Written in the spirit of Liboff's acclaimed text on Quantum Mechanics, this introduction to group theory offers an exceptionally clear presentation with a good sense of what to explain, which examples are most appropriate, and when to give a counter-example.

In this volume we have collected some of the contributions made to the Twelfth European Workshop on Quantum Systems in Chemistry and Physics (QSCP-XII) in 2007. The workshop was held at Royal Holloway College, the most westerly campusof the University of London, and situated just a stone's throw from Windsor Great Park. The workshop, which ran from 30 August to 5 September, continued the series that was established by Roy McWeeny in April 1996 with a meeting held at San Miniato, near Pisa. The purpose of the QSCP workshops is to bring together, in an informal atmosphere and with the aim of fostering collaboration, those chemists and physicists who share a common ?eld of interest in the theory of the quantum many-body problem. Quantum mechanics provides a theoretical foundation for our understandingof the structure, propertiesanddynamicsof atoms, moleculesandthe solid state, in terms of their component particles: electrons and nuclei. The study of 'Quantum Systems in Chemistry and Physics' therefore underpins many of the emerging?elds in twenty-?rstcenturyscience andtechnology: nanostructure, smart materials, drug design - to name but a few. Members of the workshop were keen to discuss their research and engage in collaboration centred upon the development of fundamental and innovative theory which would lead to the exploration of new concepts. The proceedings of all of the workshops, which have been held annually since 1996, have been published both to disseminate the latest developments within the wider community and to stimulate further collaboration.

This book deals with the formulation of the thermodynamics of chemical and other systems far from equilibrium. It contains applications to non-equilibrium stationary states and approaches to such states, systems with multiple stationary states, stability and equi-stability conditions, reaction diffusion systems, transport properties, and electrochemical systems. The theoretical treatment is complemented by experimental results to substantiate the formulation.

Given the enormous interest in surface phenomena in areas ranging from materials science to applications in life science, this volume is a very timely addition to the literature. Emphasis is on surfactants mediating interfacial and molecular aggregation phenomena, and the following topics are reviewed in particular: dissolution rates, equilibrium adsorption, mixing rules, and spreading on a solid surface of surfactants, as well as the role of surfactants in mediating a range of processes, such as the fabrication of various nanomaterials. Written and edited by leading experts, this volume is dedicated to Professor Dinesh O. Shah, one of the pioneers in this field.

Even as we enter the nanotechnology era, we are now encountering the 50th anniversary of the invention of the IC. Will silicon continue to be the pre-eminent material and will MooreTM s Law continue unabated, albeit in a broader economic venue, in the nanotechnology era? This monograph addresses these issues by a re-examination of the scientific and technological foundations of the micro-electronics era. By better assessing and understanding the past five decades of this era, it is proposed that a firmer foundation can be laid for the research that will ensue and possibly provide a glimpse of what is next to come in the nanotechnology era."

Astromineralogy deals with the science of gathering mineralogical information from the astronomical spectroscopy of asteroids, comets and dust in the circumstellar environments in general. This field has received a tremendous boost with the reliable identification of minerals by the Infrared Space Observatory. The first edition of this book, published in 2003, was the first comprehensive and coherent account of this exciting field. Data obtained in the meantime with the Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope, the stardust mission to the comet 81P / Wild 2, and with the Cassini mission, together with progress in ground-based observations and laboratory astrophysics form the basis for this updated and widely extended second edition.Beyond addressing the specialist in the field, the book is intended as a high-level but readable introduction to astromineralogy for both the nonspecialist researcher and the advanced student.

This book addresses Lab-on-a-Chip devices. It focuses on microfluidic technologies that have emerged in the past decade. Coverage presents a comprehensive listing of the most promising microfluidic technologies in the Lab-on-a-Chip field. It also details technologies that can be viewed as toolboxes needed to set up complex Lab-on-a-Chip systems.

Condensed-matter physics plays an ever increasing role in photonics, electronic and atomic collisions research. Dispersion (Dynamics and Relaxation) includes scattering/collisions in the gaseous phase. It also includes thermal agitation, tunneling and relaxation in the liquid and solid phases. Classical mechanics, classical statistical mechanics, classical relativity and quantum mechanics are all implicated. 'Semiclassical' essentially means that there is a large or asymptotic real parameter. 'Semiclassical' can also mean 'classical with first-order quantal correction', based on an exponentiated Liouville series commencing with a simple pole in the -plane, being Planck's reduced constant and coming with all the attendant connection problems associated with the singularity at the turning or transition point and with the Stokes phenomenon. Equally, ' semiclassical' can mean 'electrons described quantally and the heavy particles classically'. This latter gives rise to the so-called impact parameter method based on a pre-assigned classical trajectory.

