Predictors.
- Game Theory.
- Optimization Problems.

From the reviews:

"The monograph under review introduces control-theoretic issues which arise in, primarily, physics-related areas. The texts is, in fact, addressed to the physics community, and this is manifested in several ways. First, the style of presentation ... . Secondly, the terminology ... . Content-wise the monograph offers a variety of topics, more diverse ... collected according to their physical context. ... All in all, a reader ... will find here a variety of issues, lively explanations and useful references to the literature." (Zvi Artstein, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2007 c)

"It is a text-book on control theory and applications mainly devoted to graduate students of physics, engineering, sciences and economics. The aim is to present the most useful theoretical concepts and techniques for understanding the ideas of control theory for physical systems. ... The subject is very well presented also from the historical point of view and many different interesting applications field are proposed. ... A reach list of references ... and an useful analytic index are given." (Anna Salvadori, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1206, 2011)

From the reviews:"The monograph under review introduces control-theoretic issues which arise in, primarily, physics-related areas. The texts is, in fact, addressed to the physics community, and this is manifested in several ways. First, the style of presentation … . Secondly, the terminology … . Content-wise the monograph offers a variety of topics, more diverse … collected according to their physical context. … All in all, a reader … will find here a variety of issues, lively explanations and useful references to the literature." (Zvi Artstein, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2007 c)“It is a text-book on control theory and applications mainly devoted to graduate students of physics, engineering, sciences and economics. The aim is to present the most useful theoretical concepts and techniques for understanding the ideas of control theory for physical systems. … The subject is very well presented also from the historical point of view and many different interesting applications field are proposed. … A reach list of references … and an useful analytic index are given.” (Anna Salvadori, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1206, 2011)