Synergetics
Inpired by the Laser theory and founded by Hermann Haken and Arne Wunderlin, Synergetics is an interdisciplinary science explaining the formation and self-organization of patterns and structures in 'open' systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Self-organization requires a 'macroscopic' system, consisting of many nonlinearly interacting subsystems. Depending on the external control parameters (environment, energy-fluxes) self-organization takes place. Essential in Synergetics is the order-parameter concept which was originally introduced in the Ginzburg-Landau theory in order to describe phase-transitions in thermodynamics.
The order parameter concept is generalized by Haken to the 'enslaving-principle' saying that the dynamics of fast-relaxing (stable) modes is completely determined by the 'slow' dynamics of as a rule only a few 'order-parameters' (unstable modes). The order parameters can be interpreted as the amplitudes of the unstable modes determining the macroscopic pattern. As a consequence, self-organization means an enormous reduction of degrees of freedom (entropy) of the system which macroscopically reveals as increase of 'order' (pattern-formation). This far-reaching macroscopic order is independent on the details of the microscopic interactions of the subsystems. This is why Synergetics explains the self-organization of patterns in so many different systems in physics, chemistry, biology and even social systems.
Inpired by the Laser theory and founded by Hermann Haken and Arne Wunderlin, Synergetics is an interdisciplinary science explaining the formation and self-organization of patterns and structures in 'open' systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Self-organization requires a 'macroscopic' system, consisting of many nonlinearly interacting subsystems. Depending on the external control parameters (environment, energy-fluxes) self-organization takes place. Essential in Synergetics is the order-parameter concept which was originally introduced in the Ginzburg-Landau theory in order to describe phase-transitions in thermodynamics.
The order parameter concept is generalized by Haken to the 'enslaving-principle' saying that the dynamics of fast-relaxing (stable) modes is completely determined by the 'slow' dynamics of as a rule only a few 'order-parameters' (unstable modes). The order parameters can be interpreted as the amplitudes of the unstable modes determining the macroscopic pattern. As a consequence, self-organization means an enormous reduction of degrees of freedom (entropy) of the system which macroscopically reveals as increase of 'order' (pattern-formation). This far-reaching macroscopic order is independent on the details of the microscopic interactions of the subsystems. This is why Synergetics explains the self-organization of patterns in so many different systems in physics, chemistry, biology and even social systems.
