Monte Carlo computer simulations are now a standard tool in scientific fields such as condensed-matter physics, including surface-physics and applied-physics problems (metallurgy, diffusion, and segregation, etc. ), chemical physics, including studies of solutions, chemical reactions, polymer statistics, etc., and field theory. With the increasing ability of this method to deal with quantum-mechanical problems such as quantum spin systems or many-fermion problems, it will become useful for other questions in the fields of elementary-particle and nuclear physics as well. The large number of...

The magnetism of iron and other transition metals had been a subject of inten- sive research for a long time, but the understanding of the microscopic origin of "metallic magnetism" was quite limited until the early 1970's. During the last 10 to 15 years both theory and experiment contributed towards signif- icant progress in this field, such that today a qualitative understanding has been achieved. The word "qualitative" indicates that the knowledge is still not complete; although many properties, the ground state as well as the finite- temperature behaviour and the phase transition from...

Energetic electromagnetic radiation finds frequent uses in science (e. g., for expe- riments in nuclear and elementary - particle physics), in technology (for materials testing), and in medicine (for medical X-rays). The most common method of genera- ting such radiation is via the process of "bremsstrahlung" (a German term coined by A. Sommerfeld, meaning "braking radiation") in which a beam of electrons is direc- ted into matter (e. g., a metal target), losing energy during its collisions with the atoms and releasing this energy in the form of emitted radiation. The character of such...

Some newly discovered effects lose their glamor after a short period of euphoria. Others, however, retain their fascination for a long time and, even as they mature, display unexpected features. The Mossbauer effect belongs to the second category. Rudolf Mossbauer's discovery of recoilless gamma-ray emission in 1957 immediately caused a flurry of attention, and confirming work appeared almost at once. Since then the flow of publications has steadily increased. Most studies follow predict abl e paths; the essential aspects of these "conventional" experiments have been described in the first...

Structural Phase Transitions II, like its predecessor (Topics in Current Physics, Vol. 23), presents selected methods and recent advances in the experimental investigation of phase transitions in solids. The two chapters in this volume deal with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and with nuclear magnetic and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NMR-NQR). Both techniques are particularly sensitive to local properties. The chapter on EPR concentrates largely on the investigation of static properties, including mean-field behaviour, critical and multicritical phenomena, whilst NMR is shown...

This book is devoted to the systematic treatment of nonequi 1 ibrium vibrational kinetics in molecular systems. Particular emphasis is given to the vibrational excitation of diatomic molecules by low-energy electrons in a discharge and by IR photons in laser-pumped systems. The book follows the different steps of the introduction, redistribution, loss, and chemical conversion of the vibrational quanta, from the points of view of the overall kinetics and the dynamics of elementary processes. These two aspects are balanced in a multidisciplinary approach. The different chapters give the basic...