This book is based on the contributions to the 17th International School of Materials Sci ence and Technology, entitled Nonlinear Waves in Solid State Physics. This was held as a NATO Advanced Study Institute at the Ettore Majorana Centre in Erice, Sicily between the st th 1 and 15 July 1989, and attracted almost 100 participants from over 20 different countries. The book covers the fundamental properties of nonlinear waves in solid state materials, dealing with both theory and experiment. The aim is to emphasise the methods underpinning the important new developments in this area. The material is organised into subject areas that can broadly be classified into the following groups: the theory of nonlinear surface and guided waves in self-focusing magnetic and non-magnetic materials; nonlinear effects at in terfaces; nonlinear acoustoelectronic and surface acoustic waves; Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of nonlinear problems; nonlinear effects in optical fibres; resonance phenomena; and nonlinear integrated optics. The chapters have been grouped together according to these classifications as closely as possible, but it should be borne in mind that although there is much overlap of ideas, each chapter is essentially independent of the others. We would like to acknowledge the sponsorship of the NATO Scientific Affairs Division, the European Physical Society, the National Science Foundation of the USA, the European Research Office, the Italian Ministry of Education, the Italian Ministry of Scientific and Technological Research, the Sicilian Regional Government and the Ugo Bordoni Foundation.

Nonlinear physics is a well-established discipline in physics today, and this book offers a comprehensive account of the basic soliton theory and its applications. Although primarily mathematical, the theory for nonlinear phenomena in practical environment

A non-linear wave is one of the fundamental objects of nature. They are inherent to aerodynamics and hydrodynamics, solid state physics and plasma physics, optics and field theory, chemistry reaction kinetics and population dynamics, nuclear physics and gravity. All non-linear waves can be divided into two parts: dispersive waves and dissipative ones. The history of investigation of these waves has been lasting about two centuries. In 1834 J. S. Russell discovered the extraordinary type of waves without the dispersive broadening. In 1965 N. J. Zabusky and M. D. Kruskal found that the Korteweg-de Vries equation has solutions of the solitary wave form. This solitary wave demonstrates the particle-like properties, i. e. , stability under propagation and the elastic interaction under collision of the solitary waves. These waves were named solitons. In succeeding years there has been a great deal of progress in understanding of soliton nature. Now solitons have become the primary components in many important problems of nonlinear wave dynamics. It should be noted that non-linear optics is the field, where all soliton features are exhibited to a great extent. This book had been designed as the tutorial to the theory of non-linear waves in optics. The first version was projected as the book covering all the problems in this field, both analytical and numerical methods, and results as well. However, it became evident in the process of work that this was not a real task.

Soliton theory, the theory of nonlinear waves in lattices composed of particles interacting by nonlinear forces, is treated rigorously in this book. The presentation is coherent and self-contained, starting with pioneering work and extending to the most recent advances in the field. Special attention is focused on exact methods of solution of nonlinear problems and on the exact mathematical treatment of nonlinear lattice vibrations. This new edition updates the material to take account of important new advances.

Travelling wave processes and wave motion are of great importance in many areas of mechanics, and nonlinearity also plays a decisive role there. The basic mathematical models in this area involve nonlinear partial differential equations, and predictability of behaviour of wave phenomena is of great importance. Beside fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, which have long been the traditional nonlinear scienes, solid mechanics is now taking an ever increasing account of nonlinear effects. Apart from plasticity and fracture mechanics, nonlinear elastic waves have been shown to be of great importance in many areas, such as the study of impact, nondestructive testing and seismology. These lectures offer a thorough account of the fundamental theory of nonlinear deformation waves, and in the process offer an up to date account of the current state of research in the theory and practice of nonlinear waves in solids.

Waves occur widely in nature and have innumerable commercial uses. Pressure waves are responsible for the transmission of speech, bow waves created by meteors can virtually ignite the earth's atmosphere, ultrasonic waves are used for medical imaging, and shock waves are used for the synthesis of new materials. This book provides a thorough, modern introduction to the study of linear and nonlinear waves. Beginning with fundamental concepts of motion, the book goes on to discuss linear and nonlinear mechanical waves, thermodynamics, and constitutive models. It covers gases, liquids, and solids as integral parts of the subject. Among the important areas of research and application are impact analysis, shock wave research, explosive detonation, nonlinear acoustics, and hypersonic aerodynamics. Graduate students, as well as professional engineers and applied physicists, will value this clear, comprehensive introduction to the study of wave phenomena.

This book is mainly devoted to the dynamics of the one-dimensional nonlinear stochastic waves. It contains a description of the basic mathematical tools as well as the latest results in the following fields: exactly integrable nonlinear stochastic equations, dynamics of the nonlinear waves in random media, evolution of the random waves in nonlinear media and the basic concepts of the numerical simulations in nonlinear random wave dynamics. A brief outline of the localization phenomenon in the nonlinear medium is also given. The approach is interdisciplinary describing the general methods with application to specific examples. The results presented may be useful for those who work in the areas of solid state physics, hydrodynamics, nonlinear optics, plasma physics, mathematical models of micromolecules and biological structures, …etc. Since many results are based on the inverse scattering technique, perturbation theory for solitons and the methods of the statistical radiophysics, the terminology of the respective fields is used.