Sociophysics: An Introduction

•One of the first books on a new subject •Each chapter introduces the topic non-technically •Each chapter eventually takes the reader to current topics of research •Technical details given in extensive appendices •Broad bibliography, introducing wide cross-section of interdisciplinary topics This book discusses the study and analysis of the physical aspects of social systems and models, inspired by the analogy with familiar models of physical systems and possible applications of statistical physics tools. Unlike the traditional analysis of the physics of macroscopic many-body or condensed matter systems, which is now an established and mature subject, the upsurge in the physical analysis and modelling of social systems, which are clearly many-body dynamical systems, is a recent phenomenon. Though the major developments in sociophysics have taken place only recently, the earliest attempts of proposing "Social Physics" as a discipline are more than one and a half centuries old. Various developments in the mainstream physics of condensed matter systems have inspired and induced the recent growth of sociophysical analysis and models. In spite of the tremendous efforts of many scientists in recent years, the subject is still in its infancy and major challenges are yet to be taken up. An introduction to these challenges is the main motivation for this book. Readership: Graduate students and researchers in physics, applied mathematics, computer science, and sociology. Parongama Sen, Associate Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, University of Calcutta, India, and Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Professor of Physics, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India Parongama Sen is Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Calcutta. Her research interests include phase transitions and critical phenomena, complex networks, physics of ...