Scale Invariance and Beyond
Subtitle: Les Houches Workshop, March 10-14, 1997 (Centre de Physique les Houches)
Contributors: B. Dubrulle (Editor); F. Graner (Editor); D. Sornette (Editor)
Publisher: Springer
Published: April 1998
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 306
ISBN-13: 9783540640004
Subjects: Physics; Science; Science/Mathematics
Description: This book is an excellent introduction to the concept of scale invariance, which is a growing field of research with wide applications. It describes where and how symmetry under scale transformation (and its various forms of partial breakdown) can be used to analyze solutions of a problem without the need to explicitly solve it. The first part gives descriptions of tools and concepts; the second is devoted to recent attempts to go beyond the invariance or symmetry breaking, to discuss causes and consequences, and to extract useful information about the system. Examples are carefully worked out in fields as diverse as condensed matter physics, population dynamics, earthquake physics, turbulence, cosmology and finance.