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Most everyday solid materials, from plastics to cosmetic gels, exist in a non-crystalline, amorphous form: they are glasses. Yet we are still seeking an explanation as to what glasses really are and to why they form. In this book, leading experts present broad and original perspectives on one of the deepest mysteries of condensed matter physics.

Electron tunnelling spectroscopy as a research tool has strongly advanced understanding of superconductivity. This book explains the physics and instrumentation behind the advances illustrated in beautiful images of atoms, rings of atoms and exotic states in high temperature superconductors, and summarizes the state of knowledge that has resulted.

Quantum theory and Einstein's theory of relativity are at the centre of modern theoretical physics, yet, the consistent unification of both theories is still elusive. This book offers an up-to-date introduction into the attempts to construct a unified theory of "quantum gravity".

This book is a comprehensive sourcebook, distilled from hundreds of recently published papers, about the Casimir effect: the small forces originating from the quantum vacuum and acting between closely spaced bodies. It brings together developments in experiment and theory, fundamental and applied aspects of the Casimir force.

The text presents a general overview of analogies between phenomena in condensed matter physics on one hand and quantum field theory and elementary particle physics on the other.

This book describes the theory of superconducting fluctuations, which connects two major topics in statistical physics - the theory of phase transitions and the theory of superconductivity. It presents a complete encyclopedia of superconducting fluctuations, summarising the last thirty-five years of work in the field.

This book throws some light on poorly understood aspects of the motion of magnetization in magnetic solids, particularly the effects of dissipative mechanisms. Aside from its practical aspects (such as magnetic recording), it addresses readers interested in the basic physics of nonlinear phenomena.

This book is a textbook for graduate students and researchers who are interested in ferromagnetism. The emphasis is primarily on explanation of physical concepts rather than on a rigorous theoretical treatment.

This new edition covers the main properties of nematics, cholesterics, and smectics and columnar phases, particularly the symmetry and the mechanical and optical characteristics of each phase. The latter includes some applications to display systems. The emphasis on order-of-magnitude considerations should make it useful to researchers.

Multipole theory provides a powerful way of characterizing the electromagnetic behaviour of a medium (both microscopic and macroscopic). This book describes multipole theory, and its successes and failures in applications to transmission, scattering and reflection. It also presents a modified multipole theory which avoids the failures of the standard approach.

Intended for graduate students and researchers who plan to use the muon spin rotation and relaxation techniques. A comprehensive discussion of the information extracted from measurements on magnetic and superconductor materials. The muonium centres as well as the muon and muonium diffusion in materials are discussed.

Einstein's theory of general relativity describes the gravitational field of a system of stars and predicts their paths by providing the 'equations of motion' of each star. Extracting these equations from his field equations is a highly technical procedure described in this book. Observable quantities can then be calculated to test the theory.

This book presents the advances made in Statistical Mechanics of the last 50 years, including mathematical theorems on order and phase transitions; numerical and series computations of phase diagrams; and solutions for important solvable models including Ising and 8 vertex.

The book explicates the concept of entropy, particularly its governance of all of thermal physics, over a broad range of equilibrium and nonequilibrium phenomena. Historical development and modern research are presented in the context of entropy as a fundamental element of probability theory and its relation to the notion of information.

Amorphous condensed matter can exhibit complex motions on time scales which extend up to those relevant for the functioning of biomaterials. The book presents the derivation of a microscopic theory for amorphous matter, which exhibits the evolution of such complex motions as a new paradigm of strongly interacting particle systems. e

With a primary focus on experiments, the authors include an extensive theoretical introduction to the field, as well as many exercises with solutions explained in detail.

The book discusses the principal theoretical methods and models used for strongly coupled plasmas in physics and astrophysics, engineering, and materials science. It includes experimental results of thermodynamical, transport, and optical properties, and modern methods of generation and diagnostics of strongly coupled plasmas.

This new book describes the basic physics of solar and infrared radiation in the atmosphere. Radiation theory is related to the development of climate prediction models, and to measurement techniques for monitoring the Earth's energy budget and making remote sensing observations from satellites.

The aim of this work is to present a unified account of a limited area of rare-earth magnetism, the magnetic structures and excitations which reflect the nature of the fundamental magnetic interactions and determine many of the characteristic properties of metals.

Contains modern concepts about the physics of electrons in solids. This book helps the reader choose an efficient scheme of an experiment, or the optimum algorithm of a calculation. It is useful to those who study or professionally deal with solid state physics.

Serves as a textbook for first-year graduate and advanced undergraduate students in both physics and engineering. This book explains the theoretical principles on which the work is based for practising engineers and experimental physicists who work in the field of magnetism.

Talking about liquid crystals, polymers, rubber, and elasticity, this book reviews experimental techniques and results, and describes theoretical ideas, illustrating them by solved examples and nearly 200 figures. It is aimed at physicists, chemists, material scientists, engineers and applied mathematicians at the graduate student level.

Presents an application of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics to the field of magnetism. This book contains the microscopic theory of many electron systems, which provide the physical understanding of magnetism. It shows how to solve the equations numerically and how to apply them to practical problems arising in mechanical engineering.

Provides an account of modern theoretical methods used to study the interaction of positive ions with atoms (or ions), concentrating particularly on charge exchange reactions. The material is presented at a level suitable for beginning research students, but assumes knowledge of undergraduate quantum mechanics and atomic physics.

The aim of this book is to give a pedagogical introduction to the helicity method and to summarize a decade of research on the subject. It also provides an extensive list of helicity amplitudes and cross-sections for many of the most important QED and QCD processes at high energies, some being new and not available in the literature previously.

CP violation is a subatomic process that occurs during the decay of kaons (a type of elementary particle). This book provides an introduction to CP violation, outlining the underlying theory and the experiments, which aim to expose the phenomenon. Starting at an elementary level, it guides the reader to the forefront of research.

The Principles of Nuclear Magnetism

This is a classic text of its time in condensed matter physics.

This text covers classical field theory, quantum mechanics and all major theoretical aspects of quantum field theory, and shows how they are related. Unlike any other book on the subject, fields are viewed as global entities in spacetime rather than as systems evolving from one instant of time to the next.

Provides information on fusion energy, burning hydrogen which is available from water. It is the energy source of the sun. It produces neither greenhouse gases leading to global warming nor nuclear waste. This book describes how to use powerful lasers to ignite the hydrogen fuel, and is aimed at those who want to understand its technical basis.