Geōrgios Iōannu Kontopulos Books

Numerous books on Dynamical Astronomy exist, focusing on Celestial Mechanics, Stellar Dynamics, and Galactic Dynamics. Early works on stellar dynamics primarily addressed the statistics of stellar motions, such as Smart's "Stellar Dynamics" (1938) and Trumpler and Weaver's "Statistical Astronomy" (1953). Chandrasekhar's "Principles of Stellar Dynamics" (1942) is a significant contribution, emphasizing relaxation times, Liouville's equation, and cluster dynamics. The 1960 Dover edition included a modern Appendix on the statistical mechanics of stellar systems. For classroom use, Mihalas and Routly's "Galactic Astronomy" (1969) served as a key resource. The most comprehensive work in the field is Binney and Tremaine's "Galactic Dynamics" (1987), which covers classical stellar dynamics and contemporary topics. Another notable reference is Hagihara's extensive 4-volume treatise "Celestial Mechanics" (1970-1975). Recently, advancements in the theory of chaos have emerged as a vital area of interest, significantly impacting stellar and galactic dynamics. The exploration of order and chaos has introduced a new dimension to the study of dynamics.

Galaxies and Chaos examines the application of tools developed for Nonlinear Dynamical Systems to Galactic Dynamics and Galaxy Formation, as well as to related issues in Celestial Mechanics. The contributions collected in this volume have emerged from selected presentations at a workshop on this topic and key chapters have been suitably expanded in order to be accessible to nonspecialist researchers and postgraduate students wishing to enter this exciting field of research.

The conference “Chaos in Astronomy” was held in Athens on 17-20 Sept. 2007. International leaders in the field addressed the topics - Chaos in large N-body systems and in galactic dynamics, - Chaos in solar system dynamics, - Statistical mechanics of systems with regular and chaotic orbits, - Chaos in the formation of large-scale structure in the Universe, - Fundamental concepts, methods and tools. The book contains carefully edited refereed contributions. It serves as a reference to researchers and will give an overview to students and newcomers entering any field of dynamical astronomy.