Chaos and Order in Nature

Hermann Haken is Professor of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Stuttgart. He is known as the founder of synergetics. His research has been in nonlinear optics (in particular laser physics), solid state physics, statistical physics, and group theory. After the implementation of the first laser in 1960, Professor Haken developed his institute to an international center for laser theory. The interpretation of the laser principles as self organization of non equilibrium systems paved the way to the development of synergetics, of which Haken is recognized as the founder. Hermann Haken has been visiting professor or guest scientist in England, France, Japan, USA, Russia, and China. He is the author of some 23 textbooks and monographs that cover an impressive number of topics from laser physics to synergetics, and editor of a book series in synergetics. For his pathbreaking work and his influence on academic research, he has been awarded many-times. Among others, he is member of the Order "Pour le merite" and received the Max Planck Medal in 1990.

I Introduction.- Chaos and Order in Nature.- II Fluid Dynamics. Order and Chaos in Fluid Dynamics.- Rayleigh-Benard Convection in High Prandtl Number Fluid.- Rayleigh-Benard Experiment in a Low Prandtl Number Fluid, Mercury.- Transition to Turbulence Via the Statistical Limit Cycle Route.- Divergence of Coherence Length and Excitation of Resonance in Taylor Vortex Flow.- Non-Equilibrium Phase Transitions in a Kundt's Tube.- III Chaos in Fluids, Solid State Physics, and Chemical Reactions.- Stochastization of Coherent Structures by a Periodic Field.- Turbulence and Scaling in Solid State Physics.- Dynamic Instabilities Observed in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky System.- IV Instabilities and Bifurcations: Theoretical Approaches.- Hopf-Landau Bifurcation Near Strange Attractors.- Dispersive Instabilities in Nonlinear Systems: The Real and Complex Lorenz Equation.- Bifurcations and Multistability in Nonlinear Optics.- V Plasma Instabilities.- Coherent Wave Interactions in Plasmas and Active Molecular Media.- Instability as a Property of Plasma States.- Phenomena of Self Organization in Dense Plasma.- VI Phase Transitions.- Closed-Form Approximation and Interpolation Formulae for the 3-Dimensional Ising Model.- VII Path Integrals: Recent Developments.- Path Integral Approach to Fluctuations in Dynamic Processes.- Definitions of Path Integrals for General Diffusion Processes.- The Uses of Path Integrals for Diffusion in Bistable Potentials.- VIII General Systems Approaches.- Structural Stability of Stochastic Systems.- Structure-Building Phenomena in Systems with Power-Product Forces.- IX Morphogenesis.- Spatial-Temporal Coordination of Mitotic Activity in Developing Sea Urchin Embryos.- X Once Again in Chaos: Theoretical Approaches.- Modeling Chaotic Systems.- FeigenbaumSequences in Conservative and Dissipative Systems.- On the Perfect Delay Convention or the Revolt of the Slaved Variables.- The Mechanism by Which Many Partial Difference Equations Destabilize.- List of Contributors.