The development of the modern theory of metals and alloys has coincided with great advances in quantum-mechanical many-body theory, in electronic structure calculations, in theories of lattice dynamics and of the configura tional thermodynamics of crystals, in liquid-state theory, and in the theory of phase transformations. For a long time all these different fields expanded quite independently, but now their overlap has become sufficiently large that they are beginning to form the basis of a comprehensive first-principles the ory of the cohesive, structural, and thermodynamical properties of...