With evermore sophisticated experiments, it has become equally more important to test theory over a wider range of parameters. For instance, at low impact energies in heavy-particle collisions, the inverse velocity is a large parameter; in single-domain ferromagnetism, thermal agitation (including Brownian motion and continuous-time random walks) is faced with a barrier of height 'sigma', a possibly large parameter. Methods of solution include phase-integral analysis, integral transforms and change-of-dependent variable. We shall consider the Schrodinger time-independent and time-dependent equations, the Dirac equation, the Fokker Planck equation, the Langevin equation and the equations of Einstein's classical general relativity equations.

There is an increasing tendency among physicists to decry applied mathematics and theoretical physics in favour of computational blackboxes. One may say applied mathematics concerns hard sums and products (and their inverses) but unless one can simplify and sum infinite series of products of infinite series, can one believe the results of a computer program? The era of the polymath has passed; this book proposal aims to show the relevance to, and impact of theory on, laboratory scientists."

Carbon-based materials and their applications constitute a burgeoning topic of scientific research among scientists and engineers drawn to the field from diverse areas such as applied physics, materials science, biology, mechanics, electronics and engineering. Further development of existing materials, advances in their applications, and discovery of new forms of carbon are the themes addressed by the frontier research in these fields. This book covers all the fundamental topics concerned with amorphous and crystalline C-based materials, such as diamond, diamond-like carbon, carbon alloys, and carbon nanotubes. The goal is, by coherently progressing from growth -- and characterization techniques to technological applications for each class of material -- to fashion the first comprehensive state-of-the-art review of this fast evolving field of research in carbon materials.

New manufacturing technologies have made possible the integration of entire systems on a single chip. This new design paradigm, termed system-on-chip (SOC), together with its associated manufacturing problems, represents a real challenge for designers.

SOC is also reshaping approaches to test and validation activities. These are beginning to migrate from the traditional register-transfer or gate levels of abstraction to the system level. Until now, test and validation have not been supported by system-level design tools so designers have lacked the infrastructure to exploit all the benefits stemming from the adoption of the system level of abstraction. Research efforts are already addressing this issue.

This monograph provides a state-of-the-art overview of the current validation and test techniques by covering all aspects of the subject including:

• modeling of bugs and defects;
• stimulus generation for validation and test purposes (including timing errors;
• design for testability.

Recent studies on two-dimensional systems have led to new insights into the fascinating interplay between physical properties and dimensionality. Many of these ideas have emerged from work on electrons bound to the surface of a weakly polarizable substrate such as liquid helium or solid hydrogen. The research on this subject continues to be at the forefront of modern condensed matter physics because of its fundamental simplicity as well as its connection to technologically useful devices. This book is the first comprehensive overview of experimental and theoretical research in this exciting field. It is intended to provide a coherent introduction for graduate students and non-experts, while at the same time serving as a reference source for active researchers in the field. The chapters are written by individuals who made significant contributions and cover a variety of specialized topics. These include the origin of the surface states, tunneling and magneto-tunneling out of these states, the phase diagram, collective excitations, transport and magneto-transport.

Quantum dots, sometimes called artificial atoms, are exquisite tools by which quantum behavior can be probed on a larger scale than the atomic, namely on the nanometer scale. While the physics exhibited by these devices is closer to classical than atomic physics, quantum dots are still sufficiently small to clearly exhibit quantum phenomena. This volume, intended for graduate students and young researchers, offers an introduction to many of these fascinating aspects. In the first lecture, R. Shankar treats the general theoretical aspects of Fermi liquids, in particular the renormalization group approach, and then applies this to large quantum dots. A completely different approach is encountered in the second contribution, by J.M. Elzerman et al., which thoroughly details current and likely experimental developments in the study of small quantum dots. Here the emphasis lies on the electron spin which is to be used as a qubit. In the third lecture series, by M. Pustilnik and Leonid I. Glazman, mechanisms of low-temperature electronic transport through a quantum dot -- weakly coupled to two conducting leads -- are reviewed. The fourth and final lecture series, by C.W.J. Beenakker, deals with a peculiar property of superconducting mirrors, a very interesting aspect of nanophysics discovered by Andreev about forty years ago and still a challenge to experimental physicists.

