ARC Complex Open Systems Research Network

Prof Brian Kenny

 

Adjunct Professor, Department of Mathematics, UWA Address: School of Mathematics and Statistics The University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Hwy Crawley WA 6009 Fax: + 61 8 6488 1028 Email: kenny@maths.uwa.edu.au Research Node: Western Australia

 

Role in Network

Academic - Researcher

COSNet Research Themes

1. Irreversibility and Emergence in Nonequilibrium Systems
3. Dynamics and Statistics of Multi-Scale Systems

COSNet Application Areas

3. Complex Computational Systems

 

Research Topics

* Self organized criticality (SOC), scaling, 1/f noise,
* Critical phenomena, scaling as a function of spin and dimension,
* Study of quasiperiodic phenomena, scaling in one dimensional models,
* Multifractals, scaling, chaotic dynamics on strange sets.
 

Publications

1. (with R Artuso and P Cvitanovic) Phase Transitions on Strange Irrational Sets, Phys Rev 39A, 268 (1989).
2. (with R Delbourgo) Fractal Dimension Associated with a Critical Circle Map with an Arbitrary Order Inflection Point, Phys Rev 42A, 6230 (1991).
3. (with R Delbourgo) Relations between Scaling Constants for Circle Maps near the Golden Mean, J Math Phys, 32 1045, (1991).
4. (with M Young) Are Giant Pulses Evidence of Self-Organized Criticality? in S. Johnston, M A Walker and M Bailes, (Eds): IAU Colloquium 160- Pulsars: Problems & Progress Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, 105:179-180 (1996).
5. (with R Burman and M Young) Pulsars and Chaos, Australian J Astronomy, 6, 121–149 (1997).
6. (with TW Dixon and T Gherghetta) Universality in the Quasiperiodic Route to Chaos, Chaos 6, 32-42 (1996).
7. (with T W Dixon and K M Briggs) On the Universality of Singular Circle Maps, Phys Lett, 231A, 359-366 (1997).
8. (with T W Dixon) Transition to Criticality in Circle Maps at the Golden Mean, J Math Phys, 39, 5952 – 5963 (1998).
9. (with T W Dixon) Universality in the QuasiPeriodic Route to Chaos, in Chaos and Nonlinear Dynamics, Ed by RC Hilborn & NB Tufillaro, (American Association of Physics Teachers, 1999), pp 90-100.
10. (with R Delbourgo) Morphology of the Universal Function for the Critical Circle Map, Aust M S Gazette, 30, 11-17 (2003).
11. (with R.L. Dewar et al), Quantum chaos? Genericity and nongenericity in the MHD spectrum of nonaxisymmetric toroidal plasmas, accepted for publication in J. Korean Phys. Soc. (2007), E-print arXiv:physics/0608304  

Professional or Public Outreach Activities

* Committee Member, ACT Branch of the Australian Institute of Physics (2006).
* Member of Organizing Committee for 19th Canberra International Summer School on Turbulence and Coherent Structures in Fluids, Plasmas and Granular Flows held at the ANU in Jan 2006.  

Grants

Year Short Title Funding
1983-1986 ARGS Postdoctoral Research Associate
1986-1988 UWA University Research Fellowship; jointly with mathematics
1989-1992 ARC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
1992-1994 Rothman’s Award for Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
1994-1997 ARC Postdoctoral Research Associate

Net Funding prior to 2003: $800k  

Membership/Fellowship of Key Organisations

Member: American Physical Society (1964)
Fellow: Australian Institute of Physics (1973)
Member: Australian Mathematical Society (1989)
 

Awards and Distinctions

Fellow, Australian Institute of Physics