Control Theory for Physicists [Bookshelf

Abstract

The author of this book is a physicist with ample experience in experimental implementations of control. His research concerns fundamental and cross-disciplinary aspects of nonlinear dynamics, biophysics, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, information theory, and control theory. The book builds on his experience as the author of an influential review on control theory for physical scientists. The text is geared toward physicists. Aside from notation and language, how different is it from textbooks for control theorists and engineers? The key differences are threefold. First, the book places emphasis on foundational aspects of control, including physical limitations of control such as causal and information-theoretic limitations. Second, it offers a balanced coverage of topics that takes advantage of concepts familiar to this audience, such as measurement, while elaborating further on concepts that might be less familiar, such as control objectives. Third, the book offers new insights into physical phenomena from a control theory perspective and covers material not usually treated in control theory books, which should nevertheless be of interest to engineers and control theorists. Owing to this structure, the book does well with its promise to “make the strange familiar, and the familiar strange.” This is not the first control book written for physicists. The treatment throughout prioritizes first-principles descriptions, with an emphasis on not only when control works but also when it fails. It includes well-contextualized examples and well-formulated problems. It is ready for classroom use, with additional resources for instructors—such as a solution manual and associated Mathematica notebooks—available from the publisher. A 100-page supplement on background mathematics is also available on the publisher’s website, which provides a comprehensive review of key mathematical topics. As already noted, this book may indeed lead more departments to include control theory in their curriculum.