Research into the fascinating properties and applications of magnetic fluids - also called ferrofluids - is rapidly growing, making it necessary to provide, at regular intervals, a coherent and tutorial account of the combined theoretical and experimental advances in the field.

This volume is an outgrow of seven years of research by some 30 interdisciplinary groups of scientists: theoretical physicists describing the behaviour of such complex fluids, chemical engineers synthesizing nanosize magnetic particles, experimentalist measuring the fluid properties and mechanical engineers exploring the many applications such fluids offer, in turn providing application-guided feedback to the modellers and requests for the preparation of new fluid types to chemists, in particular those providing optimum response to given magnetic field configurations.

Moreover, recent developments towards biomedical applications widens this spectrum to include medicine and pharmacology.

Consisting of six large chapters on synthesis and characterization, thermo- and electrodynamics, surface instabilities, structure and rheology, biomedical applications as well as engineering and technical applications, this work is both a unique source of reference for anyone working in the field and a suitable introduction for newcomers to the field.

A comprehensive collection of overview articles on novel microscopy methods for imaging magnetic structures on the nanoscale. Written by leading scientists in the field, the book covers synchrotron based methods, spin-polarized electron methods, and scanning probe techniques. It constitutes a valuable source of reference for graduate students and newcomers to the field.

This lecture notes in physics volume mainly focuses on the semi classical and qu- tum aspects of percolation and breakdown in disordered, composite or granular s- tems. The main reason for this undertaking has been the fact that, of late, there have been a lot of (theoretical) work on quantum percolation, but there is not even a (single) published review on the topic (and, of course, no book). Also, there are many theoretical and experimental studies on the nonlinear current-voltage characteristics both away from, as well as one approaches, an electrical breakdown in composite materials. Some of the results are quite intriguing and may broadly be explained utilising a semi classical (if not, fully quantum mechanical) tunnelling between - cron or nano-sized metallic islands dispersed separated by thin insulating layers, or in other words, between the dangling ends of small percolation clusters. There have also been several (theoretical) studies of Zener breakdown in Mott or Anderson in- lators. Again, there is no review available, connecting them in any coherent fashion. A compendium volume connecting these experimental and theoretical studies should be unique and very timely, and hence this volume. The book is organised as follows. For completeness, we have started with a short and concise introduction on classical percolation. In the ?rst chapter, D. Stauffer reviews the scaling theory of classical percolation emphasizing (biased) diffusion, without any quantum effects. The next chapter by A. K.

From the viewpoint of structural chemistry, structure and bonding lie at the heart of rational syntheses that have already contributed to many signi?cant scienti?c advances in inorganic chemistry and material chemistry, and especially to the discovery of some functional materials. Naturally the ?rst step to novel functional material is "synthesis," and in many cases exploratory synthesis seems to be the onlyworkableroutetonewcompound.However, rationalsynthesiswillsurelymake property-oriented exploration more fruitful and pleasing. Successundertheguidanceofelectronicstructuralfeatures, bondinginteractions, chemical reactivity of building units, etc. has been achieved in many systems. We have presented some signi?cant advances on ?ve topics via review-type chapters that were written by ?ve of the leading authorities in their ?elds. These chapters c- cern chemical approach to new quasicrystals, discovery of complicated compounds of pnicogen, the tuning of redox levels and oligomerization of triruthenium-acetate clusters, structural modi?cation of monomeric phthalocyanines, and the controlled assembly of amino lanthanide metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Thisvolumehasshownthatthecontrolledassemblyandmodi?cationofinorganic systems are accessible and efforts along the way will contribute greatly to the discovery of new functional materials as well as the satisfaction of the curiosity of fundamental research.

The book deals with the flux pinning mechanisms and properties and the electromagnetic phenomena caused by the flux pinning common for metallic, high-temperature and MgB2 superconductors. The loss originates from the ohmic dissipation of normal electrons in the normal core driven by the electric field induced by the flux motion.

Readers will learn why the resultant loss is of hysteresis type in spite of such mechanism.

