Complexity in Physics and Physical Education: Presentation of the Special Edition

This article describes the 18 articles and a supplementary text of the RBEF Special Edition on Complexity in Physics and Physics Teaching. They are comprehensive texts that, in some way, contemplate different views of researchers of the science of complexity. A few ones fit into the traditional physics of complex systems and others that extrapolate the area of Physics, although physicists are working on these topics, and they are studied in several and different fields of knowledge. Included in this Edition are studies of complicated, intricate subjects, which, although not classified as part of the science of complexity, demand new theoretical approaches and challenging experimental methods. This article presents a brief discussion of the concept of emergency as opposed to that of reductionism, quantum chaos, complexity in Astrophysics, studies of the mind, non-extensive statistical physics, epidemiological models, cell migration, complex materials, turbulent flows, computational modeling, neuroeducation, and the complexity and challenges in Physics Education.

Keywords
Complex systems; science of complexity; physics teaching