Physics Today reviews a recent book by SFI Science Board member Daniel Stein and co-author Charles Newman, Spin Glasses and Complexity (January 2013), an accessible introduction to spin glasses, why they are important, and how they are opening up new ways of thinking about complexity.
The book is the latest in the “Primers in Complex Systems” series, a collaboration between SFI and Princeton University Press.
Spin glasses are disordered magnetic systems that have led to the development of mathematical tools with an array of real-world applications, from airline scheduling to neural networks.
The book explores how spin-glass concepts have found applications in areas as diverse as computational complexity, neural networks, protein folding, immune response, and social network modeling.
Read the book review in Physics Today (January 14, 2014)
More about Spin Glasses and Complexity