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This volume contains the proceedings of the Fourteenth Thniguchi Symposium on the Theory of Condensed Matter, which was held from November 10 to 14, 1991, at the Shima Kanko Hotel, Shima, Japan.

This graduate-level textbook deals with different aspects of plane mirrors and mirror-related symmetries. It provides us with some new ways of understanding symmetries in crystals and the mirror combination schemes. The inclusion of topics such as the Wigner¿Seitz unit cell, reciprocal lattice, Brillouin zones, diffraction of crystals, etc., based on the mirror combination scheme, are extremely helpful in understanding many other concepts in crystallography. A mirror is the only fundamental symmetry in crystals, and all other permissible symmetries in crystalline solids can be derived from suitable combinations of mirrors, called derived symmetries. A rudimentary knowledge of symmetry in crystallography is essential to students, researchers, and professionals in many subjects in science and technology: physics, chemistry, mathematics, molecular biology, geology, metallurgy, and particularly materials science and mineralogy.

This book covers the flux pinning mechanisms and properties and the electromagnetic phenomena caused by the flux pinning common for metallic, high-Tc and MgB2 superconductors. The condensation energy interaction known for normal precipitates or grain boundaries and the kinetic energy interaction proposed for artificial Nb pins in Nb-Ti, etc., are introduced for the pinning mechanism. Summation theories to derive the critical current density are discussed in detail. Irreversible magnetization and AC loss caused by the flux pinning are also discussed. The loss originally stems from the ohmic dissipation of normal electrons in the normal core driven by the electric field induced by the flux motion.The influence of the flux pinning on the vortex phase diagram in high Tc superconductors is discussed, and the dependencies of the irreversibility field are also described on other quantities such as anisotropy of superconductor, specimen size and electric field strength. Recent developments of critical current properties in various high-Tc superconductors and MgB2 are introduced.The 3rd edition has been thoroughly updated, with a new chapter on critical state model. The mechanism of irreversible properties is discussed in detail. The author provides calculations of pinning loss by the equation of motion of flux lines in the pinning potential and hysteresis loss. The readers will learn why the resultant loss is of hysteresis type in spite of such mechanism. This book aims for graduate students and researchers studying superconductivity as well as engineers working in electric utility industry.

This book provides a model description for the electromagnetic response of topological nodal semimetals and summarizes recent experimental findings in these systems. Specifically, it discusses various types of topological semimetals ¿ Dirac, Weyl, nodal-line, triple-point, and multifold semimetals ¿ and provides description for the characteristic features of the linear electrodynamic response for all these types of materials.Topological semimetals possess peculiar bulk electronic band structure, which leads to unusual electrodynamic response. For example, the low-energy inter-band optical conductivity of nodal semimetals is supposed to demonstrate power-law frequency dependence and the intra- and inter-band contributions to the conductivity are often mixed. Further, the magneto-optical response is also unusual, because of the non-equidistant spacing between the Landau levels. Finally, in semimetals with chiral electronic bands, e.g. in Weyl semimetals, thesimultaneous application of parallel magnetic and electric fields leads to the chiral anomaly, i.e. to a misbalance between the electrons with diffident chiralities. This misbalance affects the electrodynamics properties of the material and can be detected optically. All these points are addressed here in detail.The book is written for a wide audience of physicists, working in the field of topological condensed matter physics. It gives a pedagogical introduction enabling graduate students and non-experts to familiarize themselves with the subject.

This book, now in its ninth edition, still has the character of a textbook with the emphasis on "e;Physics"e;. The volume has increased somewhat because several improvements have been made and some new items have been included. In Sect. 13. 2 the new Quantum Cascade Laser which covers the far in- frared spectral range has been added. In Sect. 14. 4 the theory of the quantum Hall effect is now based on ballistic transport which in a more general respect without referring to the then still unknown quantum Hall effect was consid- ered already by Rudolf Peierls. In the same chapter, the recent discovery of a low-temperature resistance oscillation in a very pure semiconductor under the influence of combined dc and ac electric fields in addition to a magnetic field is presented. Furthermore, quantum Hall effect observations with an unprece- dented high precision are remarkable and may give a new impetus to theory. A new Sect. 15. 5 presents information about coaxial carbon tubes of nanometer size diameter and how they are integrated as the current transporting element in a field effect transistor. In another new addition Sect. 15. 6 with the title Molecular Electronics, the current-voltage rectifying characteristics of an or- ganic Langmuir-Blodgett film of nanometer thickness is shown. These efforts serve to demonstrate where the ever decreasing size of electronic circuits may come to its natural limits. The system of units preferred here is the SI system.

