According to its definition, Synergetics is concerned with systems that produce macroscopic spatial, temporal, or functional structures. Autowaves are·a specific, yet very important, case of spatio-temporal structures. The term "autowave" was coined in the Soviet Union in analogy to the term "auto-oscillator". This is - perhaps too literal - translation of the Russian word "avto-ostsillyatory" (= self oscillator) which in its proper translation means "self-sustained oscillator". These are oscillators, e. g. , clocks, whose internal energy dissipation is compensa ted by a (more or less) continuous power input. Simi larly, the term "autowaves" de notes propagation effects - including waves - in active media, which provide spa tially distributed energy sources and thus may compensate dissipation. An example which is now famous is represented by spiral or concentric waves in a chemically active medium, undergoing the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. This book provides the reader with numerous further examples from physics, chem istry, and biology - e. g. , autowaves of the heart. While the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction is now widely known, a number of very important results obtained in the Soviet Union are perhaps less well known. I am particularly glad that this book may help to make readers outside the Soviet Union acquainted with these important exper imental and theoretical findings which are presented in a way which elucidates the common principles underlying this kind of propagation effects. Professor V.

Inhalt
I Introduction.- Synergetics - Some Basic Concepts and Recent Results.- Autowaves: Results, Problems, Outlooks.- II Self-Organization in Physical Systems: Autowaves and Structures Far from Equilibrium.- The Microscopic Theory of Irreversible Processes.- Coherent Structures in Plasmas..- Structures in the Universe..- Interfacial Instability in Fluid Layers Under Thermal Constraints.- Laser-Induced Autowave Processes.- Completely Integrable Models in the Domain Walls and Interphases Theories.- The Autowave Phenomena on the Surface of Crystallizing Solution.- Autowave Processes in Semiconductors with the Temperature-Electric Instability.- Thermal Wave Propagation in a Superconducting System as an Autowave Process.- Theory of Development of Large-Scale Structures in Hydrodynamical Turbulence.- The Role of Fluctuations for Self-Organization in Physical Systems (an Exemplary Case of Transition from a Laminar to Turbulent Flow).- Stochastization of Nonstationary Structures in a Distributed Oscillator with Delay..- Experimental Study of Rossby Solitons and Dissipative Structures in Geostrophical Streams..- III Mathematical Backgrounds of Autowaves.- A Theory of Spiral Waves in Active Media.- One-Dimensional Autowaves, Methods of Qualitative Description.- Twisted Scroll Waves in Three-Dimensional Active Media.- On the Complex Stationary Nearly Solitary Waves.- Elements of the Optics of Autowaves.- Numerical Simulation and Nonlinear Processes in Dissipative Media.- The Onset and the Development of Chaotic Structures in Dissipative Media.- IV Autowaves and Auto-Oscillations in Chemically Active Media.- Mathematical Models of Chemically Active Media.- On the Mechanism of Target Pattern Formation in the Distributed Belousov-Zhabotinsky System..- Iodide-Induced Oscillation inUncatalyzed Bromate Oscillators.- Topological Similarities in Dissipative Structures of Marangoni-Instabi1ity and Belousov-Zhabotinsky-Reaction..- A Generalized Mechanism for Bromate-Driven Oscillators.- Electrical Field Effects on Propagating Pulse and Front Waves.- Self-Organization Phenomena and Autowave Processes in Heterogeneous Chemical and Physical Systems..- Threshold Effects and Autowave Processes in Low-Temperature Solid-State Chemical Reactions..- Spatial Structures and Pattern Selection in Chemical Systems.- Simulation of Self-Organized States in Combustion Processes.- V Autowaves in Biological Systems.- Leão's Spreading Depression, an Example of Diffusion-Mediated Propagation of Excitation in the Central Nervous System..- The Autowave Nature of Cardiac Arrhythmias.- Cardiac Arrhythmias During Acute Myocardial Ischemia.- Properties of Rotating Waves in Three Dimensions. Scroll Rings in Myocard.- Waves and Structures in Space: Ecology and Epidemiology.- Synergetics and Biological Morphogenesis.- Collective Phenomena in the Multicellular Development of Dictyostelium Discoideur..- Study of Target Patterns in a Phage-Bacterium System.- Plasmodium of the Myxomycete Physarum Polycephalum as an Autowave Self-Organizing System..- VI Evolution and Self-Organization.- Violation of Symmetry and Self-Organization in Prebiological Evolution.- Physical Models of Evolution Processes.- Experimental and Theoretical Studies of the Regulatory Hierarchy in Glycolysis.- Evolution and Value of Information.- Index of Contributors.