Introduction

Abstract

Although it is often referred to in the dynamics literature as a standard reference, the Fermi–Pasta–Ulam problem (FPU) has not been comprehensively documented anywhere in a way accessible to a nonspecialized audience. Thus it is virtually unknown outside of dynamics; yet the FPU problem marks a vital turning point in that field. In one of the very first computer simulations, performed in the early 1950s, a simple nonlinear string model exhibited behavior that completely baffled some very prominent scientists. In effect, the FPU problem revitalized the field of nonlinear dynamics, which had been dormant for nearly 50 years.