David Ruelle

How do scientists look at chance, or randomness, and chaos in physical systems? In answering this question for a general audience, Ruelle writes in the best French tradition: he has produced an authoritative and elegant book--a model of clarity, succinctness, and a humor bordering at times on the sardonic.

This book is aimed at mathematicians interested in such topics as ergodic theory, topological dynamics, constructive quantum field theory, the study of certain differentiable dynamical systems, notably Anosov diffeomorphisms and flows. It is also of interest to theoretical physicists concerned with the conceptual …