Gaetano Assanto - Böcker

The first book of its kind to introduce the fundamentals, basic features and models, potential applications and novel phenomena and its important applications in liquid crystal technology.Recognized leader in the field Gaetano Assanto outlines the peculiar characteristics of nematicons and the promise they have for the future growth of this captivating new field.

Systems driven far from thermodynamic equilibrium can create dissipative structures through the spontaneous breaking of symmetries. A particularly fascinating feature of these pattern-forming systems is their tendency to produce spatially confined states. These localized wave packets can exist as propagating entities through space and/or time. Various examples of such systems will be dealt with in this book, including localized states in fluids, chemical reactions on surfaces, neural networks, optical systems, granular systems, population models, and Bose-Einstein condensates.This book should appeal to all physicists, mathematicians and electrical engineers interested in localization in far-from-equilibrium systems. The authors - all recognized experts in their fields - strive to achieve a balance between theoretical and experimental considerations thereby giving an overview of fascinating physical principles, their manifestations in diverse systems, and the novel technical applications on the horizon.