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SUMMARY:Self-organization - the underlying principle and a general modelli
 ng approach - Prof. Rafi Blumenfeld (University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20260210T130000Z
DTEND:20260210T140000Z
UID:TALK243421@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Balázs Németh
DESCRIPTION:Self-organization (SO) is a ubiquitous phenomenon that has foc
 used much attention and research work. However\, analyses of such phenomen
 a are often limited to specific systems and dynamics while a general theor
 etical modelling has been difficult to formulate.\nThe main difference bet
 ween thermodynamic equilibrium and dynamics-driven self-organized steady s
 tates is that entropy is maximized in the former and mimimized in the latt
 er. This suggests that SO is governed by a general principle: it emerges w
 hen a minute subset of system configurations are exceptionally stable and 
 long-lived to survive the noise generated by the driving. \nGuided by this
  principle\, a statistical mechanics-like model is formulated for general 
 SO and its application is illustrated\, with explicit derivations for two 
 example systems: self-organized steady states of quasi-statically driven g
 ranular systems in two dimensions and crowd laning.  In this formalism\, m
 aximizing a survivability function of the exceptionally few stable configu
 rations is the equivalent of minimizing the free energy in traditional sta
 tistical mechanics.  Parallels with equilibrium statistical mechanics prov
 ide useful insight\, which should assist in modelling SO in general out-of
 -equilibrium systems. Time permitting\, similarities and differences betwe
 en SO in passive and biological systems will be pointed out\, suggesting p
 otential extension to biology\, albeit to very simple systems.
LOCATION:Center for Mathematical Sciences\, Lecture room MR4.
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