Good introductory book for chaos theory?

[StenEdeback]

TL;DR

Good book about chaos theory?

Hi,

I have undergraduate level knowledge about mathematics, quantum physics, and general theory of relativity. Now I am curious about chaos theory, and I would be grateful for suggestions of good introductory books to chaos theory. They may be both introductory and a bit more advanced.Sten Edebäck

 

[aheight]

I liked Chaos and Fractals by Peitgen: Springer link As I recall it includes the Rossler and Lorenz attractor. Book's a bit old however but I liked it a lot.

 

[William Crawford]

Nonlinear dynamics and chaos by Steven Strogatz is a classic and often the book used in introductory courses on the subject. It's exceptional well written and easily digestible. More advanced treatments of the subject depends on the direction you want to go in. Chaos is a big field with a lot of cross disciplinary applications.

 

[hutchphd]

Of course there is the popular book by James Gleick. I love his writing and although this is 30 yrs old it still holds up as a popular foray.

 

[brainpushups]

If you happen to have access to John R. Taylor's Classical Mechanics there is a chapter dedicated to Chaos near the end. Obviously this will not be very comprehensive (in terms of breadth and depth), but his writing is comprehensive (in terms of accessibility!).

Another accessible text that's an alternative to Strogatz is Chaos: An Introduction to Dynamical Systems by Alligood, Sauer and Yorke. That's the one I used in my course some 15 years ago.

 

[hutchphd]

Another accessible text that's an alternative to Strogatz is Chaos: An Introduction to Dynamical Systems by Alligood, Sauer and Yorke. That's the one I used in my course some 15 years ago.

I seem to remember a great set of Strogatz lectures...MIT Open coursework maybe? I'll check later.

 

[brainpushups]

I seem to remember a great set of Strogatz lectures...MIT Open coursework maybe? I'll check later.

Here's someLooks great.

 

[hutchphd]

Yes those are the ones I meant thanks

 

[StenEdeback]

Thank you all for good suggestions! Now I have a lot of books to look at. Physics Forums is really very good.

 

[DrClaude]

Ott, Chaos in Dynamical Systems

https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511803260

 

[Frabjous]

While not a chaos book per se, Introduction to Dynamics by Percival and Richard is a nice introduction to dynamics. (yes, I am being tautological)