This handbook collects over 800 infrared spectra of rubbers, plastics and thermoplastics elastometers. It contains five different libraries: rubbers in transmission spectroscopy, rubbers in pyrolysate spectroscopy, plastics in transmission spectroscopy, plastics in pyrolysate spectroscopy, and rubbers and plastics in single-bounce ATR spectroscopy. This is an invaluable reference for the rubbers and plastics industry.

Liquid crystal polymers (LCPs) have many strange properties that may be utilized to advantage in the processing of products made from them and their blends with isotropic polymers. This volume (volume 2 in the series Polymer Liquid Crystals) deals with their strange flow behaviour and the models put forward to explain the phenomena that occur in such polymers and their blends. It has been known for some time that small ad ditions of a thermotropic LCP to isotropic polymers not only gives an improvement in the strength and stiffness of the blend but improves the processability of the blend over that of the isotropic polymer. In the case of lyotropic LCPs, it is possible to create a molecular composite in which the reinforcement of an isotropic polymer is achieved at a molecular level by the addition of the LCP in a common solvent. If the phenomena can be fully understood both the reinforcement and an increase in the proces sability of isotropic polymers could be optimized. This book is intended to illustrate the current theories associated with the flow of LCPs and their blends in the hope that such an optimization will be achieved by future research. Chapter 1 introduces the subject of LCPs and describes the ter minology used; Chapter 2 then discusses the more complex phenomena associated with these materials. In Chapter 3, the way in which these phe nomena may be modelled using hamiltonians is fully covered."

This book provides readers with a comprehensive, state-of-the-art reference to the design automation aspects of quantum computers. Given roadmaps calling for quantum computers with 2000 qubits in a few years, readers will benefit from the practical implementation aspects covered in this book. The authors discuss real hardware to the extent possible. Provides an up-to-date, single-source reference to design automation aspects of quantum computers; Presentation is not just theoretical, but substantiated with real quantum hardware; Covers multi-faceted aspects of quantum computers, providing readers with valuable information, no matter the direction in which technology moves.

This two-volume work provides a comprehensive study of the statistical mechanics of lattice models. It introduces readers to the main topics and the theory of phase transitions, building on a firm mathematical and physical basis. Volume 1 contains an account of mean-field and cluster variation methods successfully used in many applications in solid-state physics and theoretical chemistry, as well as an account of exact results for the Ising and six-vertex models and those derivable by transformation methods.

This book deals with the adhesion, friction and contact mechanics of living organisms. Further, it presents the remarkable adhesive abilities of the living organisms which inspired the design of novel micro- and nanostructured adhesives that can be used in various applications, such as climbing robots, reusable tapes, and biomedical bandages. The technologies for both the synthesis and construction of bio-inspired adhesive micro- and nanostructures, as well as their performance, are discussed in detail. Representatives of several animal groups, such as insects, spiders, tree frogs, and lizards, are able to walk on (and therefore attach to) tilted, vertical surfaces, and even ceilings in different environments. Studies have demonstrated that their highly specialized micro- and nanostructures, in combination with particular surface chemistries, are responsible for this impressive and reversible adhesion. These structures can maximize the formation of large effective contact areas on surfaces of varying roughness and chemical composition under different environmental conditions.

During a century, from the Van der Waals mean field description (1874) of gases to the introduction of renormalization group (RG techniques 1970), thermodynamics and statistical physics were just unable to account for the incredible universality which was observed in numerous critical phenomena. The great success of RG techniques is not only to solve perfectly this challenge of critical behaviour in thermal transitions but to introduce extremely useful tools in a wide field of daily situations where a system exhibits scale invariance. The introduction of scaling, scale invariance and universality concepts has been a significant turn in modern physics and more generally in natural sciences. Since then, a new "physics of scaling laws and critical exponents", rooted in scaling approaches, allows quantitative descriptions of numerous phenomena, ranging from phase transitions to earthquakes, polymer conformations, heartbeat rhythm, diffusion, interface growth and roughening, DNA sequence, dynamical systems, chaos and turbulence. The chapters are jointly written by an experimentalist and a theorist. This book aims at a pedagogical overview, offering to the students and researchers a thorough conceptual background and a simple account of a wide range of applications. It presents a complete tour of both the formal advances and experimental results associated with the notion of scaling, in physics, chemistry and biology.

