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DUTCH INSTITUTE FOR

EMERGENT PHENOMENA

cluster @ University of Amsterdam

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Emergence is usually associated with the appearance of novel and unexpected behavior at larger length scales than those characterizing the “microscopic/fundamental” systems under scrutiny. Standard examples include the collective behavior of a large number of building blocks (particles like electrons, molecules, people, etc.) or special limiting behavior such as critical points (traffic jams, epidemics, economic collapse, phase transitions etc.).  Emergence is ubiquitous through science and acts as a mediator between different scientific disciplines, linking for instance physics and chemistry, chemistry and biology or mathematics and social behavior. The science of emergence consists of understanding such connections and is usually demarcated by universal principles that hold for large classes of collective behavior such as symmetry-breaking patterns, self-organization, (quantum) phase transitions and (quantum) critical behavior. Similar phenomena also appear in applications to new quantum & programmable materials, big data, cognition, and urban issues. Emergence leads to fundamental, mathematical and philosophical questions, such as how to bridge from one scale to the next.

DIEP@UvA | history and goals

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The DIEP cluster at the University of Amsterdam is the Amsterdam based subsidiary of DIEP created in January 2020. It is currently funded by the faculty of science and is a joint effort of the Institute of Physics (IoP), the Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics (KdVI), the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC), the Informatics Institute (IvI), the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS) and the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). Its goal is to create an interdisciplinary research programme among these different institutes that covers subjects such information theory, topological phases of matter, multiscale modelling, networks, complex systems, emergence of causality, non-equilibrium systems, collective intelligence, among many others.

DIEP@UvA | board

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The DIEP@UvA board is composed of a representation from each of the 6 institutes [Institute of Physics (IoP), the Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics (KdVI), the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC), the Informatics Institute (IvI), the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS) and the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS)], a coordinator and a board member of DIEP. 

Jan de Boer

Quantum gravity, string theory | IoP | DIEP board member

Computational chemistry |HIMS 

Quantum matter|IoP

Multiscale dynamical systems | KdVI

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Logic, information theory, game theory | ILLC

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Complex systems, network theory | IvI & IAS

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Complex systems, network theory | IvI & IAS

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String theory, coordination

and communication | IoP

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