The study of cooperative phenomena is one of the dominant features of contem porary physics. Outside physics it has grown to a huge field of interdisciplinary investigation, involving all the natural sciences from physics via biology to socio logy. Yet, during the first few decades following the advent of quantum theory, the pursuit of the single particle or the single atom, as the case may be, has been so fascinating that only a small number of physicists have stressed the importance of collective behaviour. One outstanding personality among these few is Professor HERBERT FROHLICH. He has made an enormous contribution to the modern concept of cooperativity and has stimulated a whole generation of physicists. Therefore, it seemed to the editors very appropriate to dedicate a volume on "cooperative phenomena" to him on the occasion of his official retirement from his university duties. Nevertheless, in the course of carrying out this project, the editors have been somewhat amazed to find that they have covered the essentials of contemporary physics and its im pact on other scientific disciplines. It thus becomes clear how much HERBERT FROHLICH has inspired research workers and has acted as a stimulating discussion partner for others. FROHLICH is one of those exceptional scientists who have wor ked in quite different fields and given them an enormous impetus. Unfortunately, the number of scientists of such distinctive personality has been decreasing in our century.

Cooperative Phenomena in Biology deals with cooperation in biology and covers topics such as cooperative specific adsorption; the kinetics of oxygen binding to hemoglobin; allosteric control of cooperative adsorption and conformation changes; and cooperativity in biological surfaces responding to topical treatment. The use of Monte Carlo methods to investigate the behavior of cooperative Ising models is also described. This book is comprised of five chapters and opens with a discussion on the phenomenon of cooperative specific adsorption and its importance for the understanding of fundamental biological phenomena. The derivation of the cooperative specific adsorption isotherm both stochastically and on the basis of statistical mechanics is explained. The next chapter reviews the theory of the allosteric control of cooperative adsorption and conformation changes and outlines a molecular model for physiological activities according to the association-induction hypothesis. The reader is also introduced to a kinetic equation for hemoglobin oxygenation based on the infinite chain; the use of bioelectrometric methods to study solute interactions with biocolloidal surfaces responding to topical treatment; and the use of Monte Carlo computations to determine the behavior of cooperative Ising models. This monograph is intended for biologists, physicists, chemists, and mathematicians.

Theoretical and experimental work on solids with low-dimensi℗Ư onal cooperative phenomena has been rather explosively expanded in the last few years, and it seems to be quite fashionable to con℗Ư tribute to this field, especially to the problem of one-dimensional metals. On the whole, one could divide the huge amount of recent investigations into two parts although there is much overlap bet℗Ư ween these regimes, namely investigations on magnetic exchange interactions constrained to mainly one or two dimensions and, secondly, work done on Id metallic solids or linear chain compounds with Id delocalized electrons. There is, of course, overlap from one extreme case to the other with these solids and in some rare cases both phenomena are studied on one and the same crystal. In fact, however, most of the scientific groups in this area could be associated roughly with one of these categories and, in addition, a separation between theoreticians and experimentalists in each of these groups leads to a further splitting of interests although many theories about these solids have been tested by experimenta℗Ư lists. Nevertheless, more cooperation and understanding between scientists working on low-dimensional cooperative phenomena should appreciably stimulate further development. With a better inderdis℗Ư ciplinary understanding, new ideas could possibly help chemists in synthesizing tailor-cut solids. This would in return give experi℗Ư mentalists new phenomena to examine and finally would stimulate new theoretical work.

This volume contains the lectures and invited seminars pre sented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on NON-EQUILIBRIUM COOPERATIVE PHENOMENA IN PHYSICS AND RELATED FIELDS that was held at EL ESCORIAL (MADRID), SPAIN, on August 1-11, 1983. Most nonlinear problems in dissipative systems, i . e . , most mathematical models in SYNERGETICS are highly trans disciplinary in practice and the list of lecturers and participants at the ASI reflects this di versi ty both in background and interest. The presentation of the material fell into two main categories: tutopia~ Zectures on some basic ideas and methods, both experimental and theoretical, intended to lay a common base for all participants, and a series of more specific lectures and seminars, serving the purpose of exemplying selected but typical applications in their current state of development. Topics were chosen for their basic interest as well as for their potential for applications (laser, hydrodynamics, liquid crystals, EHD, combustion, thermoelasticity, etc. ). We had more seminars and some of the oral presentations were supported or complemented with 16 mm films and on occasion with experimental demonstrations including a special seminar, a social one on broken symmetries in Art and Music. There is here no record of these non-standard acti vi ties. We had, indeed, quite a heavy load for which I was fully responsible. However, the reader and, above all, the participants at the ASI ought to be aware of the fact that in Spain, with.

This monograph deals with the effects of reactant spatial correlations arising in the course of basic bimolecular reactions describing defect recombination, energy transfer and exciton annihilation in condensed matter. These effects lead to the kinetics considered abnormal from the standard chemical kinetics point of view. Numerous bimolecular reaction regimes and conditions are analysed in detail. Special attention is paid to the development and numerous applications of a novel, many-point density (MPD) formalism, which is based on Kirkwood's superposition approximation used for decoupling three-particle correlation functions.The book demonstrates that incorporation of the reaction-induced spatial correlations of similar reactants (e.g., vacancy-vacancy) leads to the development of an essentially non-Poisson spectrum of reactant density fluctuations. This can completely change the kinetics at longer times since it no longer obeys the law of mass action. The language of the correlation lengths and critical exponents similar to physics of critical phenomena is used instead. A relation between MPD theory and synergistics is discussed. The validity of the theorem giving a critical complexity for the two-step reactions exhibiting self-organization phenomena is questioned. Theoretical results are illustrated by numerous experimental data.

This book presents a systematic and coherent approach to phase transitions and critical phenomena, namely the coherent-anomaly method (CAM theory) based on cluster mean-field approximations. The first part gives a brief review of the CAM theory and the second part a collection of reprints covering the CAM basic calculations, the Blume-Emery-Griffiths model, the extended Baxter model, the quantum Heisenberg model, zero-temperature phase transitions, the KT-transition, spin glasses, the self-avoiding walk, contact processes, branching processes, the gas-liquid transition and even non-equilibrium phase transitions.

Solid state physics forms an important part of the undergraduate syllabi of physics in most of the universities. The existing competing books by Indian authors have too complex technical language which makes them abstractive to Indian students who use English as their secondary language. Solid State Physics is written as per the core module syllabus of the major universities and targets undergraduate B.Sc students. The book uses lecture style in explaining the concepts which would facilitate easy understanding of the concepts. The topics have been dealt with precision and provide adequate knowledge of the subject.