Systems with competing energy scales are widespread and exhibit rich and subtle behaviour, although their systematic study is a relatively recent activity. This text presents lectures given at a NATO Advanced Study Institute reviewing the current knowledge and understanding of this fascinating subject, particularly with regard to phase transitions and dynamics, at an advanced tutorial level. Both general and specific aspects are considered, with competitions having several origins; differences in intrinsic interactions, interplay between intrinsic and extrinsic effects, such as geometry and disorder; irreversibility and non-equilibration. Among the specific physical application areas are supercooled liquids and glasses, high-temperature superconductors, flux or vortex pinning and motion, charge density waves, domain growth and coarsening, and electron solidification.

This volume contains the proceedings of a NATO Advanced study Institute held at Geilo, Norway between 2 - 12 april 1991. This institute was the eleventh in a series held biannually at Geilo on the subject of phase transitions. It was intended to capture the latest ideas on selforgan ized patterns and criticality. The Institute brought together many lecturers, students and active re searchers in the field from a wide range of NATO and non-NATO countries. The main financial support came from the NATO scientific Affairs Divi sion, but additional support was obtained from the Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities (NAVF) and Institutt for energi teknikk. The organizers would like to thank all these contributors for their help in promoting an exciting and rewarding meeting, and in doing so are confident that they echo the appreciation of all the parti cipants. In cooperative, equilibrium systems, physical states are described by spatio-temporal correlation functions. The intimate connection between space and time correlations is especially apparent at the critical point, the second order phase transition, where the spatial range and the decay time of the correlation function both become infinite. The salient features of critical phenomena and the history of the devel opment of this field of science are treated in the first chapter of this book.

Magnetism encompasses a wide range of systems and physical phenomena, and its study has posed and exposed both important fundamental problems and many practical applications. Recently, several entirely new phenomena have thus been discovered, generated through cooperative behaviour which could not have been predicted from a knowledge of `one-spin' states. At the same time, advances in sample preparation, experimental technique, apparatus and radiation sources, have led to increasing precision in the investigation and exposure of greater subtleties in magnetic thin films, multilayers and other systems. Examples of unexpected and conceptually new phenomena occur in strongly correlated and fluctuating quantum systems, producing effects such as Haldane and spin-Peierls gaps, solitons, quantum spin glasses and spin liquids. The discovery and elucidation of these `emerging properties' is a central theme in modern condensed matter physics. The present book comprises a series of chapters by world experts, covering both theoretical and experimental aspects. The approach is pedagogical and tutorial, but fully up to date, covering the latest research. The level is appropriate to graduate researchers who may either be just moving into the field or who are already active in condensed matter physics.

Recent years have seen a growing interest in and activity at the interface between physics and biology, with the realization that both subjects have a great deal to learn from and to teach to one another. A particularly promising aspect of this interface concerns the area of cooperative phenomena and phase transitions. The present book addresses both the structure and motion of biological materials and the increasingly complex behaviour that arises out of interactions in large systems, giving rise to self organization, adaptation, selection and evolution: concepts of interest not only to biology and living systems but also within condensed matter physics. The approach adopted by Physics of Biomaterials: Fluctuations, Self Assembly and Evolution is tutorial, but the book is fully up to date with the latest research. Written at a level appropriate to graduate researchers, preferably with a background either in condensed matter physics or theoretical or physically-oriented experimental biology.

This volume comprises the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Geilo, Norway, between 4 - 14 April 1989. This Institute was the tenth in a series held at Geilo on the subject of phase transitions. It was the first to be concerned with the growing area of soft condensed matter, which is neither ordinary solids nor ordinary liquids, but somewhere in between. The Institute brought together many lecturers, students and active researchers in the field from a wide range of NATO and some non-NATO countries, with financial support principally from the NATO Scientific Affairs Division but also from Institutt for energiteknikk, the Nor wegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities (NAVF), The Nordic Institute for Theoretical Atomic Physics (NORDITA), the Norwegian Physical Society and VISTA, a reserach cooperation between the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and Den norske stats oljeselskap a.s (STATOIL). The organizing committee would like to thank all these contributors for their help in promoting an exciting and rewarding meeting, and in doing so are confident that they echo the appreciation also of all the participants. 50ft condensed matter is characterized by weak interactions between polyatomic constituents, by important*thermal fluctuations effects, by mechanical softness and by a rich range of behaviours. The main emphasis at this Institute was on the fundamental collective physics, but prepar ation techniques and industrial applications were also considered.

