This book is a collection of part of the written versions of the Physics Courses given at the Winter School "Order, Chance and Risk: Aperiodic Phenomena from Solid State to Finance" held at the Les Houches Center for Physics, between February 23 and March 6, 1998. The School gathered lecturers and participants from all over the world. On a thematic level, the content of the school can be viewed both as a continuation (aperiodic phenomena in solid state physics) and an extension (mathematical aspects of fmance and economy) of the previous "Beyond Quasicrystals," also held at Les Houches, March...

This book is the collection of most of the written versions of the Courses given at the Winter School "Beyond Quasicrystals" in Les Houches (March 7-18, 1994). The School gathered lecturers and participants from all over the world and was prepared in the spirit of a general effort to promote theoretical and experimental interdisciplinary communication between mathematicians, theoretical and experimental physicists on the topic of the nature of geometric order in solids beyond standard periodicity and quasi periodicity. The overall structure of the book reflects the wish of the editors to pose...