Synergetics

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.

1. Goal.- 1.1 Order and Disorder: Some Typical Phenomena.- 1.2 Some Typical Problems and Difficulties.- 1.3 How We Shall Proceed.- 2. Probability.- 2.1 Object of Our Investigations: The Sample Space.- 2.2 Random Variables.- 2.3 Probability.- 2.4 Distribution.- 2.5 Random Variables with Densities.- 2.6 Joint Probability.- 2.7 Mathematical Expectation E(X), and Moments.- 2.8 Conditional Probabilites.- 2.9 Independent and Dependent Random Variables.- 2.10 Generating Functions and Characteristic Functions.- 2.11 A Special Probability Distribution: Binomial Distribution.- 2.12 The Poisson Distribution.- 2.13 The Normal Distribution (Gaussian Distribution).- 2.14 Stirling’s Formula.- 2.15 Central Limit Theorem.- 3. Information.- 3.1 Some Basic Ideas.- 3.2 Information Gain: An Illustrative Derivation.- 3.3 Information Entropy and Constraints.- 3.4 An Example from Physics: Thermodynamics.- 3.5 An Approach to Irreversible Thermodynamics.- 3.6 Entropy—Curse of Statistical Mechanics?.- 4. Chance.- 4.1 A Model of Brownian Movement.- 4.2 The Random Walk Model and Its Master Equation.- 4.3 Joint Probability and Paths. Markov Processes. The Chapman-Kolmogorov Equation. Path Integrals.- 4.4 How to Use Joint Probabilities. Moments. Characteristic Function. Gaussian Processes.- 4.5 The Master Equation.- 4.6 Exact Stationary Solution of the Master Equation for Systems in Detailed Balance.- 4.7 The Master Equation with Detailed Balance. Symmetrization, Eigenvalues and Eigenstates.- 4.8 Kirchhoff’s Method of Solution of the Master Equation.- 4.9 Theorems about Solutions of the Master Equation.- 4.10 The Meaning of Random Processes. Stationary State, Fluctuations, Recurrence Time.- 4.11 Master Equation and Limitations of Irreversible Thermodynamics.- 5. Necessity.- 5.1 Dynamic Processes.- 5.2 Critical Points and Trajectories in a Phase Plane. Once Again Limit Cycles.- 5.3 Stability.- 5.4 Examples and Exercises on Bifurcation and Stability.- 5.5 Classification of Static Instabilities, or an Elementary Approach to Thom’s Theory of Catastrophes.- 6. Chance and Necessity.- 6.1 Langevin Equations: An Example.- 6.2 Reservoirs and Random Forces.- 6.3 The Fokker-Planck Equation.- 6.4 Some Properties and Stationary Solutions of the Fokker-Planck Equation.- 6.5 Time-Dependent Solutions of the Fokker-Planck Equation.- 6.6 Solution of the Fokker-Planck Equation by Path Integrals.- 6.7 Phase Transition Analogy.- 6.8 Phase Transition Analogy in Continuous Media: Space-Dependent Order Parameter.- 7. Self-Organization.- 7.1 Organization.- 7.2 Self-Organization.- 7.3 The Role of Fluctuations: Reliability or Adaptibility? Switching.- 7.4 Adiabatic Elimination of Fast Relaxing Variables from the Fokker-Planck Equation.- 7.5 Adiabatic Elimination of Fast Relaxing Variables from the Master Equation.- 7.6 Self-Organization in Continuously Extended Media. An Outline of the Mathematical Approach.- 7.7 Generalized Ginzburg-Landau Equations for Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions.- 7.8 Higher-Order Contributions to Generalized Ginzburg-Landau Equations.- 7.9 Scaling Theory of Continuously Extended Nonequilibrium Systems.- 7.10 Soft-Mode Instability.- 7.11 Hard-Mode Instability.- 8. Physical Systems.- 8.1 Cooperative Effects in the Laser: Self-Organization and Phase Transition.- 8.2 The Laser Equations in the Mode Picture.- 8.3 The Order Parameter Concept.- 8.4 The Single-Mode Laser.- 8.5 The Multimode Laser.- 8.6 Laser with Continuously Many Modes. Analogy with Superconductivity.- 8.7 First-Order Phase Transitions of the Single-Mode Laser.- 8.8 Hierachy of Laser Instabilities and Ultrashort Laser Pulses.- 8.9 Instabilities in Fluid Dynamics: The Bénard and Taylor Problems.- 8.10 The Basic Equations.- 8.11 Damped and Neutral Solutions (R ? Rc).- 8.12 Solution Near R = Rc (Nonlinear Domain). Effective Langevin Equations.- 8.13 The Fokker-Planck Equation and Its Stationary Solution.- 8.14 A Model for the Statistical Dynamics of the Gunn Instability Near Threshold.- 8.15 Elastic Stability: Outline of Some Basic Ideas.- 9. Chemical and Biochemical Systems.- 9.1 Chemical and Biochemical Reactions.- 9.2 Deterministic Processes, Without Diffusion, One Variable.- 9.3 Reaction and Diffusion Equations.- 9.4 Reaction-Diffusion Model with Two or Three Variables: The Brusselator and the Oregonator.- 9.5 Stochastic Model for a Chemical Reaction Without Diffusion. Birth and Death Processes. One Variable.- 9.6 Stochastic Model for a Chemical Reaction with Diffusion. One Variable.- 9.7 Stochastic Treatment ofthe Brusselator Close to Its Soft-Mode Instability.- 9.8 Chemical Networks.- 10. Applications to Biology.- 10.1 Ecology, Population-Dynamics.- 10.2 Stochastic Models for a Predator-Prey System.- 10.3 A Simple Mathematical Model for Evolutionary Processes.- 10.4 A Model for Morphogenesis.- 11. Sociology: A Stochastic Model for the Formation of Public Opinion.- 12. Some Historical Remarks and Outlook.- References, Further Reading, and Comments.