We are pleased to present the ?fth volume of Progress in Ultrafast Intense LaserScience.Asthefrontiersofultrafastintenselasersciencerapidlyexpand ever outward, there continues to be a growing demand for an introduction to this interdisciplinary research ?eld that is at once widely accessible and ca- ble of delivering cutting-edge developments. Our series aims to respond to this call by providing a compilation of concise review-style articles written by researchers at the forefront of this research ?eld, so that researchers with d- ferent backgrounds as well as graduate students can easily grasp the essential aspects. As in the previous volumes of PUILS, each chapter of this book begins with an introductory part, in which a clear and concise overview of the topic and its signi?cance is given, and moves onto a description of the authors' most recent research results. All the chapters are peer-reviewed. The articles ofthis?fth volumecovera diverserangeofthe interdisciplinaryresearch?eld, and the topics may be grouped into three categories: coherent responses of gaseousand condensed matter to ultrashortintense laser pulses (Chaps. 1-4), propagationof intense laser pulses (Chaps. 5, 6), and laser-plasma interaction and its applications (Chaps. 7-10). From the third volume, the PUILS series has been edited in liaison with the activities of Center for Ultrafast Intense Laser Science in The University of Tokyo, and JILS (Japan Intense Light Field Science Society), the latter of which has also been responsible for sponsoring the series and making the regularpublicationofitsvolumespossible.Fromthe presentvolume,the C- sortiumonEducationandResearchonAdvancedLaserScience,theUniversity of Tokyo, joins this publication activity as one of the sponsoring programs.

In the never-ending quest for miniaturization, optically controlled particle trapping has opened up new possibilities for handling microscopic matter non-invasively. This thesis presents the application of photorefractive crystals as active substrate materials for optoelectronic tweezers. In these tweezers, flexible optical patterns are transformed into electrical forces by a photoconductive material, making it possible to handle matter with very high forces and high throughput. Potential substrate materials' properties are investigated and ways to tune their figures-of-merit are demonstrated. A large part of the thesis is devoted to potential applications in the field of optofluidics, where photorefractive optoelectronic tweezers are used to trap, sort and guide droplets or particles in microfluidic channels, or to shape liquid polymers into optical elements prior to their solidification. Furthermore, a new surface discharge model is employed to discuss the experimental conditions needed for photorefractive optoelectronic tweezers.

Most of the interesting and difficult problems in statistical mechanics arise when the constituent particles of the system interact with each other with pair or multipartiele energies. The types of behaviour which occur in systems because of these interactions are referred to as cooperative phenomena giving rise in many cases to phase transitions. This book and its companion volume (Lavis and Bell 1999, referred to in the text simply as Volume 1) are princi pally concerned with phase transitions in lattice systems. Due mainly to the insights gained from scaling theory and renormalization group methods, this subject has developed very rapidly over the last thirty years. ' In our choice of topics we have tried to present a good range of fundamental theory and of applications, some of which reflect our own interests. A broad division of material can be made between exact results and ap proximation methods. We have found it appropriate to inelude some of our discussion of exact results in this volume and some in Volume 1. Apart from this much of the discussion in Volume 1 is concerned with mean-field theory. Although this is known not to give reliable results elose to a critical region, it often provides a good qualitative picture for phase diagrams as a whole. For complicated systems some kind of mean-field method is often the only tractable method available. In this volume our main concern is with scaling theory, algebraic methods and the renormalization group."

Advances in Polymer Science enjoys a longstanding tradition and good reputation in its community. Each volume is dedicated to a current topic, and each review critically surveys one aspect of that topic, to place it within the context of the volume. The volumes typically summarize the significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years and discuss them critically, presenting selected examples, explaining and illustrating the important principles, and bringing together many important references of primary literature. On that basis, future research directions in the area can be discussed. Advances in Polymer Science volumes thus are important references for every polymer scientist, as well as for other scientists interested in polymer science - as an introduction to a neighboring field, or as a compilation of detailed information for the specialist.

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.

This book is aimed at researchers who are working in a field of quasicrystals to provide a reference to recent developments and ideas in the field and also at graduate students, who intend to study quasicrystals, to provide introduction of ideas. Topics in this book cover an entire field of quasicrystals, both experimental and theoretical, including new developments: the state of the art in quasicrystallography, new families of quasicrystals, phasons in aperiodic solids, ab initio studies on stability mechanism, quantum transport phenomena, elastic/plastic properties and surface of quasicrystals.
. Comprehensive reviews by experts in the field
. Complete reference of original papers and new topics
. Intelligible introduction of quasicrystals by experts

This introductory level text addresses the broad range of nonequilibrium phenomena observed at short time scales. It focuses on the important questions of correlations and memory effects in dense interacting systems. Experiments on very short time scales are characterized, in particular, by strong correlations far from equilibrium, by nonlinear dynamics, and by the related phenomena of turbulence and chaos. The impressive successes of experiments using pulsed lasers to study the properties of matter and of the new methods of analysis of the early phases of heavy ion reactions have necessitated a review of the available many-body theoretical methods. The aim of this book is thus to provide an introduction to the experimental and theoretical methods that help us to understand the behaviour of such systems when disturbed on very short time scales.

