This course-based primer provides newcomers to the field with a concise introduction to some of the core topics in the emerging field of topological insulators. The aim is to provide a basic understanding of edge states, bulk topological invariants, and of the bulk--boundary correspondence with as simple mathematical tools as possible. The present approach uses noninteracting lattice models of topological insulators, building gradually on these to arrive from the simplest one-dimensional case (the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model for polyacetylene) to two-dimensional time-reversal invariant topological insulators (the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model for HgTe). In each case the discussion of simple toy models is followed by the formulation of the general arguments regarding topological insulators. The only prerequisite for the reader is a working knowledge in quantum mechanics, the relevant solid state physics background is provided as part of this self-contained text, which is complemented by end-of-chapter problems.

Fiction. Translated from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein. An enquiry into the nature of eroticism, an unflinching exploration of the physical and psychological aspects of love bordering on sexual mysticism, OUT OF ONESELF is a collection of two novellas that expore two different epochs in Hungarian history through the sexual relationships of its characters, who are passionately searching for a way out of their hapless and sinful world. Each story revolves around a seductive, alluring actress, whose erotic attraction is turned into mythic proportion by the aura of the stage or the screen in scenes of such sexual explicitness and obsessiveness in its description that one is reminded of Anais Nin's Delta of Venus. "There is not the slightest doubt that what Andras Palyi has been doing is nothing short of tempting God. It is impossible to read him without a feeling of reverential dread. He blasphemes, he challenges and wages war against God"--Peter Nadas.

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