About Us

The Lancaster Nonlinear Group grew out of Peter McClintock's investigations of the breakdown of superfluidity in liquid helium. Discussions with Frank Moss, and a joint research project, led quickly to observation of a noise induced phase transition and to experimental resolution of the Ito/Stratonovich degeneracy, and the group developed from there. We were soon joined by Riccardo Mannella, Nigel Stocks, Norman Stein, Dmitri Luchinsky and by a galaxy of distinguished international visitors including especially Mark Dykman. More recently, through close links with Aneta Stefanovska and her group in Ljubljana, we have extended our interests to encompass the nonlinear dynamics of the cardiovascular system (see People, Collaborators).

The Group helped to pioneer an experimental approach to what had been an almost exclusively theoretical activity, leading to new insights and deeper understanding. For futher details see Main Results.

The Group is dedicated to exploring and seeking to understand the properties of stochastic and nonlinear dynamical systems at a fundamental level. The underlying motivation is to find ways of predicting and controlling the dynamics of complex systems - including for example applications to lasers, the cardiovascular system, ion channels in biological membranes, and molecular motors.

The group's work involves

• Extensive international and interdisciplinary Collaboration, involving mathematicians, engineers, physiologists and clinicians, as well as physicists.
• High impact publications, helping to move the subject area forward.
• Conferences organisation, the most recent of which was held in Ljubljana.
• Dissemination of research results to a wider public through e.g. articles in New Scientist, Contemporary Physics and Physics World, and an invited address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
• Funding by a variety of bodies, to whom we are very grateful.

Contact information:

Postal address	Department of Physics  Lancaster University Lancaster LA1 4YB
Tel	+44-(0)(1524)-593073
Fax	+44-(0)(1524)-844037
Contact Persons	Peter McClintock, Dmitri Luchinsky