Econophysics An Introduction [Paperback]

Filling the gap for an up-to-date textbook in this relatively new interdisciplinary research field, this volume provides readers with a thorough and comprehensive introduction. Based on extensive teaching experience, it includes numerous worked examples and highlights in special biographical boxes some of the most outstanding personalities and their contributions to both physics and economics. The whole is rounded off by several appendices containing important background material.1. Introduction
2. The Random Walk
3. Beyond the Simple Random Walk
4. Understanding Interactions through Cross-correlations
5. Why Care about the Power Law?
6. The Log-normal Distribution
7. When a Single Distribution is not enough
8. Explaining Complex Distributions with Simple Models
9. But Individuals are not Gas Molecules...
10. ... and Individuals don't Interact Randomly: Complex Networks
11. Outlook and Concluding Remarks
Appendices:
A. Thermodynamics and Free Particle Statistics
B. Interacting Systems: Mean Field Models, Fluctuations and Scaling Theories
C. Renormalization Group Technique
D. Spin Glasses and Optimisation Problems: Annealing
E. Nonequilibrium Phenomena
Sitabhra Sinha is professor of theoretical physics at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai, India. He received his doctorate from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, for research on nonlinear dynamics of neural network models in 1998. Following postdoctoral positions at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and Cornell University, New York City, he joined IMSc in 2002. His research interests include complex networks, nonlinear dynamics of biological pattern formation, theoretical/computational biophysics, and the application of statistical physics for analyzing socio-economic phenomena. He was an International Fellow of tlc