Scaling in Complex Systems

复杂系统的扩展

• 批准号: EP/G063753/1
• 负责人: Henrik Jensen
• 金额: $ 10.51万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FG063753%2F1
• 关键词: Scaling; Complex; Systems

The research will address the question concerning what properties of an interacting many components system are responsible for the often observed very robust scaling. The robustness is e.g. indicated by the fact that the scaling remains valid despite the change in functionality as one crosses from one level in the hierarchy to the next, say from organelles to organs to organism etc. Other obvious open questions that will be addressed include: 1) Why systems as different as biological organisms and human cities both exhibit scaling laws?2) Why these scaling laws often exhibit opposite trends. E.g. a cell in a large organism consumes less energy than a cell in a small organism, whereas a person in a big city consumes more energy and is more creative than a person in a small town? The Oxford group is mainly concerned with socio-physics modelling of social systems, whereas the Imperial group uses statistical mechanics to developed models of evolutionary ecology. In collaboration with Prof West we aim to develop our understanding of how widespread scaling laws are in heterogeneous complex systems and what principles are behind them. Professor West will be hosted by the complexity groups at Imperial College London and Oxford University. Prof West will visit the UK for a total of two and a half months each year during the first two-years of the proposal. During Prof West's visit to UK he will participate in open meetings and give seminars to ensure that the entire UK complexity community will have the possibility to benefit from Prof West's expertise.

该研究将解决一个问题，即交互的多组件系统的哪些属性导致了经常观察到的非常鲁棒的扩展。鲁棒性例如事实上，尽管功能发生了变化，但当从层次结构中的一个级别跨越到下一个级别（例如从细胞器到器官到有机体等）时，标度仍然有效。将要解决的其他明显的开放问题包括：1）为什么像生物有机体和人类城市这样不同的系统都表现出标度规律？2）为什么这些标度规律经常表现出相反的趋势。例如。大型有机体中的细胞比小型有机体中的细胞消耗更少的能量，而大城市中的人比小镇中的人消耗更多的能量并且更具创造力？牛津小组主要关注社会系统的社会物理学模型，而帝国小组则利用统计力学来开发进化生态学模型。通过与韦斯特教授合作，我们的目标是加深对异构复杂系统中缩放定律的普遍性以及它们背后的原理的理解。韦斯特教授将由伦敦帝国理工学院和牛津大学的复杂性小组主持。在该提案的前两年，韦斯特教授每年将访问英国总共两个半月。在 West 教授访问英国期间，他将参加公开会议并举办研讨会，以确保整个英国复杂性社区都有可能从 West 教授的专业知识中受益。