Project 2. Complex systems topology and dynamics: Applications to mobility, intelligent cities and living systems
It is recognized today that the existence of emergent behaviours in real complex systems, such as self-organization, criticality, and scale invariance, is often associated with the intrinsic relationship between the topology and the dynamics of the problem. In order to clarify this relationship and to understand its consequences, the present research project consists of the modeling and simulation of dynamic processes and transport phenomena in complex systems using techniques from Statistical Physics, Computational Physics and Computer Science. The research to be carried out falls within research lines that constitute the frontier of knowledge in the area of Complex Systems today, with emphasis on Theoretical and Computational Physics. Of course, the increase in the amount of scientific information must go hand in hand with the development of systemic analysis tools that can clarify the origin of the mechanisms that regulate the global properties of complex systems, whether on a microscopic or macroscopic scale. The research approach we intend to carry out is applied to different scientific-technological areas, from the planning and development of intelligent cities to the study of dynamical processes in complex networks, finance and neuroscience. Dynamical processes involving many interacting agents, relating through a network, represent complex systems, where only a detailed description of the topology of the associated networks, the elementary units that constitute them, and the existing microscopic interactions can elucidate the various and intricate nuances of observed global behaviours. In this way, modelling and simulation of complex systems that use detailed mathematical models as well as modern computational techniques to obtain their numerical solutions, represent nowadays crucial activities in several branches of knowledge, with applications in Biology, Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics and Sociology. The search for a natural environment for high level and multidisciplinary scientific research in complex systems certainly points to the activities of theoretical groups of Statistical Physics, Computational Physics and Computer Science. It is in this context that the proponent members of the present project develop research activities on the mathematical modelling and simulation of complex systems.
