eprintid: 14386 rev_number: 9 eprint_status: archive userid: 5 dir: disk0/00/01/43/86 datestamp: 2017-02-20 08:36:38 lastmod: 2021-08-27 17:41:49 status_changed: 2017-02-20 08:36:38 type: article metadata_visibility: show item_issues_count: 1 creators_name: Holovatch, Y. creators_name: Kenna, R. creators_name: Thurner, S. creators_id: 1918 title: Complex systems: physics beyond physics ispublished: pub divisions: prog_asa abstract: Complex systems are characterised by specific time-dependent interactions among their many constituents. As a consequence they often manifest rich, non-trivial and unexpected behaviour. Examples arise both in the physical and non-physical worlds. The study of complex systems forms a new interdisciplinary research area that cuts across physics, biology, ecology, economics, sociology, and the humanities. In this paper we review the essence of complex systems from a physicists' point of view, and try to clarify what makes them conceptually different from systems that are traditionally studied in physics. Our goal is to demonstrate how the dynamics of such systems may be conceptualised in quantitative and predictive terms by extending notions from statistical physics and how they can often be captured in a framework of co-evolving multiplex network structures. We mention three areas of complex-systems science that are currently studied extensively, the science of cities, dynamics of societies, and the representation of texts as evolutionary objects. We discuss why these areas form complex systems in the above sense. We argue that there exists plenty of new ground for physicists to explore and that methodical and conceptual progress is needed most. date: 2017-02-15 date_type: published publisher: IOP Publishing id_number: 10.1088/1361-6404/aa5a87 creators_browse_id: 307 full_text_status: none publication: European Journal of Physics volume: 38 number: 2 pagerange: 023002 refereed: TRUE issn: 0143-0807 coversheets_dirty: FALSE fp7_project: no fp7_type: info:eu-repo/semantics/article citation: Holovatch, Y., Kenna, R., & Thurner, S. (2017). Complex systems: physics beyond physics. European Journal of Physics 38 (2) 023002. 10.1088/1361-6404/aa5a87 .