Physics of complex systems: emergent properties and dynamical networks

物理的、地球物理的、化学的、生命的和人造的系统经常表现出一些行为，这些行为不能通过研究它们的组成部分或更详细的成分来理解，但这些行为是紧急的。涌现的概念可以概括为存在一个实体（例如一个有机体），它不仅仅是其各部分的总和。理解突现特性和复杂模式，它们的稳定性和导致它们在非平衡系统中的自组织过程是现代物理学的中心任务之一。这类系统的突出例子包括地震活动性和人类心脏动力学，一般的神经信号或生物信号过程，对社会具有巨大的重要性。对地震活动性的详细了解是确保成功地进行地震危险性评估和探索成功预测地震的可能性所必需的。详细了解大脑对于治疗癫痫等与大脑有关的疾病至关重要。***这个“复杂系统的物理学：涌现特性和动态网络”的研究项目将建立新的一般概念和工具来表征和理解远离平衡的系统，将通过分析模型系统和大规模数据集来识别一般和普遍特性，并将与领先的实验和理论小组合作，为特定类别的系统开发准确的理论。所考虑的现象特别包括自然和人为环境下的地震触发和地震预报，以及神经动力学。具体地说，我们期望我们的研究将填补我们对地震-地震触发的物理理解的关键知识差距，这对于预测大地震的进展至关重要。我们还期望所提出的研究将使我们能够首次制定适合水力压裂引起的地震活动性的概率预测方案。此外，我们预计我们对神经元培养中涌现特性的独特研究将使我们能够为与癫痫等神经元疾病相关的药物开发做出重大贡献。这凸显了该研究项目在概念上的重要性和深远的应用，促进了跨学科的研究方法，特别是将统计物理学、非线性动力学和复杂网络理论的现代工具应用于经典物理学领域之外的领域。***同时，该研究项目将培养高素质的人才，并为他们提供独特的、现代的和跨学科的技能，使加拿大工业和整个加拿大受益

Physical, geophysical, chemical, living and man-made systems often show behaviors that cannot be understood by studying their building blocks or constituents to ever finer detail but that are emergent. The concept of emergence can be summarized by the statement that there exists an entity (e.g. an organism) which is more than the sum of its parts. Understanding emergent properties and complex patterns, their stability and the self-organization processes leading to them in non-equilibrium systems is one of the central quests of modern physics. Prominent examples of such systems include seismicity and human heart dynamics, neural signaling or biological signaling processes in general, with immense importance for society. A detailed understanding of seismicity is required to ensure successful seismic hazard assessment and to explore the possibility of successful earthquake prediction. A detailed understanding of the brain is essential to tackle brain related diseases such as epilepsy.***This research program on "Physics of complex systems: Emergent properties  and dynamical networks" will establish new general concepts and tools to characterize and understand systems far from equilibrium, will identify generic and universal properties by analyzing model systems and large scale data sets, and will collaborate with leading experimental and theoretical groups to develop accurate theories for specific classes of systems. The phenomena under consideration include in particular earthquake triggering and earthquake forecasting in natural and man-made settings as well as neuronal dynamics. Specifically, we expect that our research will close a critical knowledge gap in our understanding of the physics of earthquake-earthquake triggering, which is essential for progress in predicting large earthquakes. We also expect that the proposed research will allow us to develop probabilistic forecasting schemes suitable for seismicity induced by hydraulic fracturing for the first time. In addition, we anticipate that our unique study of the emergent properties in neuronal cultures will enable us to make significant contributions to drug development related to neuronal diseases such as epilepsy. This highlights the conceptual importance and far-reaching applications of this research program, promoting interdisciplinary approaches in general and the application of modern tools of statistical physics, nonlinear dynamics and complex network theory to fields outside the classical realm of physics in particular.*** At the same time, the research program will train highly qualified personnel and provide them with a unique, modern and interdisciplinary skill set benefiting the Canadian industry and Canada as a whole.**