Magnetism encompasses a wide range of systems and physical phenomena, and its study has posed and exposed both important fundamental problems and many practical applications. Recently, several entirely new phenomena have thus been discovered, generated through cooperative behaviour which could not have been predicted from a knowledge of one-spin' states. At the same time, advances in sample preparation, experimental technique, apparatus and radiation sources, have led to increasing precision in the investigation and exposure of greater subtleties in magnetic thin films, multilayers and other systems. Examples of unexpected and conceptually new phenomena occur in strongly correlated and fluctuating quantum systems, producing effects such as Haldane and spin-Peierls gaps, solitons, quantum spin glasses and spin liquids. The discovery and elucidation of these emerging properties' is a central theme in modern condensed matter physics. The present book comprises a series of chapters by world experts, covering both theoretical and experimental aspects. The approach is pedagogical and tutorial, but fully up to date, covering the latest research. The level is appropriate to graduate researchers who may either be just moving into the field or who are already active in condensed matter physics.

Recent years have seen a growing interest in and activity at the interface between physics and biology, with the realization that both subjects have a great deal to learn from and to teach to one another. A particularly promising aspect of this interface concerns the area of cooperative phenomena and phase transitions. The present book addresses both the structure and motion of biological materials and the increasingly complex behaviour that arises out of interactions in large systems, giving rise to self organization, adaptation, selection and evolution: concepts of interest not only to biology and living systems but also within condensed matter physics. The approach adopted by Physics of Biomaterials: Fluctuations, Self Assembly and Evolution is tutorial, but the book is fully up to date with the latest research. Written at a level appropriate to graduate researchers, preferably with a background either in condensed matter physics or theoretical or physically-oriented experimental biology.

This volume contains the proceedings of a NATO Advanced study Institute held at Geilo, Norway between 2 - 12 april 1991. This institute was the eleventh in a series held biannually at Geilo on the subject of phase transitions. It was intended to capture the latest ideas on selforgan ized patterns and criticality. The Institute brought together many lecturers, students and active re searchers in the field from a wide range of NATO and non-NATO countries. The main financial support came from the NATO scientific Affairs Divi sion, but additional support was obtained from the Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities (NAVF) and Institutt for energi teknikk. The organizers would like to thank all these contributors for their help in promoting an exciting and rewarding meeting, and in doing so are confident that they echo the appreciation of all the parti cipants. In cooperative, equilibrium systems, physical states are described by spatio-temporal correlation functions. The intimate connection between space and time correlations is especially apparent at the critical point, the second order phase transition, where the spatial range and the decay time of the correlation function both become infinite. The salient features of critical phenomena and the history of the devel opment of this field of science are treated in the first chapter of this book."

Over the course of nearly half a century, Sam Edwards has led the field of condensed matter physics into new directions, ranging from the electronic and statistical properties of disordered materials to the mechanical properties of granular materials. Along the way, he has provided seminal contributions to fluid mechanics, polymer science, surface science and statistical mechanics. This volume celebrates the immense scope of his influence by presenting a collection of original articles by recognized leaders in theoretical physics, including two Nobel Laureates and a Fields Medalist, which describe the genesis, evolution and future prospects of the various sub-fields of condensed matter theory, along with reprints of a selection of Edwards' seminal papers that helped give birth to the subject. 'Stealing the Gold', Edwards' favourite caricature of the relationship between theoretical physicists and Nature, will be of singular interest to graduate students looking for an overview of some of the most exciting areas of theoretical physics, as well as to researchers in condensed matter physics looking for a comprehensive, broad and uniquely incisive snapshot of their subject at the dawn of the 21st century.