Dear All,
I'm forwarding an announcement of new textbook from Dr. Markus Aschwanden.
Best,
Keiji
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It is my pleasure to announce the new textbook:
Power Laws in Astrophysics. Self-Organized Criticality Systems
by Markus Aschwanden
published by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: UK (2025)
Research applications of complex systems and nonlinear physics
are rapidly expanding across various scientific disciplines.
A common theme among them is the concept of “self-organized
criticality systems,” which this volume presents in detail for
observed astrophysical phenomena, such as solar flares, coronal
mass ejections, solar energetic particles, solar wind, stellar
flares, magneto-spheric events, planetary systems, and galactic
and black-hole systems. The author explores fundamental
questions: Why do power laws, the hallmarks of self-organized
criticality, exist? What power law index is predicted for each
astrophysical phenomenon? Which size distributions have
universality? What can waiting time distributions tell us about
random processes? This is the first monograph that tests
comprehensively astrophysical observations of self-organized
criticality systems for students, postdocs, and researchers.
A highlight is a paradigm shift from microscopic concepts,
such as the traditional cellular automaton algorithms, to
macroscopic concepts formulated in terms of physical scaling
laws.
MARKUS ASCHWANDEN studied observations and theoretical models
of self-organized criticality systems over the last 40 years
as a researcher at Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics
Laboratory, analyzing space data from many NASA missions.
He has organized self-organized criticality-dedicated
workshops at Inter-national Swiss Space Institute Bern and
co-organized a workshop at Leiden University. He served as
Editor of Space Science Reviews and is a member of the
American Geophysical Union, the American Astronomical
Society’s Solar Physics Division, and the Committee of
European Solar Radio Astronomers.
Table of Contents:
1) Fundamentals
2) Power Law Size Distributions
3) Waiting Time Distributions
4) Solar Flare Hard X-rays
5) Solar Flare Soft X-rays
6) Solar EUV Nanoflares
7) Solar Photospheric Events
8) Solar Radio Bursts
9) Coronal Mass Ejections
10) Solar Energetic Particles
11) Solar Wind
12) Magnetospheric Phenomena
13) Planetary Systems
14) Stellar Systems
15) Galactic and Black-Hole Systems
16) Conclusions
A few free copies of the hardbound book are available on demand.
First comes, first served! Preference is given to students and
young post-Docs. Send me your complete postal address and
indicate your interests relevant to this textbook.
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