The book covers the flux pinning mechanisms and properties and the electromagnetic phenomena caused by the flux pinning common for metallic, high-Tc and MgB2 superconductors. The condensation energy interaction known for normal precipitates or grain boundaries and the kinetic energy interaction proposed for artificial Nb pins in Nb-Ti, etc. are introduced for the pinning mechanism. Summation theories to derive the critical current density are discussed in detail. Irreversible magnetization and AC loss caused by the flux pinning are also discussed. The loss originally stems from the ohmic dissipation of normal electrons in the normal core driven by the electric field induced by the flux motion.The readers will learn why the resultant loss is of hysteresis type in spite of such mechanism. The influence of the flux pinning on the vortex phase diagram in high Tc superconductors is discussed and the dependencies of the irreversibility field are also described on other quantities such as anisotropy of superconductor, specimen size and electric field strength. Recent developments of critical current properties in various high-Tc superconductors and MgB2 are introduced.Other topics are: singularity in the case of transport current in a parallel magnetic field such as deviation from the Josephson relation, reversible flux motion inside pinning potentials which causes deviation from the critical state model prediction, the concept of the minimization of energy dissipation in the flux pinning phenomena which gives the basis for the critical state model, etc. Significant reduction in the AC loss in AC wires with very fine filaments originates from the reversible flux motion which is dominant in the two-dimensional pinning. The concept of minimum energy dissipation explains also the behavior of flux bundle size which determines the irreversibility line under the flux creep.The new edition has been thoroughly updated, with new sections on the progress in enhancing the critical current density in high temperature superconductors by introduction of artificial pinning centers, the effect of packing density on the critical current density and irreversibility field in MgB2 and derivation of the force-balance equation from the minimization of the free energy including the pinning energy.

Quasicrystals are a new form of the solid state which differ from the other two known forms, crystalline and amorphous, by possesing a new type of long-range translational order, called quasiperiodicty, and a noncrystallographic orientational order. This book provides an up-to-date description of the unusual physical properties of these new materials. Emphasis is placed on the experimental results, which are compared with those of the corresponding crystalline and amorphous systems and discussed in terms of modern theoretical models. Written by leading authorities in the field, the book will be of great use both to experienced workers in the field and to uninitiated graduate students.

The experimental discovery of the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) at the end of 1981 by Tsui, Stormer and Gossard was absolutely unexpected since, at this time, no theoretical work existed that could predict new struc­ tures in the magnetotransport coefficients under conditions representing the extreme quantum limit. It is more than thirty years since investigations of bulk semiconductors in very strong magnetic fields were begun. Under these conditions, only the lowest Landau level is occupied and the theory predicted a monotonic variation of the resistivity with increasing magnetic field, depending sensitively on the scattering mechanism. However, the ex­ perimental data could not be analyzed accurately since magnetic freeze-out effects and the transitions from a degenerate to a nondegenerate system complicated the interpretation of the data. For a two-dimensional electron gas, where the positive background charge is well separated from the two­ dimensional system, magnetic freeze-out effects are barely visible and an analysis of the data in the extreme quantum limit seems to be easier. First measurements in this magnetic field region on silicon field-effect transistors were not successful because the disorder in these devices was so large that all electrons in the lowest Landau level were localized. Consequently, models of a spin glass and finally of a Wigner solid were developed and much effort was put into developing the technology for improving the quality of semi­ conductor materials and devices, especially in the field of two-dimensional electron systems.

This is the first monograph devoted to investigation of the most complex physical processes of soft systems, including a wide class of solutions. It blends modern theoretical understanding and experimental results, proposing new methods and models for the description of several soft systems.

The book details how optical transitions in the active materials, such as semiconductor quantum dots and quantum wells, can be described using a quantum approach to the dynamics of solid-state electrons under quantum confinement and their interaction with phonons, as well as their external pumping by electrical currents.

This book covers basic and advanced aspects in the field of Topological Matter. It provides graduate level content introducing the basic concepts of the field, including an introductory session on group theory and topological classification of matter.

The book details how optical transitions in the active materials, such as semiconductor quantum dots and quantum wells, can be described using a quantum approach to the dynamics of solid-state electrons under quantum confinement and their interaction with phonons, as well as their external pumping by electrical currents.

This monograph presents an intuitive theory of trial wave functions for strongly interacting fermions in fractional quantum Hall states. The correlation functions for the proposed fermion interactions follow a novel algebraic approach that harnesses the classical theory of invariants and semi-invariants of binary forms.

This book provides an overview of recent developments in experiments probing the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states of the second Landau level, especially the \nu=5/2 state. The experimental part of this book gives practical advice for solving the experimental challenges which researchers studying highly fragile FQH states are faced with.

The first of its kind on the topic, this book presents a unified description of topological insulators in one, two and three dimensions based on the modified Dirac equation. Discusses topological invariants and their applications to a variety of systems.

This book offers an essential introduction to the notions of sound wave topology, duality, coherence and wave-mixing, which constitute the emerging new science of sound.

This book represents volume 2 of a 3-volume monograph on Particle Penetration and Radiation Effects.

It is here that the systematic study of magnetic materials has provided one of the best ways of examining this question, which is one of the principal concerns of statistical physics (alias "statistical mechanics") and of modern thermodynamics.