This volume gathers a number of selected contributions from the XIX Sitges Conference on "Jamming, Yielding, and Irreversible Deformation in C- densed Matter", held at Sitges (Barcelona, Spain) from 14-18 June, 2004. The contributions collected in this volume provide a general overview of the "state of the art", and of the recent developments, in the ?elds of material yield and irreversible deformation in di?erent physical systems, which are of great interest within the realm of Condensed Matter Physics. The Conference was sponsored by several institutions that generously provided ?nancial support: Ministerio de Educaci' on y Ciencia of the Sp- ish Government, AGAUR of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Universitat de Barcelona, and the Centre Especial de Recerca (CER) F' ?sica de Sistemes Complexos. As in former editions of the Conference, the city of Sitges allowed us to use the beautiful Palau Maricel as the lecture hall. We thank them for their kind hospitality. We are also very grateful to all those who collaborated in organizing the event: M. Naspreda, A. P' erez-Madrid, R. Pastor-Satorras, and S. Zapperi. Finally, we wish to express our gratitude to all the speakers and parti- pants in the Conference, who contributed with high scienti?c level presen- tions, and created a very pleasant atmosphere.

This book is an excellent introduction to density functional theory for electrons. Largely written in review style, it will also serve as an excellent overview of recent developments.
Nonrelativistic and relativistic approaches are discussed and conventional ground-state as well as polarization density functional and time-dependent density functional formalisms are introduced. A careful discussion of the exchange-correlation functional and approximations is presented and a chapter is devoted to an analysis of hybrid wavefunction/density-functional approximations.

"Physics of Cryocrystals offers the first comprehensive treatment of molecular cryosolids. The book focuses on the distinctions between molecular and atomic cryocrystals, especially on the role of molecular rotation. Also considered are how cryocrystals are used for investigating the lattice dynamics of crystals with isotropic and anisotropic interactions, phase transitions, melting, different kinds of electronic excitations in insulators, and impurity effects. Detailed tables and graphs of molecular parameters, essential thermodynamic data, and lattice-dynamic data serve to make Physics of Cryocrystals an invaluable sourcebook." "Contents" Physics of Cryocrystals offers the first comprehensive treatment of molecular cryosolids. The book focuses on the distinctions between molecular and atomic cryocrystals, especially on the role of molecular rotation. Also considered are how cryocrystals are used for investigating the lattice dynamics of crystals with isotropic and anisotropic interactions, phase transitions, melting, different kinds of electronic excitations in insulators, and impurity effects. Detailed tables and graphs of molecular parameters, essential thermodynamic data, and lattice-dynamic data serve to make Physics of Cryocrystals an invaluable sourcebook.

KrAtschmer and Huffman's revolutionary discovery of a new solid phase of carbon, solid C60, in 1990 opened the way to an entire new class of materials with physical properties so diverse that their richness has not yet been fully exploited. Moreover, as a by-product of fullerene research, carbon nanotubes were later identified, from which novel nanostructures originated that are currently fascinating materials scientists worldwide. Rivers of words have been written on both fullerenes and nanotubes, in the form of journal articles, conference proceedings and books. The present book offers, in a concise and self-contained manner, the basics of the science of these materials as well as detailed information on those aspects that have so far been better explored. Structural, electronic and dynamical properties are described as obtained from various measurements and state-of-the-art calculations. Their interrelation emerges as well as their possible dependence on, for example, preparation conditions or methods of investigation. By presenting and comparing data from different sources, experiment and theory, this book helps the reader to rapidly master the basic knowledge, to grasp important issues and critically discuss them. Ultimately, it aims to inspire him or her to find novel ways to approach still open questions. As such, this book is addressed to new researchers in the field as well as experts.

Aimed at graduate physics and chemistry students, this is the first comprehensive monograph covering the concept of the geometric phase in quantum physics from its mathematical foundations to its physical applications and experimental manifestations. It contains all the premises of the adiabatic Berry phase as well as the exact Anandan-Aharonov phase. It discusses quantum systems in a classical time-independent environment (time dependent Hamiltonians) and quantum systems in a changing environment (gauge theory of molecular physics). The mathematical methods used are a combination of differential geometry and the theory of linear operators in Hilbert Space. As a result, the monograph demonstrates how non-trivial gauge theories naturally arise and how the consequences can be experimentally observed. Readers benefit by gaining a deep understanding of the long-ignored gauge theoretic effects of quantum mechanics and how to measure them.

