Memory of complex systems
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Posted on: Wednesday, 18 June 2014 10:00 AM
Author: P.-M. Binder
Subject: Applied mathematics: How chaos forgets and remembers
Applied mathematics: How chaos forgets and remembers
Nature 510, 7505 (2014). doi:10.1038/510343a<http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/510343a>
Authors: P.-M. Binder & R. M. Pipes
"It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future," goes the proverb. A study of the dynamics of chaotic systems in the context of information theory adds a twist to this saying.
View article...<http://feeds.nature.com/~r/nature/rss/current/~3/0NidBEsNETo/510343a>
James and colleagues' results show how the past and future of an evolving chaotic system become intertwined with its present. This feature may be at the heart of one of the most enigmatic of physical principles: the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the entropy of an isolated system never decreases with time. The statistical, irreversible character of this law is at odds with the underlying deterministic and reversible dynamics of such isolated systems at the microscopic level6<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v510/n7505/full/510343a.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20140619#ref6>, 7<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v510/n7505/full/510343a.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20140619#ref7>. The idea of applying the information-based methods presented here to thermodynamic systems, such as collections of gas molecules, is promising. Considering the entropy of such a collection as a property of its state might lead to insight into the 'arrow of time' in the second law, especially because, as James and co-workers show, chaos both forgets and remembers
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