Econophysics: An Introduction

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.

Spis treści:
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


Nota biograficzna:
Sitabhra Sinha is a reader in theoretical physics at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai, India. He received his doctorate from the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, in 1998. Following post–doctoral positions at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City, he joined IMSc in 2002. His key research interests include complex networks, excitable media models in biology, and the physics of social and economic phenomena.
Arnab Chatterjee is a graduate student of theoretical condensed matter physics at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India. He has worked on dy namic transitions in Ising models, while also taking an interest in the application of statistical physics to varied interdisciplinary fields such as complex networks and econophysics. He has studied structural properties of the transport networks and is now into developing the ideal–gas models of markets.
Anirban Chakraborti is a lecturer in theoretical physics at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Banaras, India. He received his doctorate in physics from Jadavpur University in 2003. Following postdoctoral positions at Helsinki University of Technology, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, he moved back to India to work at BHU. Statistical physics of the traveling salesman problem, models of trading markets, stock market correlations and portfolio optimization, adaptive minority games and bioinformatics have been his major research interests.
Bikas K. Chakrabarti is a senior professor of theoretical condensed matter physics at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkata, India. He received his doctorate in physics from Calcutta University in 1979. Following postdoctoral positions at Oxford University and Cologne University, he joined SINP in 1983. Among others, his key research interests are in the statistical physics of fracture and of linear polymers in disordered media and in the physics of quantum glasses and annealing. He has written and edited several books on these topics. Professor Chakrabarti is a recipient of the S. S. Bhatnagar Prize (1997), a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (Bangalore) and of the Indian National Science Academy (New Delhi).