Observation, Prediction and Simulation of Phase Transitions in Complex Fluids presents an overview of the phase transitions that occur in a variety of soft-matter systems: colloidal suspensions of spherical or rod-like particles and their mixtures, directed polymers and polymer blends, colloid--polymer mixtures, and liquid-forming mesogens. This modern and fascinating branch of condensed matter physics is presented from three complementary viewpoints. The first section, written by experimentalists, emphasises the observation of basic phenomena (by light scattering, for example). The second section, written by theoreticians, focuses on the necessary theoretical tools (density functional theory, path integrals, free energy expansions). The third section is devoted to the results of modern simulation techniques (Gibbs ensemble, free energy calculations, configurational bias Monte Carlo). The interplay between the disciplines is clearly illustrated. For all those interested in modern research in equilibrium statistical mechanics.

One of the major challenges of science in the last few years of the second millennium is learning how to design materials which can fulfill specific tasks. Ambitious as it may be, the possibilities of success are not ne li ble provided that all the different expertises merge to overcome the limits of eXIsting disciplines and forming new paradigms science. The NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Magnetic Molecular Materials" was organized with the above considerations in mind in order to determine which are the most appropriate synthetic strategies, experimental techniques of investigation, and theoretical models which are needed in order to develop new classes of magnetic materials which are based on molecules rather than on metallic or ionic lattices. Why molecules? The answer may be obvious: molecular chemistry in principle fine can tune the structures and the properties of complex aggregates, and nature already provides a large number of molecular aggregates which can perform the most disparate functions. The contributions collected in this book provide a rather complete view of the current research accomplishments of magnetic molecular materials. There are several different synthetic approaches which are followed ranging from purely organic to inorganic materials. Some encouraging successes have already been achieved, even if the critical temperatures below which magnetic order is observed still are in the range requiring liquid helium.

Cottam and Tilley provide an introduction to the properties of wave-like excitations associated with surfaces and interfaces. The emphasis is on acoustic, optic and magnetic excitations, and apart from one section on liquid surfaces, the text concentrates on solids. The important topic of superlattices is also discussed, in which the different kinds of excitation are considered from a unified point of view.
Throughout the book, the authors are careful to relate theory and experiment and all of the most important experimental techniques are described. The theoretical treatment assumes only a knowledge of undergraduate physics, except for Green function methods that are used in a few sections; these methods are developed in an appendix. The book also contains extensive references, enabling the reader to consult the research and review literature. Each of the main chapters contains problems to allow the reader to develop topics presented in the text.

Atomic Multielectron Processes is the first comprehensive collection of the data (mostly cross sections and methods) devoted to the multielectron transitions in atoms and ions induced by single collisions with charged particles and photons. The book covers the fundamental ranges of atomic physics which helps understanding the nature of many particle transitions.

Not merely a discussion of small particles or clusters of atoms, molecules, but also the systems they constitute. The goal is to analyse the properties of such finite aggregates and their behaviour in gases and plasmas, and to investigate processes that involve such clusters, based on lectures and seminar problems for graduates. The main part of the book includes more than 200 problems, covering collisions, charge transfer, chemical reactions, condensed systems and their structures, kinetics of cluster growth, excited clusters, the transition from clusters to bulk particles, and small particles, dust, and aerosols in plasmas. Reference data for corresponding parameters of systems under consideration is given in the appendices. Of interest to physicists, astrophysicists, and chemists.

Diffusion in solids at moderate temperatures is a well-known phenomenon. However, direct experimental evidence about the responsible atomic-scale mechanisms has been scarce, due to difficulties in probing the relevant length- and time-scales. The present thesis deals with the application of X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS) for answering such questions. This is an established method for the study of slow dynamics on length-scales of a few nanometres. The scattered intensity in the diffuse regime, i.e. corresponding to atomic distances, is very low, however, and so it has so far been considered impossible to use XPCS for this problem. Threefold progress is reported in this work: It proposes a number of systems selected for high diffuse intensity, it optimizes the photon detection and data evaluation procedures, and it establishes theoretical models for interpretating the results. Together these advances allowed the first successful atomic-scale XPCS experiment, which elucidated the role of preferred configurations for atomic jumps in a copper-gold alloy. The growth in available coherent X-ray intensity together with next-generation X-ray sources will open up a wide field of application for this new method.

This book provides course material in theoretical physics intended for undergraduate and graduate students specializing in condensed matter. The book derives from teaching activity, offering readable and mathematical treatments explained in sufficient detail to be followed easily. The main emphasis is always on the physical meaning and applicability of the results. Many examples are provided for illustration; these also serve as worked problems.

Discussion extends to atomic physics, relativistic quantum mechanics, elementary QED, electron spectroscopy, nonlinear optics, and various aspects of the many-body problem. Methods such as group representation theory, Green 's functions, the Keldysh formalism and recursion techniques were also imparted.