A Primer on Complex Systems

Raul Sanchez is a full professor of Physics at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, SPAIN. He served as Vice-chancellor for Undergraduate Studies of this university from 2011 to 2015. Previously, he spent almost a decade at the Fusion Energy Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Tennessee, USA), first as a post-doctoral fellow (1998-99) and later as a senior staff scientist (2005-2011). During his more than twenty five years in research, he has authored more than a hundred refereed publications in the fields of nuclear fusion, plasma physics, turbulence, computational physics and complex systems. He was the recipient of the Spanish “Miguel Catalán” Science Award in 2009 for scientists younger than forty. David Newman is a full professor of Physics at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, and the Director of the Center for Complex Studies there. He held the prestigious Eugene Wigner Fellowship at the Fusion Energy Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Tennessee, USA), where he was a staff scientist from 1993 to1998. During his more than thirty years in research, he has authored more than 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals in the fields of complex systems, turbulence, plasma physics, nuclear fusion and electric power networks. He was the recipient of the US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and the US Department of Energy Young Scientist Award in 1997. He was selected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2011.

From the Contents: Part I Characterization of complex systems.- Primer on complex systems.- Statistics.- Scale Invariance.- Memory.- Fundamentals of fractional transport.- Part II Complex dynamics in magnetized plasmas.- Laboratory fusion plasmas: dynamics of near-marginal turbulent radial transport.- Space plasmas: complex dynamics of the active Sun.- Planetary plasmas: complex dynamics in the magnetosphere of the Earth.- Laboratory plasmas: dynamics of transport across sheared flows.- Index.