Fractal Dimensions

Current interest in fractal dimensions of networks is the result of more than a century of previous research on dimensions. Fractal Dimensions of Networks ties the theory and methods for computing fractal dimensions of networks to the “classic” theory of dimensions of geometric objects. The goal of the book is to provide a unified treatment of fractal dimensions of sets and networks. Since almost all of the major concepts in fractal dimensions originated in the study of sets, the book achieves this goal by first clearly presenting, with an abundance of examples and illustrations, the theory and algorithms for sets, and then showing how the theory and algorithms have been applied to networks. Thus, the book presents the classical theory and algorithms for the box counting dimension for sets, and then presents the box counting dimension for networks. All the major fractal dimensions are studied, e.g., the correlation dimension, the information dimension, the Hausdorff dimension, the multifractal spectrum, as well as many lesser known dimensions. Algorithm descriptions are accompanied by worked examples, many applications of the methods are presented, and many exercises, ranging in difficulty from easy to research level, are included.

Fractal geometry is revolutionizing the descriptive mathematics of applied materials systems. Rather than presenting a mathematical treatise, Brian Kaye demonstrates the power of fractal geometry in describing materials ranging from Swiss cheese to pyrolytic graphite. Written from a practical point of view, the author assiduously avoids the use of equations while introducing the reader to numerous interesting and challenging problems in subject areas ranging from geography to fine particle science. The second edition of this successful book provides up-to-date literature coverage of the use of fractal geometry in all areas of science. From reviews of the first edition: "...no stone is left unturned in the quest for applications of fractal geometry to fine particle problems....This book should provide hours of enjoyable reading to those wishing to become acquainted with the ideas of fractal geometry as applied to practical materials problems." MRS Bulletin

Fractal analysis is a method for measuring, analysing and comparing the formal or geometric properties of complex objects. In this book it is used to investigate eighty-five buildings that have been designed by some of the twentieth-century’s most respected and celebrated architects. Including designs by Le Corbusier, Eileen Gray, Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Venturi, Frank Gehry, Peter Eisenman, Richard Meier and Kazuyo Sejima amongst others, this book uses mathematics to analyse arguments and theories about some of the world’s most famous designs. Starting with 625 reconstructed architectural plans and elevations, and including more than 200 specially prepared views of famous buildings, this book presents the results of the largest mathematical study ever undertaken into architectural design and the largest single application of fractal analysis presented in any field. The data derived from this study is used to test three overarching hypotheses about social, stylistic and personal trends in design, along with five celebrated arguments about twentieth-century architecture. Through this process the book offers a unique mathematical insight into the history and theory of design.

This book provides a generalised approach to fractal dimension theory from the standpoint of asymmetric topology by employing the concept of a fractal structure. The fractal dimension is the main invariant of a fractal set, and provides useful information regarding the irregularities it presents when examined at a suitable level of detail. New theoretical models for calculating the fractal dimension of any subset with respect to a fractal structure are posed to generalise both the Hausdorff and box-counting dimensions. Some specific results for self-similar sets are also proved. Unlike classical fractal dimensions, these new models can be used with empirical applications of fractal dimension including non-Euclidean contexts. In addition, the book applies these fractal dimensions to explore long-memory in financial markets. In particular, novel results linking both fractal dimension and the Hurst exponent are provided. As such, the book provides a number of algorithms for properly calculating the self-similarity exponent of a wide range of processes, including (fractional) Brownian motion and Lévy stable processes. The algorithms also make it possible to analyse long-memory in real stocks and international indexes. This book is addressed to those researchers interested in fractal geometry, self-similarity patterns, and computational applications involving fractal dimension and Hurst exponent.

Written for mathematicians, engineers, and researchers in experimental science, as well as anyone interested in fractals, this book explains the geometrical and analytical properties of trajectories, aggregate contours, geographical coastlines, profiles of rough surfaces, and other curves of finite and fractal length. The approach is by way of precise definitions from which properties are deduced and applications and computational methods are derived. Written without the traditional heavy symbolism of mathematics texts, this book requires two years of calculus while also containing material appropriate for graduate coursework in curve analysis and/or fractal dimension.

Number theory, spectral geometry, and fractal geometry are interlinked in this in-depth study of the vibrations of fractal strings, that is, one-dimensional drums with fractal boundary. Throughout Geometry, Complex Dimensions and Zeta Functions, Second Edition, new results are examined and a new definition of fractality as the presence of nonreal complex dimensions with positive real parts is presented. The new final chapter discusses several new topics and results obtained since the publication of the first edition.

The first thorough treatment of the Assouad dimension in fractal geometry, with applications to many fields within pure mathematics.

From the reviews: "In the world of mathematics, the 1980's might well be described as the "decade of the fractal". Starting with Benoit Mandelbrot's remarkable text The Fractal Geometry of Nature, there has been a deluge of books, articles and television programmes about the beautiful mathematical objects, drawn by computers using recursive or iterative algorithms, which Mandelbrot christened fractals. Gerald Edgar's book is a significant addition to this deluge. Based on a course given to talented high- school students at Ohio University in 1988, it is, in fact, an advanced undergraduate textbook about the mathematics of fractal geometry, treating such topics as metric spaces, measure theory, dimension theory, and even some algebraic topology. However, the book also contains many good illustrations of fractals (including 16 color plates), together with Logo programs which were used to generate them. ... Here then, at last, is an answer to the question on the lips of so many: 'What exactly is a fractal?' I do not expect many of this book's readers to achieve a mature understanding of this answer to the question, but anyone interested in finding out about the mathematics of fractal geometry could not choose a better place to start looking." #Mathematics Teaching#1

Galileo Unbound traces the journey that brought us from Galileo's law of free fall to today's geneticists measuring evolutionary drift, entangled quantum particles moving among many worlds, and our lives as trajectories traversing a health space with thousands of dimensions. Remarkably, common themes persist that predict the evolution of species as readily as the orbits of planets or the collapse of stars into black holes. This book tells the history of spaces of expanding dimension and increasing abstraction and how they continue today to give new insight into the physics of complex systems. Galileo published the first modern law of motion, the Law of Fall, that was ideal and simple, laying the foundation upon which Newton built the first theory of dynamics. Early in the twentieth century, geometry became the cause of motion rather than the result when Einstein envisioned the fabric of space-time warped by mass and energy, forcing light rays to bend past the Sun. Possibly more radical was Feynman's dilemma of quantum particles taking all paths at once — setting the stage for the modern fields of quantum field theory and quantum computing. Yet as concepts of motion have evolved, one thing has remained constant, the need to track ever more complex changes and to capture their essence, to find patterns in the chaos as we try to predict and control our world.

Many different fractal dimensions have been proposed for networks. In A Survey of Fractal Dimensions of Networks the theory and computation of the most important of these dimensions are reviewed, including the box counting dimension, the correlation dimension, the mass dimension, the transfinite fractal dimension, the information dimension, the generalized dimensions (which provide a way to describe multifractals), and the sandbox method (for approximating the generalized dimensions). The book describes the use of diameter-based and radius-based boxes, and presents several heuristic methods for box counting, including greedy coloring, random sequential node burning, and a method for computing a lower bound. We also discuss very recent results on resolving ambiguity in the calculation of the information dimension and the generalized dimensions, and on the non-monotonicity of the generalized dimensions. Anyone interested in the theory and application of networks will want to read this Brief. This includes anyone studying, e.g., social networks, telecommunications networks, transportation networks, ecological networks, food chain networks, network models of the brain, or financial networks.