IN SEARCH OF CONSISTENCY IN AN ASYMMETRIC WORLD.

While nature loves symmetry inasmuch as many natural laws remain invariant under various transformations, description of the natural diversity warrants some kind of breakdown of symmetry. Such a breakdown of symmetry may be either explicit or spontaneous. Many significant developments have taken place in recent times in diverse fields of study. Algorithmic information theory has been formulated by Kolmogorov and others. Spontaneous breakdown of symmetry and its use in the standard model of particle physics, discovery of the Higgs Boson are all notable events. Work of Ilya Prigogine to accommodate biological self-organisation within the ambit of the second law of thermodynamics is also quite noteworthy. According to some, his principle of minimum entropy production has added a dynamic content to the second law of thermodynamics, which otherwise is viewed as a mere kinematic constraint. It appears that non-linear dynamics and the catastrophe theory of Rene Thom can play an important role to understand a sudden qualitative change of a dynamical system triggered by certain value of a parameter. Phase change of water subjected to external heating or change from a stable economy to one marked by trade cycles are examples of such sudden transitions. Advent of econophysics and behavioural finance has facilitated a new way of looking logically at the problems of finance and economics with the help of established physical laws as well as rigorous mathematical and statistical analyses. Importance of such an approach is evident from the sad plight of Louis Bachelier. In this article, it has been our effort to link up such apparently disjoint developments from diverse fields of study within the ambit of a single logically consistent framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]