New Directions in Statistical Physics: Econophysics, Bioinformatics, and Pattern Recognition

New Directions in Statistical Physics provides a unique insight into the application of statistical physics to finance, biology and pattern recognition. This exciting field is becoming of increasing importance and has been applied in a range of fields, including thermodynamics, magnetic phase transitions, and order/disorder transformations, to name just a few. However, the tools of statistical physics can be profitably used to investigate any system with a large number of components. This book covers the latest breakthroughs in a consistent manner, at a level accessible to undergraduates, yet with enough attention to the theory and computation to satisfy the professional researcher.