Quantum maps are presented with special emphasis on their physical origin. They represent a testing ground for understanding concepts in quantized chaotic systems. The book teaches the modern mathematical methods from analytic and algebraic number theory as applied to quantum maps. It gives a broad and in-depth overview of the mathematical problems arising in this area. Also treated are the numerical aspects in quantum chaos such as eigenvalue and eigenfunctions computations for chaotic quantum systems. The book addresses scientists and advanced students in mathematics and mathematical...

Density functional theory (DFT) is by now a well-established method for tackling the quantum mechanics of many-body systems. Originally applied to compute properties of atoms and simple molecules, DFT has quickly become a work horse for more complex applications in the chemical and materials sciences. The present set of lectures, spanning the whole range from basic principles to relativistic and time-dependent extensions of the theory, is the ideal introduction for graduate students or nonspecialist researchers wishing to familiarize themselves with both the basic and most advanced...

Experiments with rubber balloons and rubber sheets have led to surprising observations, some of them hitherto unknown or not previously described in the literature. In balloons, these phenomena are due to the non-monotonic pressure-radius characteristic which makes balloons a subject of interest to physicists engaged in stability studies. Here is a situation in which symmetry breaking and hysteresis may be studied analytically, because the stress-stretch relations of rubber - and its non-convex free energy - can be determined explicitly from the kinetic theory of rubber and from non-linear...

The study of the interaction of molecules with surfaces and interfaces is of great importance for the understanding of adsorption and catalysis on solid surfaces, the complex properties of molecules on fluid interfaces and the relationship between structure and functionality in macromolecular biological systens. It is the aim of this volume to present and analyse in a comprehensive and accesible way the methodical achievements and the recent proress in this field. The broadness of both scope and selection of the topics should help in particular non-expert readers to become familiar with...

The lectures that comprise this volume constitute a comprehensive survey of the many and various aspects of integrable dynamical systems. The present edition is a streamlined, revised and updated version of a 1997 set of notes that was published as Lecture Notes in Physics, Volume 495. This volume will be complemented by a companion book - Lecture Notes in Physics, Volume 644 - dedicated to discrete integrable systems. Both volumes address primarily graduate students and nonspecialist researchers but will also benefit lecturers looking for suitable material for advanced courses and...

Physicists who wish to understand the modeling of confinement of quantum chromodynamics, as exhibited by dual superconductors, will find this book an excellent introduction. The author focuses on the models themselves, especially the Landau--Ginzburg model of a dual superconductor, also called the Dual Abelian Higgs model.

Closing a gap in the literature, this volume is intended both as an introductory text at postgraduate level and as a modern, comprehensive reference for researchers in the field.

Provides a full working description of the main fundamental tools in the theorists toolbox which have proven themselves on the field of quantum magnetism in recent years.

Concludes by focusing on the most important cuurent materials form an experimental viewpoint, thus linking back to the initial theoretical concepts.

This volume consists of a set of ten lectures conceived as both introduction and up-to-date survey on discrete integrable systems. It constitutes a companion book to "Integrability of Nonlinear Systems" (Springer-Verlag, 2004, LNP 638, ISBN 3-540-20630-2). Both volumes address primarily graduate students and nonspecialist researchers but will also benefit lecturers looking for suitable material for advanced courses and researchers interested in specific topics.