Concisely and clearly written, this book provides a self-contained introduction to the basic concepts of fractals and demonstrates their use in a range of topics in condensed matter physics and statistical mechanics. The first part outlines different fractal structures observed in condensed matter. The main part of the book is dedicated to the dynamical behaviour of fractal structures, including anomalous and percolating systems. The concept of multifractals is illustrated for the metal-insulator quantum phase transition. The authors emphasize the unified description of these different...

X-ray multiple-wave diffraction, sometimes called multiple diffraction or N-beam diffraction, results from the scattering of X-rays from periodic two- or higher-dimensional structures, like 2-d and 3-d crystals and even quasi- crystals. The interaction of the X-rays with the periodic arrangement of atoms usually provides structural information about the scatterer. Unlike the usual Bragg reflection, the so-called two-wave diffraction, the multiply diffracted intensities are sensitive to the phases of the structure factors in- volved. This gives X-ray multiple-wave diffraction the chance to...

The physics of vortices in classical fluids has been a highly important subject for many years, both in fundamental science and in engineering applications. About 50 years ago, vortices started to become prominent as quantum me- chanical objects constructed from a macroscopic wavefunction. Here the key developments are associated with the names R. Feynman, L. Onsager, L. D. Landau, F. London, V.L. Ginzburg and A.A. Abrikosov. Recently, the physics of vortices has undergone a further important step of diversification, namely in unconventional superconductors and superfluids, which are...

Today, more than 20 years after the discovery of the quantum Hall effect, the number of publications in this field, at more than one paper per day, is still increasing. This remarkable fact requires some explanation. It also poses, but perhaps also answers, the question of why a new monograph entitled 'The Quantum Hall Effect' is a highly desirable addition to the literature. Originally the quantum Hall effect (QHE) was a term coined to describe the unexpected observation of a fundamental electrical resistance, with a value independent of the microscopic details of the semiconductor device....

The field of ultrafast spectroscopy of semiconductors and their nanostruc- tures continues to be an active field of research. Exciting new developments have taken place since the first edition of this book was completed in 1995. This revised edition includes a discussion of many of these recent develop- ments in the field. This is accomplished by adding a chapter on Recent De- velopments at the end of the book. This approach was selected to provide a discussion of results while they are still relatively recent. Results published before the end of May 1998 were considered for inclusion in this...

The subject of this book is the investigation of lattice imperfections in semiconductors by means of positron annihilation. A comprehensive review is given of the different positron techniques, whose application to various kinds of defects, e.g. vacancies, impurity-vacancy complexes and dislocations, is described. The sensitivity range of positron annihilation with respect to the detection of these defects is compared to that of other defect-sensitive methods. The most prominent results obtained with positrons in practically all important semiconductors are reviewed. A special chapter of the...

The first edition of this book provided an introduction to the many static and dynamic features of magnetic flux structures in what are now called classical or low-temperature superconductors. It went out of print not long after the discovery of high-temperature superconductors in 1986 by J.G. Bednorz and K.A. Miiller, a discovery which resulted worldwide in an explosive growth of research and development in the field of superconductivity. Because of this upsurge of activities, a strong demand for this book clearly continued. Since the contents of the fourteen chapters of the first edition...

The metal-insulator transition due to electron-electron interactions is one of the most celebrated but least understood problems in condensed matter physics. Here this subject is comprehensively reviewed for the first time since Sir Nevill Mott's monograph of 1990. A pedagogical introduction to the basic concepts for the Mott transition, the Hubbard model, and various analytical approaches to correlated electron systems is presented. A new classification scheme for Mott insulators as Mott-Hubbard and Mott-Heisenberg insulators is proposed. Traditional methods are critically examined for their...

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second Asian Conference on Computing Science, ASIAN'96, held in Singapore in December 1996.
The volume presents 31 revised full papers selected from a total of 169 submissions; also included are three invited papers and 14 posters. The papers are organized in topical sections on algorithms, constraints and logic programming, distributed systems, formal systems, networking and security, programming and systems, and specification and verification.