A.T. Skjeltorp - Böcker

Magnetism encompasses a wide range of systems and physical phenomena, and its study has posed and exposed both fundamental problems and 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. This text comprises a series of chapters by world experts, covering both theoretical and experimental aspects.

The term "soft condensed matter" encompasses a wide range of substances which are neither ordinary solids nor ordinary liquids. They do have vestigial liquid and solid properties, but their character is much more complex and subtle. Systems range from foams and complex fluids to granular materials and biomaterials (proteins, DNA, membranes). The structural states they adopt are driven by subtle competition between intermolecular interaction energies and entropic forces, both of which are often close to thermal energies at room temperature. Configurations and their dynamic evolution are significant determinants of a wide variety of mesoscopic and microscopic properties. The book reviews both the language needed to discuss such systems, as well as basic questions about such phenomena as competing ground states, nonlinear feedback, and slow dynamics. The approach is pedagogical and tutorial. The level is appropriate to graduate researchers, either moving into the field or already active in it.

The term "soft condensed matter" encompasses a wide range of substances which are neither ordinary solids nor ordinary liquids. They do have vestigial liquid and solid properties, but their character is much more complex and subtle. Systems range from foams and complex fluids to granular materials and biomaterials (proteins, DNA, membranes). The structural states they adopt are driven by subtle competition between intermolecular interaction energies and entropic forces, both of which are often close to thermal energies at room temperature. Configurations and their dynamic evolution are significant determinants of a wide variety of mesoscopic and microscopic properties. The book reviews both the language needed to discuss such systems, as well as basic questions about such phenomena as competing ground states, nonlinear feedback, and slow dynamics. The approach is pedagogical and tutorial. The level is appropriate to graduate researchers, either moving into the field or already active in it.

Many mesoscopic systems display "adaptive" behaviour - changes in some physical property that results from a small change in an internal or external driving force. There is a kind of progression in adaptive phenomena, from quantum mesoscopics to complex, evolved co-operative systems and large scale events like turbulence. The field of mesoscopic magnetism, especially quantum coherence and quantum tunnelling in spin systems, and the coupling between mesoscopic magnetism and mesoscopic transport is currently a very active area of solid state physics. "Dephasing" is an important concept in mesoscopic systems like these. A basic question is the limit at which quantum mechanics breaks down and what it can be replaced with. Another interesting crossover is that between complexity and large excursions or events, with turbulence as a prototype example. The book also contains a discussion of finance. Qualitatively speaking, turbulence and financial markets are apparently similar, so our understanding of turbulence may be relevant to understanding price fluctuations.

The book reviews the current experimental and theoretical knowledge of the synergism between modern physics, soft condensed matter and biology, presenting a thorough discussion of the relative role of the various fundamental interactions in such systems: electrostatic, hydrophobic, steric, conformational, van der Waals, etc. These competing interactions influence the form and topology of soft and biological matter, like polymers and proteins, leading to hierarchical structures in self-assembling systems and folding patterns sometimes described in terms of chirality, braids and knots. Finally, the competing interactions influence various bioprocesses like genetic regulation and biological evolution taking place in systems like biopolymers, macromolecules and cell membranes. The authors include theoretical physicists, soft condensed matter experimentalists, biological physicists, and molecular biologists - all leaders in their respective fields.Aside from the need to gain new, fundamental insights, the subject area is also of great importance for many applications, in that self-assembly and hierarchical assembly are important features to achieve functionality on multiple length scales. Applications range from the nanoscopic (e.g., biomolecular material and copolymeric mesophases) to the microscopic (all organic microelectronics) to the macroscopic (high-performance structural composites).

The book reviews the current experimental and theoretical knowledge of the synergism between modern physics, soft condensed matter and biology, presenting a thorough discussion of the relative role of the various fundamental interactions in such systems: electrostatic, hydrophobic, steric, conformational, van der Waals, etc. These competing interactions influence the form and topology of soft and biological matter, like polymers and proteins, leading to hierarchical structures in self-assembling systems and folding patterns sometimes described in terms of chirality, braids and knots. Finally, the competing interactions influence various bioprocesses like genetic regulation and biological evolution taking place in systems like biopolymers, macromolecules and cell membranes. The authors include theoretical physicists, soft condensed matter experimentalists, biological physicists, and molecular biologists - all leaders in their respective fields.Aside from the need to gain new, fundamental insights, the subject area is also of great importance for many applications, in that self-assembly and hierarchical assembly are important features to achieve functionality on multiple length scales. Applications range from the nanoscopic (e.g., biomolecular material and copolymeric mesophases) to the microscopic (all organic microelectronics) to the macroscopic (high-performance structural composites).