by Yurij Baryshev (St Petersburg University, Russia) , Pekka Teerikorpi (University of Turku, Finland) , & foreword by Benoit Mandelbrot

Table of Contents (277k)
Preface (130k)
Chapter 4: The dream of a hierarchical world: protofactals (856k)
Chapter 13: Cosmic hierarchies: from dream to science (948k)
Chapter 17: Fractal structure of the galaxy universe (2,030k)

This is the first book to present the fascinating new results on the largest fractal structures in the universe. It guides the reader, in a simple way, to the frontiers of astronomy, explaining how fractals appear in cosmic physics, from our solar system to the megafractals in deep space. It also offers a personal view of the history of the idea of self-similarity and of cosmological principles, from Plato's ideal architecture of the heavens to Mandelbrot's fractals in the modern physical cosmos. In addition, this invaluable book presents the great fractal debate in astronomy (after Luciano Pietronero's first fractal analysis of the galaxy universe), which illustrates how new concepts and deeper observations reveal unexpected aspects of Nature.

• The Science of Cosmic Order:
  • The Birth of Cosmological Principles
  • The Gate into Cosmic Order
  • The Paradoxal Universe of Sir Isaac
  • The Dream of Hierarchical World: Protofractals
• Cosmological Physics for the Realm of Galaxies:
  • The New World of Relativity and Quantum Forces
  • Gravity — The Enigmatic Creator of Order
  • The Law of Redshift in the Kingdom of Galaxies
  • The Triumph of Uniformity in Cosmology
• The Elusive Simplicity of Uniform Space and Matter:
  • The Mysterious Singularity
  • Dark Matter — The Grey Eminence
  • Dark Energy — The New Emperor
  • Expansion and Curvature of Space
• The Fractal Architecture of the Universe:
  • Cosmic Hierarchies — From Dream to Science
  • The Charm of Self-Similarity
  • Fractals and Chaos: Planets, Stardust, Dark Haloes
  • The Redshift — Quiet Cosmographer
  • Fractal Structure of the Galaxy Universe
  • The Origins of Megafractals