The Mathematical Theory of L Systems

Now available in an affordable softcover edition, this classic in Springer's acclaimed Virtual Laboratory series is the first comprehensive account of the computer simulation of plant development. 150 illustrations, one third of them in colour, vividly demonstrate the spectacular results of the algorithms used to model plant shapes and developmental processes. The latest in computer-generated images allow us to look at plants growing, self-replicating, responding to external factors and even mutating, without becoming entangled in the underlying mathematical formulae involved. The authors place particular emphasis on Lindenmayer systems - a notion conceived by one of the authors, Aristid Lindenmayer, and internationally recognised for its exceptional elegance in modelling biological phenomena. Nonetheless, the two authors take great care to present a survey of alternative methods for plant modelling.

1-systems are a mathematical formalism which was proposed by Aristid 1indenmayer in 1968 as a foundation for an axiomatic theory of develop ment. The notion promptly attracted the attention of computer scientists, who investigated 1-systems from the viewpoint of formal language theory. This theoretical line of research was pursued very actively in the seventies, resulting in over one thousand publications. A different research direction was taken in 1984 by Alvy Ray Smith, who proposed 1-systems as a tool for synthesizing realistic images of plants and pointed out the relationship between 1-systems and the concept of fractals introduced by Benoit Mandel brot. The work by Smith inspired our studies of the application of 1-systems to computer graphics. Originally, we were interested in two problems: • Can 1-systems be used as a realistic model of plant species found in nature? • Can 1-systems be applied to generate images of a wide class of fractals? It turned out that both questions had affirmative answers. Subsequently we found that 1-systems could be applied to other areas, such as the generation of tilings, reproduction of a geometric art form from East India, and synthesis of musical scores based on an interpretation of fractals. This book collects our results related to the graphical applications of- systems. It is a corrected version of the notes which we prepared for the ACM SIGGRAPH '88 course on fractals.

This book presents the mathematical foundations of systems theory in a self-contained, comprehensive, detailed and mathematically rigorous way. It is devoted to the analysis of dynamical systems and combines features of a detailed introductory textbook with that of a reference source. The book contains many examples and figures illustrating the text which help to bring out the intuitive ideas behind the mathematical constructions.

This volume contains survey and research articles by some of the leading researchers in mathematical systems theory - a vibrant research area in its own right. Many authors have taken special care that their articles are self-contained and accessible also to non-specialists.

A rigorous and thorough mathematical introduction to the subject; A clear and concise treatment of modern fast solution techniques such as multigrid and domain decomposition algorithms; Second edition contains two new chapters, as well as many new exercises; Previous edition sold over 3000 copies worldwide

Scientific knowledge grows at a phenomenal pace--but few books have had as lasting an impact or played as important a role in our modern world as The Mathematical Theory of Communication, published originally as a paper on communication theory more than fifty years ago. Republished in book form shortly thereafter, it has since gone through four hardcover and sixteen paperback printings. It is a revolutionary work, astounding in its foresight and contemporaneity. The University of Illinois Press is pleased and honored to issue this commemorative reprinting of a classic.