Preface
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
R. Kipling
This book is a revised and more comprehensive re-edition of my book Dynamics of
Stochastic Systems, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2005.
Writing this book, I sourced from the series of lectures that I gave to scientific
associates at the Institute of Calculus Mathematics, Russian Academy of Sciences. In
the book, I use the functional approach to uniformly formulate general methods of
statistical description and analysis of dynamic systems. These are described in terms
of different types of equations with fluctuating parameters, such as ordinary differen-
tial equations, partial differential equations, boundary-value problems, and integral
equations. Asymptotic methods of analyzing stochastic dynamic systems – the delta-
correlated random process (field) approximation and the diffusion approximation – are
also considered. General ideas are illustrated using examples of coherent phenomena
in stochastic dynamic systems, such as clustering of particles and passive tracer in ran-
dom velocity field, dynamic localization of plane waves in randomly layered media
and caustic structure of wavefield in random media.
Working at this edition, I tried to take into account opinions and wishes of readers
about both the style of the text and the choice of specific problems. Various mistakes
and misprints have been corrected.
The book is aimed at scientists dealing with stochastic dynamic systems in differ-
ent areas, such as acoustics, hydrodynamics, magnetohydrodynamics, radiophysics,
theoretical and mathematical physics, and applied mathematics; it may also be useful
for senior and postgraduate students.
The book consists of three parts.
The first part is, in essence, an introductory text. It raises a few typical physical
problems to discuss their solutions obtained under random perturbations of parameters
affecting system behavior. More detailed formulations of these problems and relevant
statistical analysis can be found in other parts of the book.
The second part is devoted to the general theory of statistical analysis of dynamic
systems with fluctuating parameters described by differential and integral equations.
This theory is illustrated by analyzing specific dynamic systems. In addition, this part