This volume contains most of the invited papers presented at the International Work­ shop on Synergetics, Schloss E1mau, Bavaria, May 2 to.May 7, 1977. This workshop fol­ lowed an International Symposium on SynergetiGS at Schloss E1mau, 1972, and an Inter­ national SUl11l1erschoo1 at Erice, Sicily, 1974. Synergetics is a rather new field of interdisciplinary research which studies the self-organized behavior of systems leading to the formation of structures and func­ tionings. Indeed the whole universe seems to be organized, with pronounced structures starting from spiral galaxies down to living cells. Furthermore, very many of the most interesting phenomena occur in systems which are far from thermal equilibrium. Synergetics in its present form focusses its attention on those phenomena where dra­ matic changes occur on a macroscopic scale. Here indeed Synergetics was able to re­ veal profound analogies between systems in different disciplines ranging from physics to sociology. This volume contains contributions from various fields but the reader will easily discover their cOl11J1on goal. Not only in the natural sciences but also in ecology, sociology, and economy, man is confronted with the problems of complex sys­ tems. The principles and analogies unearthed by Synergetics will certainly be very he1pfu~ to cope with such difficult problems. I use this opportunity to thank the Vo1kswagenwerk Foundation for its support of the project Synergetics and in particular for sponsoring the International Workshop on Synergetics.

Inhalt

General Concepts.- Some Aspects of Synergetics.- Radiation and Entropy, Coherence and Negentropy.- What is Catastrophe Theory about?.- Bifurcation Theory.- Bifurcation of a Continuum of Unstable Modes.- The Bifurcation of T-periodic Solutions into nT-periodic Solutions and TORI.- Cooperative Effects in Fluid Problems.- Instabilities in Fluid Dynamics.- Transition to Turbulence in a Fluid Flow.- Instabilities in Fluid Dynamics.- Instabilities in Astrophysics.- Instabilities in Stellar Evolution.- Solitons.- Solitons. I. Basic Concepts.- II. Mathematical Structures.- Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions in Chemical Reactions.- Chemical Instabilities as Critical Phenomena.- Chemical Evolution far from Equilibrium.- Entropy and Critical Fluctuations in a Stochastic Model of Second Order Nonequilibrium Phase Transition.- Chemical Waves and Turbulence.- Chemical Waves and Chemical Turbulence.- Chemical Turbulence - A Synopsis.- Continuous Chaos.- Morphogenesis.- Morphogenesis - Persistence of Organized Structures and Breakthrough of New Structures.- The Spatial Control of Cell Differentiation by Autocatalysis and Lateral Inhibition.- Regelmäßig periodische Verteilung im Raum.- Biological Systems.- Neurosynergetics.- Biological Control through Long Range Coherence.- General Systems.- Sociocultural Systems and the Challenge of Sociobiology.- Applications of Synergy in Business Administration.- The Linguistic Structure of the Chromosome Genetic Code and Language.