ORDER, DISORDER & CRITICAL (V8‪)‬

This book is the eighth volume of review chapters on advanced problems of phase transitions and critical phenomena in complex systems. The aim of the book is to provide reviews in those aspects of criticality and related subjects that attract currently much attention due to essential new contributions. The current volume consists of five chapters. They discuss various aspects of studies in the field of critical phenomena as well as criticality of complex systems, where the new, emergent properties appear via collective behaviour of simple elements. Since all complex systems involve cooperative behaviour between many interconnected components, the field of phase transitions and critical phenomena provides a very natural conceptual and methodological framework for their study. As with the first seven volumes, this book is based on the review lectures that were given in Lviv (Ukraine) at the 'Ising lectures' — a traditional annual workshop on complex systems, phase transitions and critical phenomena which aims to bring together experts in these fields with university students and those who are interested in the subject.

Contents:
PrefaceThe Enigmatic Exponent Ϙ and the Story of Finite-Size Scaling Above the Upper Critical Dimension (R Kenna and B Berche)Stochastic Spatial Lotka–Volterra Predator-Prey Models (U C Täuber)Statistical Mechanics and Artificial Neural Networks: Principles, Models, and Applications (L Böttcher and G Wheeler)Political Systems as Complex, Statistical Systems — Unravelling the Role of Diversity and Feedback for Stability (K Wiesner)Observing Cities as a Complex System (R Prieto-Curiel)Index
Readership: Researchers in statistical physics and complex systems, as well as graduate students in related fields.

Key Features: Summarizes new contributions and state-of-the-art studies in various areas of phase transition theory and related topics currently attracting much attention Fills a gap in the literature on recent developments in the fundamental and applied areas of the theory of phase transitions and critical phenomena Readable even for professionals and students studying the field, not only active researchers