Arkady Pikovsky was part of the Max-Planck research group on nonlinear dynamics, before becoming a professor at the University of Potsdam, Germany. A member of the German and American Physical Societies, he is also part of the Editorial Board of Physical Reviews E for the term 2000-2002. Before this, he was a Humboldt fellow at University of Wuppertal. His PhD focusses on the theory of chaos and nonlinear dynamics, and was carried out at the Institute of Applied Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Arkady Pikovsky studied radiophysics and physics at Gorky State University, and started to work on chaos in 1976, describing an electronic device generating chaos in his Diploma thesis and later proving it experimentally.

Preface; 1. Introduction; Part I. Synchronization Without Formulae: 2. Basic notions: the self-sustained oscillator and its phase; 3. Synchronization of a periodic oscillator by external force; 4. Synchronization of two and many oscillators; 5. Synchronization of chaotic systems; 6. Detecting synchronization in experiments; Part II. Phase Locking and Frequency Entrainment: 7. Synchronization of periodic oscillators by periodic external action; 8. Mutual synchronization of two interacting periodic oscillators; 9. Synchronization in the presence of noise; 10. Phase synchronization of chaotic systems; 11. Synchronization in oscillatory media; 12. Populations of globally coupled oscillators; Part III. Synchronization of Chaotic Systems: 13. Complete synchronization I: basic concepts; 14. Complete synchronization II: generalizations and complex systems; 15. Synchronization of complex dynamics by external forces; Appendix 1. Discovery of synchronization by Christiaan Huygens; Appendix 2. Instantaneous phase and frequency of a signal; References; Index.

The book describes synchronization phenomena using both classical results and more recent developments.