BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

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ORDER PARAMETER 1)2)

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"Global, macrolevel parameter which describes the structures established in a system" (R. FIVAZ, 1991, p.32).

The order parameter was introduced in the 1940s by the Russian physicist Lev LANDAU.

According to K.DE GREENE's interpretation of H. HAKEN: "The order parameter represents the macroscopic structure or field emergent out of interactions at the more microscopic level. The correlation length… is an order parameter. In phase transitions order parameters can increase discontinuously from zero (first-order transition) in the new phase, or they can increase continuously (second-order transition). The emergence of order is an example of symmetry breaking… an important concept in field theories…

"The order parameter is a macroscopic collective field, emergent at critical points out of myriad interactions at the microlevel. (It) expresses stochastic generation of the new (structural change) and deterministic maintenance of the now established (structural constancy). The emergence of the order parameter represents a great loss of degrees of freedom at the microlevel… (which) now becomes slaved to the order parameter" (1994, p.14).

→ Phase locking

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

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Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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