The first book of its kind to introduce the fundamentals, basic features and models, potential applications and novel phenomena and its important applications in liquid crystal technology. Recognized leader in the field Gaetano Assanto outlines the peculiar characteristics of nematicons and the promise they have for the future growth of this captivating new field.

Systems driven far from thermodynamic equilibrium can create dissipative structures through the spontaneous breaking of symmetries. A particularly fascinating feature of these pattern-forming systems is their tendency to produce spatially confined states. These localized wave packets can exist as propagating entities through space and/or time. Various examples of such systems will be dealt with in this book, including localized states in fluids, chemical reactions on surfaces, neural networks, optical systems, granular systems, population models, and Bose-Einstein condensates. This book should appeal to all physicists, mathematicians and electrical engineers interested in localization in far-from-equilibrium systems. The authors - all recognized experts in their fields - strive to achieve a balance between theoretical and experimental considerations thereby giving an overview of fascinating physical principles, their manifestations in diverse systems, and the novel technical applications on the horizon.

This volume collects a a number of contributions on spontaneous symmetry breaking. Current studies in this general field are going ahead at a full speed. The book present review chapters which give an overview on the major break throughs of recent years. It covers a number of different physical settings which are introduced when a nonlinearity is added to the underlying symmetric problems and its strength exceeds a certain critical value. The corresponding loss of symmetry, called spontaneous symmetry breaking, alias self-trapping into asymmetric states is extensively discussed in this book. The book presents both active theoretical studies of spontaneous symmetry breaking effects as well as experimental findings, chiefly for Bose-Einstein-Condensates with the self-repulsive nonlinearity, and also for photorefractive media in optics.

Much more than a slight revision, this second edition of the successful "Handbook of Liquid Crystals" is completely restructured and streamlined, with updated as well as completely new topics, 100% more content and a new team of editors and authors. As such, it fills the gap for a definitive, single source reference for all those working in the field of organized fluids and will set the standard for the next decade. The Handbook's new structure facilitates navigation and combines the presentation of the content by topic and by liquid-crystal type: A fundamentals volume sets the stage for an understanding of the liquid crystal state of matter, while individual volumes cover the main types and forms, with a final volume bringing together the diverse liquid crystal phases through their applications. This unrivaled, all-embracing coverage represents the undiluted knowledge on liquid crystals, making the Handbook a must-have wherever liquid crystals are investigated, produced or used, and in institutions where their science and technology is taught. Also available electronically on Wiley Online Library, www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/ref/holc Volume 1: Fundamentals of Liquid Crystals Volume 2: Physical Properties and Phase Behavior of Liquid Crystals Volume 3: Nematic and Chiral Nematic Liquid Crystals Volume 4: Smectic and Columnar Liquid Crystals Volume 5: Non-Conventional Liquid Crystals Volume 6: Nanostructured and Amphiphilic Liquid Crystals Volume 7: Supermolecular and Polymeric Liquid Crystals Volume 8: Applications of Liquid Crystals

New applications, research, and fundamental theories in nonlinear analysis are presented in this book. Each chapter provides a unique insight into a large domain of research focusing on functional equations, stability theory, approximation theory, inequalities, nonlinear functional analysis, and calculus of variations with applications to optimization theory. Topics include: Fixed point theory Fixed-circle theory Coupled fixed points Nonlinear duality in Banach spaces Jensen's integral inequality and applications Nonlinear differential equations Nonlinear integro-differential equations Quasiconvexity, Stability of a Cauchy-Jensen additive mapping Generalizations of metric spaces Hilbert-type integral inequality, Solitons Quadratic functional equations in fuzzy Banach spaces Asymptotic orbits in Hill’sproblem Time-domain electromagnetics Inertial Mann algorithms Mathematical modelling Robotics Graduate students and researchers will find this book helpful in comprehending current applications and developments in mathematical analysis. Research scientists and engineers studying essential modern methods and techniques to solve a variety of problems will find this book a valuable source filled with examples that illustrate concepts.

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