This book contains the lectures and a selection of the seminars gi ven
in the Fifth International Workshop on Instabilities and Nonequilibrium
Structures which took place in Santiago, Chile, in December 1993. The
Workshop was organized by Facultad de Ciencias Fisicas y Matematicas,
Universidad de Chile, Instituto de Fisica of Universidad Cat6lica de
Valparaiso and Centro de Fisica No Lineal y Sistemas Complejos de
Santiago. This volume is the first of a new series of Kluwer on
Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems which will be edited by the
Centro de Fisica No Lineal y Sistemas Complejos de Santiago. We thank
Dr. David Lamer of Kluwer for his encouragements and support for this
project. ix LIST OF SPONSORS OF THE WORKSHOP Academia Chilena de
Ciencias Facultad de Ciencias Fisicas y Mathematicas de la Univ. de
Chile Instituto de Fisica de la Univ. Cat6lica de Valparaiso Centro de
FIsica No Lineal y Sistemas Complejos de Santiago (CFNL) CONICYT (Chile)
Ministere Francais des Affaires Etrangeres International Centre for
Theoretical Physics (Trieste) UNESCO Fundaci6n Andes (Chile)
Departamento Tecnico de Investigaci6n y de Relaciones Internationa cion
ales de la Universidad de Chile IDIEM (Fac. Cs. FIs. y Mat., Univ. de
Chile) CHILGENER S.A."