The physics of minerals in a broad sense implies the fundamental aspects of understanding mineral matter: the electronic structure of atoms related to their behavior in geochemical processes; the atomic and electronic structures of minerals; the properties of minerals, with their genetic, geophysical, and technical significance, and their pressure and temperature dependence; the mechanisms of phenomena and reactions in mineral formation and transformation processes; the physical me thods applied in mineralogical, geochemical and petrological studies, and to a great extent in geological surveys and prospecting. In a narrower sense, it is a branch lying in the border area between mineralogy and solid-state physics, dealing with those aspects of mine ralogy which require, for their understanding and investigation, special knowledge in contemporary physics and chemistry of solids. The physics of minerals accounts for the third crucial change within this century in the conceptual foundations of mineralogy: after physi cochemical mineralogy, from experimental studies of phase relations to parage netic analyses, and crystal chemistry of minerals, there followed solid-state physics, which has evolved to its present state over the past 25 years. The task of mineralogy has expanded greatly. In addition to the identification and description of minerals, it is becoming necessary to establish the relationships between structure, composition and properties of minerals and their genesis, their distribution within geological regions, magmatic, metamorphic and sedimentary formations and types of ore deposits. The development of new methods of investigation requires an understanding of the physical meaning of the parameters under evaluation.

The physics of minerals in a broad sense implies the fundamental aspects of understanding mineral matter: the electronic structure of atoms related to their behavior in geochemical processes; the atomic and electronic structures of minerals; the properties of minerals, with their genetic, geophysical, and technical significance, and their pressure and temperature dependence; the mechanisms of phenomena and reactions in mineral formation and transformation processes; the physical me thods applied in mineralogical, geochemical and petrological studies, and to a great extent in geological surveys and prospecting. In a narrower sense, it is a branch lying in the border area between mineralogy and solid-state physics, dealing with those aspects of mine ralogy which require, for their understanding and investigation, special knowledge in contemporary physics and chemistry of solids. The physics of minerals accounts for the third crucial change within this century in the conceptual foundations of mineralogy: after physi cochemical mineralogy, from experimental studies of phase relations to parage netic analyses, and crystal chemistry of minerals, there followed solid-state physics, which has evolved to its present state over the past 25 years. The task of mineralogy has expanded greatly. In addition to the identification and description of minerals, it is becoming necessary to establish the relationships between structure, composition and properties of minerals and their genesis, their distribution within geological regions, magmatic, metamorphic and sedimentary formations and types of ore deposits. The development of new methods of investigation requires an understanding of the physical meaning of the parameters under evaluation.

The triennial International Alloy Conferences (lACs) aim at the identification and promotion of the common elements developed in the study, either experimental, phenomenological, or theoretical and computational, of materials properties across materials types, from metals to minerals. To accomplish this goal, the lACs bring together scientists from a wide spectrum of materials science including experiment, theory, modeling, and computation, incorporating a broad range of materials properties. The first lAC, lAC-I, took place in Athens, Greece, June 16-21, 1996. The present volume of proceedings contains the papers presented at IAC-2, that took place in Davos, Switzerland, August 8-13, 1999. The topics in this book fall into several themes, which suggest a number of different classification schemes. We have chosen a scheme that classifies the papers in the volume into the categories Microstructural Properties; Ordering, Kinetics and Diffusion; Magnetic Properties and Elastic Properties. We have juxtaposed apparently disparate of revealing the dynamic character approaches to similar physical processes, in the hope of the processes under consideration. We hope this will invigorate new kinds of discussion and reveal challenges and new avenues to the description and prediction of properties of materials in the solid state and the conditions that produce them.

Guiding readers from the significance, history, and sources of materials to advanced materials and processes, this second edition textbook looks at the production and primary processing of inorganic materials, such as ceramics, metals, silicon, and some composite materials. The text encourages instructors to teach the production of all types of inorganic materials as one. While recognizing the differences between producing various types of materials, the authors focus on the commonality of thermodynamics, kinetics, transport phenomena, phase equilibria and transformation, process engineering, and surface chemistry to all inorganic materials. The text focuses on fundamentals and how fundamentals can be applied to understand how the major inorganic materials are produced and the initial stages of their processing. Understanding of these fundamentals will equip students for engineering future processes for producing materials or for studying the processing of the many less common materials not examined in this text. The text is intended for use in an undergraduate course at the junior or senior level, but will also serve as a useful introductory and reference work for graduate students and practicing scientists and engineers.