The Chaos Avant-Garde

This book is an authoritative and unique reference for the history of chaos theory, told by the pioneers themselves. It also provides an excellent historical introduction to the concepts. There are eleven contributions, and six of them are published here for the first time — two by Steve Smale, three by Yoshisuke Ueda, and one each by Ralph Abraham, Edward Lorenz, Christian Mira, Floris Takens, T Y Li and James A Yorke, and Otto E Rossler. Contents:On How I Got Started in Dynamical Systems 1959–1962 (S Smale)Finding a Horseshoe on the Beaches of Rio (S Smale)Strange Attractors and the Origin of Chaos (Y Ueda)My Encounter with Chaos (Y Ueda)Reflections on the Origin of the Broken-Egg Chaotic Attractor (Y Ueda)The Chaos Revolution: A Personal View (R Abraham)The Butterfly Effect (E Lorenz)I Gumowski and a Toulouse Research Group in the “Prehistoric” Times of Chaotic Dynamics (C Mira)The Turbulence Paper of D Ruelle & F Takens (F Takens)Exploring Chaos on an Interval (T Y Li & J A Yorke)Chaos, Hyperchaos and the Double-Perspective (O E Rössler) Readership: Educators and university students of science and mathematics. Keywords:Chaos Theory;Dynamical Systems Theory;History of Mathematics;Chaotic Attractors;Ueda;Smale;Li and Yorke;Roessler;Lorenz;Ruelle and TakensReviews: “… there are deep insights here into the lives and times of truly creative and ingenious investigators who introduced some wonderful ideas into mathematics and science … I am struck by the stunning contributions of the chaos avant-grade …” Mathematical Reviews