Relaxation Processes and Coherent Dissipative Structures

A dissipative system is a system in which energy is dissipated. In the present Chapter our major concern will be focused around this concept. Although we will describe and emphasize concrete applications we will also occupy ourselves with a general view of the fundamental dilemma usually phrased as “why and how does there exist a unique privileged direction of time” and further the immediate consequences for scenarios related to the question of reductionism versus holism. In this context it is also appropriate to discuss the hierarchical character of subdynamics, timescales, entanglement in quantum mechanics, EPR correlations, nonlinear dynamics in non-equilibrium situations, reduced density matrices of complex systems etc.