Nonlinear Dynamics: Integrability, Chaos and Patterns

Abstract

When the editorial office of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General of the Institute of Physics Publishing asked me to review a book on nonlinear dynamics I experienced an undeniable apprehension. Indeed, the domain is a rapidly expanding one and writing a book aiming at a certain degree of completeness looks like an almost impossible task. My uneasiness abated somewhat when I saw the names of the authors, two well-known specialists of the nonlinear domain, but it was only when I held the book in my hands that I felt really reassured. The book is not just a review of the recent (and less so) findings on nonlinear systems. It is also a textbook. The authors set out to provide a detailed, step by step, introduction to the domain of nonlinearity and its various subdomains: chaos, integrability and pattern formation (although this last topic is treated with far less detail than the other two). The public they have in mind is obviously that of university students, graduate or undergraduate, who are interested in nonlinear phenomena. I suspect that a non-negligible portion of readers will be people who have to teach topics which figure among those included in the book: they will find this monograph an excellent companion to their course. The book is written in a pedagogical way, with a profusion of examples, detailed explanations and clear diagrams. The point of view is that of a physicist, which to my eyes is a major advantage. The mathematical formulation remains simple and perfectly intelligible. Thus the reader is not bogged down by fancy mathematical formalism, which would have discouraged the less experienced ones. A host of exercises accompanies every chapter. This will give the novice the occasion to develop his/her problem-solving skills and acquire competence in the use of nonlinear techniques. Some exercises are quite straightforward, like `verify the relation 14.81'. Others are less so, such as `prepare a write-up on a) frequency-locking and b) devil's staircase'. I do not quite grasp the usefulness of such project-like exercises. Projects must be assigned by the person who indeed teaches the course. There are things that I really like a lot in this book. For instance, the section on `chaos in nonlinear electronic circuits' is particularly interesting. It offers a simple and rather inexpensive way to visualize chaos in the laboratory. The closing section of the book devoted to technological applications of nonlinear dynamics is also quite useful. The fact that the treatment remains rather elementary, based on review articles and monographs rather than research articles, adds to the intelligibility of the chapter, which will certainly prove stimulating to many a student. Of course, not everything can be perfect, and a 600-page book is bound to have some weak points. I find the treatment of quantum chaos rather sketchy and that of chaotic scattering even more so. Also, while the authors are aware of the importance of complex time in integrability, they do not attempt an explanation of the fundamental puzzle: `why, while the physical time is par excellence real, do we need a complex time in order to study the long-time behaviour of dynamical systems?'. Also the book devotes just four pages to integrable discrete systems. Given the tremendous development of this domain over the past decade, this short presentation is not doing justice to the subject. (However as the present reviewer is editing Springer Lecture Notes in Physics on precisely `Integrable Discrete Systems', to appear in early 2004, he would be the last one to complain about the absence of more details on the matter in the present book.) To sum it up, the monograph of Lakshmanan and Rajasekar is a book written by physicists and for physicists. It will be of interest to both the experienced practitioner and to the uninitiated. Its main quality resides in its thorough, pedagogical approach to the matter. Moreover the relaxed, not too formal, style makes for easy reading. Given that I am writing this review just a few days before Christmas I cannot help thinking that this book could be a nice present for a physicist.