Fifty years of entropy in dynamics: 1958 -- 2007 (Q2474578)

In these notes the author discusses the principal developments related to the notion of entropy in various areas of dynamics. A brief historical account (starting in 19th century with Clausius) is combined with explanations of certain concepts and ideas. Technical details are reduced to a minimum. All the main definitions are given but the reader should be familiar with most of the concepts which appear in the notes. Motivations and implications, rather than (even sketches of) proofs, are stressed. This is an interesting reading because of the author's deep insight into the topic as well as because of many interesting historical remarks (some of them apparently unpublished before). Besides main concepts, ideas and results concerning the entropy also several open problems are recalled. Some photos are also included. The titles of sections (which are mostly divided into subsections) describe the contents well. They are: Preface, Introduction: Kolmogorov's contribution to dynamics: 1953--1959, 1. Early history of entropy, 2. Isomorphism problem: From Kolmogorov's work through the seventies, 3. Topological entropy, variational principle, symbolic dynamics: 1963--1975, 4. Entropy and nonuniform hyperbolicity: 1975--2002, 5. Entropy as a source of rigidity: 1982--1995, 6. Rigidity of positive entropy measures for higher-rank Abelian actions: 1990--2006, 7. Epilogue: Some (mostly old) open problems.