An Introduction to Dynamical Systems

An Introduction to the Evolution of Single and Binary Stars provides physicists with an understanding of binary and single star evolution, beginning with a background and introduction of basic astronomical concepts. Although a general treatment of stellar structure and evolution is included, the text stresses the physical processes that lead to stellar mass compact object binaries that may be sources of observable gravitational radiation.

Multivariable analysis is an important subject for mathematicians, both pure and applied. Apart from mathematicians, we expect that physicists, mechanical engi­ neers, electrical engineers, systems engineers, mathematical biologists, mathemati­ cal economists, and statisticians engaged in multivariate analysis will find this book extremely useful. The material presented in this work is fundamental for studies in differential geometry and for analysis in N dimensions and on manifolds. It is also of interest to anyone working in the areas of general relativity, dynamical systems, fluid mechanics, electromagnetic phenomena, plasma dynamics, control theory, and optimization, to name only several. An earlier work entitled An Introduction to Analysis: from Number to Integral by Jan and Piotr Mikusinski was devoted to analyzing functions of a single variable. As indicated by the title, this present book concentrates on multivariable analysis and is completely self-contained. Our motivation and approach to this useful subject are discussed below. A careful study of analysis is difficult enough for the average student; that of multi variable analysis is an even greater challenge. Somehow the intuitions that served so well in dimension I grow weak, even useless, as one moves into the alien territory of dimension N. Worse yet, the very useful machinery of differential forms on manifolds presents particular difficulties; as one reviewer noted, it seems as though the more precisely one presents this machinery, the harder it is to understand.

This book is an introduction to the applications in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics of chaotic dynamics, and also to the use of techniques in statistical mechanics important for an understanding of the chaotic behaviour of fluid systems. The fundamental concepts of dynamical systems theory are reviewed and simple examples are given.