This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications PATTERN FORMATION IN CONTINUOUS AND COUPLED SYSTEMS is based on the proceedings of a workshop with the same title, but goes be yond the proceedings by presenting a series of mini-review articles that sur vey, and provide an introduction to, interesting problems in the field. The workshop was an integral part of the 1997-98 IMA program on "EMERG ING APPLICATIONS OF DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS." I would like to thank Martin Golubitsky, University of Houston (Math ematics) Dan Luss, University of Houston (Chemical Engineering), and Steven H. Strogatz, Cornell University (Theoretical and Applied Mechan ics) for their excellent work as organizers of the meeting and for editing the proceedings. I also take this opportunity to thank the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Army Research Office (ARO), whose financial support made the workshop possible. Willard Miller, Jr., Professor and Director v PREFACE Pattern formation has been studied intensively for most of this cen tury by both experimentalists and theoreticians, and there have been many workshops and conferences devoted to the subject. In the IMA workshop on Pattern Formation in Continuous and Coupled Systems held May 11-15, 1998 we attempted to focus on new directions in the patterns literature.

Fully illustrated mathematical guide to pattern formation. Includes instructive exercises and examples.

Many exciting frontiers of science and engineering require understanding the spatiotemporal properties of sustained nonequilibrium systems such as fluids, plasmas, reacting and diffusing chemicals, crystals solidifying from a melt, heart muscle, and networks of excitable neurons in brains. This introductory textbook for graduate students in biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and physics provides a systematic account of the basic science common to these diverse areas. This book provides a careful pedagogical motivation of key concepts, discusses why diverse nonequilibrium systems often show similar patterns and dynamics, and gives a balanced discussion of the role of experiments, simulation, and analytics. It contains numerous worked examples and over 150 exercises. This book will also interest scientists who want to learn about the experiments, simulations, and theory that explain how complex patterns form in sustained nonequilibrium systems.

This 121st IMA volume, entitled MATHEMATICAL MODELS FOR BIOLOGICAL PATTERN FORMATION is the first of a new series called FRONTIERS IN APPLICATION OF MATHEMATICS. The FRONTIERS volumes are motivated by IMA pro grams and workshops, but are specially planned and written to provide an entree to and assessment of exciting new areas for the application of mathematical tools and analysis. The emphasis in FRONTIERS volumes is on surveys, exposition and outlook, to attract more mathematicians and other scientists to the study of these areas and to focus efforts on the most important issues, rather than papers on the most recent research results aimed at an audience of specialists. The present volume of peer-reviewed papers grew out of the 1998-99 IMA program on "Mathematics in Biology," in particular the Fall 1998 em phasis on "Theoretical Problems in Developmental Biology and Immunol ogy." During that period there were two workshops on Pattern Formation and Morphogenesis, organized by Professors Murray, Maini and Othmer. James Murray was one of the principal organizers for the entire year pro gram. I am very grateful to James Murray for providing an introduction, and to Philip Maini and Hans Othmer for their excellent work in planning and preparing this first FRONTIERS volume. I also take this opportunity to thank the National Science Foundation, whose financial support of the IMA made the Mathematics in Biology pro gram possible.

This handbook is volume II in a series collecting mathematical state-of-the-art surveys in the field of dynamical systems. Much of this field has developed from interactions with other areas of science, and this volume shows how concepts of dynamical systems further the understanding of mathematical issues that arise in applications. Although modeling issues are addressed, the central theme is the mathematically rigorous investigation of the resulting differential equations and their dynamic behavior. However, the authors and editors have made an effort to ensure readability on a non-technical level for mathematicians from other fields and for other scientists and engineers. The eighteen surveys collected here do not aspire to encyclopedic completeness, but present selected paradigms. The surveys are grouped into those emphasizing finite-dimensional methods, numerics, topological methods, and partial differential equations. Application areas include the dynamics of neural networks, fluid flows, nonlinear optics, and many others. While the survey articles can be read independently, they deeply share recurrent themes from dynamical systems. Attractors, bifurcations, center manifolds, dimension reduction, ergodicity, homoclinicity, hyperbolicity, invariant and inertial manifolds, normal forms, recurrence, shift dynamics, stability, to namejust a few, are ubiquitous dynamical concepts throughout the articles.

Spirals, vortices, crystalline lattices, and other attractive patterns are prevalent in Nature. How do such beautiful patterns appear from the initial chaos? What universal dynamical rules are responsible for their formation? What is the dynamical origin of spatial disorder in nonequilibrium media? Based on the many visual experiments in physics, hydrodynamics, chemistry, and biology, this invaluable book answers those and related intriguing questions. The mathematical models presented for the dynamical theory of pattern formation are nonlinear partial differential equations. The corresponding theory is not so accessible to a wide audience. Consequently, the authors have made every attempt to synthesize long and complex mathematical calculations to exhibit the underlying physics. The book will be useful for final year undergraduates, but is primarily aimed at graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and others interested in the puzzling phenomena of pattern formation.

The framework of ‘symmetry’ provides an important route between the abstract theory and experimental observations. The book applies symmetry methods to dynamical systems, focusing on bifurcation and chaos theory. Its exposition is organized around a wide variety of relevant applications. From the reviews: "[The] rich collection of examples makes the book...extremely useful for motivation and for spreading the ideas to a large Community."--MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS