The Sixth Annual Conference of the Center for Nonlinear Studies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory was held May 5-9, 1986, on the topic "Nonlinearity in Condensed Matter: Lessons from the Past and Prospects for the Future. " As conference organizers, we felt that the study of non linear phenomena in condensed matter had matured to the point where it made sense to take stock of the numerous lessons to be learned from a variety of contexts where nonlinearity plays a fundamental role and to evaluate the prospects for the growth of this general discipline. The successful 1978 Oxford Symposium on nonlinear (soliton) struc ture and dynamics in condensed matter (Springer Ser. Solid-State Sci. , Vol. 8) was held at a time when the ubiquity of solitons was just begin ning to be appreciated by the condensed matter community; in subsequent years the soliton paradigm has provided a rather useful framework for in vestigating a large number of phenomena, particularly in low-dimensional systems. Nevertheless, we felt that the importance of nonlinearity in wider arenas than "solitonics" merited a significant expansion in the scope of the conference over that of the 1978 symposium. Indeed, many of the lessons are quite general and their potential for cross-fertilization of otherwise poorly connected disciplines was certainly one of the prime motivations for this conference. Thus, while these proceedings contain many contribu tions pertaining to soliton behavior in different contexts, the reader will find much more as well, particularly in the later chapters.
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ISBN-13
978-3-642-83033-4 (9783642830334)
DOI
10.1007/978-3-642-83033-4
Schweitzer Klassifikation
I Historical Perspective.- Nonlinearity: Historical and Technological View.- II Low-Dimensional Magnetism.- Soliton Dynamics: Experiments on Magnetic Chains.- Soliton Dynamics in One-Dimensional Antiferromagnets.- One-Dimensional Easy-Plane Magnets: Classical Sine-Gordon Theory or a Quantum Model?.- Towards a Quantitative Theory of Solitons in One-Dimensional Magnets: Quantum Effects, Out-of-Plane Fluctuations and the Specific Heat.- Quantum Corrections to the Specific Heat of the Easy-Plane Ferromagnetic Chain.- Monte Carlo Calculations of Quantum Systems.- III Conducting Polymers.- Photogeneration of Nonlinear Excitations in Semiconducting Polymers: Fast Response Nonlinear Optical Phenomena.- When Kinks are not Elementary Excitations.- Phonons and Soliton Diffusion in Polyacetylene.- Ground State Properties of Polyacetylene with Off-Diagonal Random Disorder.- IV Experimental Techniques.- Neutron Scattering Studies of Non-Linear Systems.- Novel Experimental Techniques and Realizations of Quasi-Periodicity.- Heavy-Electron Materials.- Magnetic Resonance as a Probe of Nonlinearity in Condensed Matter Physics.- High-Resolution He Beam Scattering as a Tool for the Investigation of the Structural and Dynamical Properties of Surface Soliton Dislocations.- V Theoretical Techniques.- Quantum Mechanics at the Macroscopic Level.- Soluble Models.- Variational Schemes for Many-Electron Systems.- Quantum Monte Carlo.- Quantum Spin Chains and Conformally Invariant Non-Linear ?-Models.- Collective Coordinates and Linear Modes of the Double-Sine-Gordon Kink.- A Collective Coordinate Method for Classical Dynamics of Nonlinear Klein-Gordon Kinks.- Quantum Coherence and the Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation.- Energy Transfer, Self-Trapping, and Solitons on a Nonlinear Dimer.- VIStructural Phase Transitions.- Microscopic Probing of BaTiO3 Ferroelectric Phase Transitions by EPR.- Structural Transformations in DNA.- Phonon Anomalies, Structural Transformations, and Precursor Structure in the Martensitic Alloys TiNi(Fe) and Al1?xNix.- Temperature Dependence of the Soft Mode for Structural Phase Transitions in Highly Anisotropic Systems.- A Model for the B?Z Transition of DNA Involving Solitary Excitations.- VII Spin-Glasses and Random Field Systems.- Recent Experimental Results in Spin-Glass Dynamics.- Spin Glasses: Recent Theoretical Developments.- The Random Field Problem - Facts and Fiction.- Statics and Dynamics of the Random Field Ising Model (Theory).- A Driven Random Field System: CDW Dynamics.- VIII Frustrated, Incommensurate, and Nonequilibrium Systems.- Topography and Diffusion of Kinks in Incommensurate Insulators: Relationship Between Phase Conjugation and Thermal Hysteresis in Incommensurate Phases, and a Physical Analog for Circadian Biorhythms.- Model of Icosahedral Order.- Systematics of Disorder in Quasiperiodic Material.- Friction and Forced Flow: Collective Transport in Disordered Media.- Non-Equilibrium Behavior, Hysteresis and Condensate Quakes in the Pinned Charge Density Wave.- Vortex Dynamics in Two-Dimensional Arrays of Superconducting Weak Links.- Interfacial Pattern Formation: A Progress Report.- Intrinsic Defect States in Protein Assemblages.- Is Universality Valid on Hierarchical and Fractal Lattices?.- IX Summary.- Lessons from the Past and Prospects for the Future?.- Index of Contributors.
