2023/11/23 by Adam Rupe, James P. Crutchfield, Rupe, Adam T. +1
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph) #Chaotic Dynamics (nlin.CD) #Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Gene Regulatory Network Analysis #Machine Learning (cs.LG) #Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2311.13749
openalex publication_date 2023/11/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
After more than a century of concerted effort, physics still lacks basic principles of spontaneous self-organization. To appreciate why, we first state the problem, outline historical approaches, and survey the present state of the physics of self-organization. This frames the particular challenges arising from mathematical intractability and the resulting need for computational approaches, as well as those arising from a chronic failure to define structure. Then, an overview of two modern mathematical formulations of organization -- intrinsic computation and evolution operators -- lays out a way to overcome these challenges. Together, the vantage point they afford shows how to account for the emergence of structured states via a statistical mechanics of systems arbitrarily far from equilibrium. The result is a constructive path forward to principles of organization that builds on mathematical identification of structure.