Topological Field Theory of Data: Mining Data Beyond Complex Networks

Preface: Modern science is witnessing a peak of intense activity toward the study of complex systems. This new topic is a very heterogeneous variety of ap- proaches, methods and perspectives that share the common attempt to un- derstand the collective behavior of a very large number of units correlated by simple competitive and cooperative interactions. These type of investi- gations have indeed appeared several times in the past. Recently tough, the availability of large databases and the advent of unprecedented computer facilities have created a fertile ground for the current boost. Moreover the progress made in the studies of non-homogenous, disordered systems of the last two decades has produced new promising approaches and technical tools for applied research topics. The analysis of such objects has led to a fruitful dialog involving mathematics and physics as founding and guiding disciplines, with an increasingly growing contribution of specic problems from the socio- economical, biological and other sciences. The present book is a collection of selected contributions by leading world experts toward the process of build- ing up a rigorous conceptual framework within these new ideas that have irrigated the exact sciences, revealing a host of new questions, strategies and solutions. The volume opens with the contribution by Mario Rasetti and Emanuela Merelli that focuses on a a new approach to Data Science that challenges the traditional ones. ...