This status report features the most recent developments in the field, spanning a wide range of topical areas in the computer simulation of condensed matter/materials physics. Both established and new topics are included, ranging from the statistical mechanics of classical magnetic spin models to electronic structure calculations, quantum simulations, and simulations of soft condensed matter.

Liquid Crystal Display Drivers deals with Liquid Crystal Displays from the electronic engineering point of view and is the first expressively focused on their driving circuits. After introducing the physical-chemical properties of the LC substances, their evolution and application to LCDs, the book converges to the examination and in-depth explanation of those reliable techniques, architectures, and design solutions amenable to efficiently design drivers for passive-matrix and active-matrix LCDs, both for small size and large size panels. Practical approaches regularly adopted for mass production but also emerging ones are discussed. The topics treated have in many cases general validity and found application also in alternative display technologies (OLEDs, Electrophoretic Displays, etc.).

Statistical Physics bridges the properties of a macroscopic system and the microscopic behavior of its constituting particles, otherwise impossible due to the giant magnitude of Avogadro's number. Numerous systems of today's key technologies - such as semiconductors or lasers - are macroscopic quantum objects; only statistical physics allows for understanding their fundamentals. Therefore, this graduate text also focuses on particular applications such as the properties of electrons in solids with applications, and radiation thermodynamics and the greenhouse effect.

As concerns with the efficient use of energy resources, and the minimization of environmental damage have come to the fore, there has been a renewed interest in the role that thermoelectric devices could play in generating electricity from waste heat, enabling cooling via refrigerators with no moving parts, and many other more specialized applications. The main problem in realizing this ambition is the rather low efficiency of such devices for general applications. This book deals with the proceedings of a workshop addressed that problems by reviewing the latest experimental and theoretical work on suitable materials for device applications and by exploring various strategies that might increase their efficiency.

The proceedings cover a broad range of approaches, from the experimental work of fabricating new compounds through to theoretical work in characterizing and understanding their properties. The effects of strong electron correlation, disorder, the proximity to metal-insulator transitions, the properties of layered composite materials, and the introduction of voids or cages into the structure to reduce the lattice thermal conductivity are all explored as ways of enhancing the efficiency of their use in thermoelectric devices.

The book consists of 5 parts: (1) ferroelectric thin films, (2) deposition and characterization methods, (3) fabrication process and circuit design, (4) advanced-type memories, and (5) applications and future prospects; each part is further divided into several chapters. Because of the wide range of topics discussed, each chapter in this book was written by one of the best authors knowing the specific topic very well.

The use of polymer composites in various engineering applications has become state of the art. This multi-author volume provides a useful summary of updated knowledge on polymer composites in general, practically integrating experimental studies, theoretical analyses and computational modeling at different scales, i. e. , from nano- to macroscale. Detailed consideration is given to four major areas: structure and properties of polymer nanocomposites, characterization and modeling, processing and application of macrocomposites, and mechanical performance of macrocomposites. The idea to organize this volume arose from a very impressive workshop - The First International Workshop on Polymers and Composites at IVW Kaiserslautern: Invited Humboldt-Fellows and Distinguished Scientists, which was held on May 22-24,2003 at the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. The contributing authors were invited to incorporate updated knowledge and developments into their individual chapters within a year after the workshop, which finally led to these excellent contributions. The success of this workshop was mainly sponsored by the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation through a Sofia Kovalevskaja Award Program, financed by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research within the "Investment in the Future Program" of the German Government. In 2001, the Humboldt Foundation launched this new award program in order to offer outstanding young researchers throughout the world an opportunity to establish their own work-groups and to develop innovative research concepts virtually in Germany. One of the editors, Z.

The 14th International Symposium on Analytical Ultracentrifugation was held in March 2005 at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland. This book presents a comprehensive collection of 21 contributions from leading scientists in this field covering a broad spectrum of topics and presenting recent progress concerning instrumentation, data analysis and modeling, biological systems, particles, colloids, synthetic macromolecules, interacting systems.

Analytical Ultracentrifugation is becoming increasingly important in both academic and industrial applications. Due to the versatility of this fascinating and powerful technique, information and original publications are widespread and comprehensive collections are rare. Therefore, this volume presents a valuable source for biologists, chemists, materials scientists, and physicists interested in most recent information, results and development related to this important analytical method.

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physics