First integrated treatment of main ideas behind René Thom's theory of catastrophes stresses detailed applications in the physical sciences. Mathematics of theory explained with a minimum of technicalities. Over 200 illustrations clarify text designed for researchers and postgraduate students in engineering, mathematics, physics and biology. 1978 edition. Bibliography.

The new edition of this non-mathematical review of catastrophe theory contains updated results and many new or expanded topics including delayed loss of stability, shock waves, and interior scattering. Three new sections offer the history of singularity and its applications from da Vinci to today, a discussion of perestroika in terms of the theory of metamorphosis, and a list of 93 problems touching on most of the subject matter in the book.

An introduction to catastrophe theory, a mathematical theory which deals with those changes which occur abruptly rather than smoothly. Includes many applications to illustrate the different ways in which catastrophe can be used in life, physical and social sciences.

This book aims to provide a straightforward introduction to chemical applications of the catastrophe theory. It is primarily intended for chemists interested in placing chemical reactions in the broader context of non-linear science, but it has a practical relevance for scientists in general. Catastrophe theory deals with those non-linear phenomena in which a continuous change in the control parameters results in a discontinuous alteration of a characteristic quantity of the system. The author discusses the origins of catastrophe theory, giving examples of occurrences in the areas of physics, chemistry and biology. Elementary theory and non-chemical applications are also described. The chemical kinetics and methods of analysis of chemical kinetic equations arising from elementary and generalized catastrophe theories are reviewed. Finally, the theory is applied to analyse and classify phenomena associated with the stability loss that may occur in chemical reactions. The book contains over 100 figures and an extensive subject index.

Catastrophe Theory was introduced in the 1960s by the renowned Fields Medal mathematician René Thom as a part of the general theory of local singularities. Since then it has found applications across many areas, including biology, economics, and chemical kinetics. By investigating the phenomena of bifurcation and chaos, Catastrophe Theory proved to

In April, 1975, I organised a conference at the Battelle Research Center, Seattle, Washington on the theme "Structural stability, catastrophe theory and their applications in the sciences". To this conference were invited a number of mathematicians concerned with the mathematical theories of structural stability and catastrophe theory, and other mathematicians whose principal interest lay in applications to various sciences - physical, biological, medical and social. Rene Thorn and Christopher Zeeman figured in the list of distinguished participants. The conference aroused considerable interest, and many mathematicians who were not specialists in the fields covered by the conference expressed their desire to attend the conference sessions; in addition, scientists from the Battelle laboratories came to Seattle to learn of developments in these areas and to consider possible applications to their own work. In view of the attendance of these mathematicians and scientists, and in order to enable the expositions of the experts to be intelligible to this wider audience, I invited Professor Yung Chen Lu, of Ohio State University, to come to Battelle Seattle in advance of the actual conference to deliver a series of informal lecture-seminars, explaining the background of the mathematical theory and indicating some of the actual and possible applications. In the event, Yung-Chen Lu delivered his lectures in the week preceding and the week following the actual conference, so that the first half of his course was preparatory and the second half explanatory and evaluative. These lecture notes constitute an expanded version of the course.

This advanced-level treatment describes the mathematics of catastrophe theory and its applications to problems in mathematics, physics, chemistry and engineering. 28 tables. 397 black-and-white illustrations. 1981 edition.

Mathematical models have long been used by geographers and regional scientists to explore the working of urban and regional systems, via a system where the equilibrium point changes slowly and smoothly as the parameters change slowly and smoothly. However, this all changed with the advent of catastrophe theory and bifurcation, which enabled the development of models where a quite sudden change in the position of the equilibrium point results from a slow, small, smooth change in one or more parameters. First published in 1981, this reissue of Professor Wilson’s classic study outlines the implications of these mathematical models for geography and regional science, by way of a survey of contemporary applications.