| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/R44683/01 |
| Title: |
Dynamical properties of complex systems |
| Principal Investigator: |
Christensen, Professor K |
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| Department: |
Physics |
| Organisation: |
Imperial College London |
| Scheme: |
Fast Stream |
| Starts: |
01 October 2001 |
Ends: |
30 September 2004 |
Value (£): |
61,688
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| No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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The science of complexity deals with dynamical systems composed of many interacting parts, e.g. organisms in biology, grains in granular media, an( network of agents in economics. The research is interdisciplinary and methods from statistical mechanics are employed to gain insight into the behavi of such systems. The fundamental question addressed is: Why is Nature complex, not simple, as the laws of physics seem to imply? How, e.g., can large scale structures and organisation emerge from simple underlying physical laws associated with the individual components of the systems. The proposed research can be diveded into three main projects: (a) Many slowly driven nonequilibrium systems display scale invariance wihtout the need fine-tune an external control parameter. The question of predictability of large catastrophic events in such systems will be investigated in simple mode of granular media and fault systems. (b) The fluctuation spectrum in a variety of finite-size equilibrium systems at or close to a critical point and nonequilibrium systems displaying self-oraganised criticality seems to be universal. The universal behaviour suggests that a new general principle is a work. (c) One of the most basic questions in biological evolution is why and how a population of individuals subject to the same physical conditions breaks up into distinct species.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.imperial.ac.uk |