With the mapping of the partition function graphs of the n-vector magnetic model in the n to 0 limit as the self-avoiding walks, the conformational statistics of linear polymers was clearly understood in early seventies. Various models of disordered solids, percolation model in particular, were also established by late seventies. Subsequently, investigations on the statistics of linear polymers or of self-avoiding walks in, say, porous medium or disordered lattices were started in early eighties. Inspite of the brilliant ideas forwarded and extensive studies made for the next two decades, the problem is not yet completely solved in its generality. This intriguing and important problem has remained since a topic of vigorous and active research. This book intends to offer the readers a first hand and extensive review of the various aspects of the problem, written by the experts in the respective fields. We hope, the contents of the book will provide a valuable guide for researchers in statistical physics of polymers and will surely induce further research and advances towards a complete understanding of the problem. First book on statistics of polymers in random media. Contents straight away from research labs. Chapters written by foremost experts in the respective fields. Theories, experiments and computer simulations extensively discussed. Includes latest developments in understanding related important topics like DNA unzipping, Travelling salesman problem, etc. Comprehensive index for quick search for keywords.

Since the beginning of the century the technological desire to master the fracture of metals, concrete or polymers has boosted research and has left behind an overwhelming amount of literature. In a field where it seems difficult to say anything simple and new, the editors and authors of this book have managed to do just that.The approach to fracture taken here was not conceived by mechanical engineers or material scientists. It is essentially the by-product of exciting developments that have occurred in the last ten to fifteen years within a branch of theoretical physics, called statistical physics. Concepts such as ``percolation'' and ``fractals'', as models for the properties of fracture are not often considered by engineers. A particular aim of this volume is to emphasize the fundamental role disorder plays in the breaking process.The main scope of the volume is pedagogical and is at the same time an overview of fracture mechanics for physicists and an introduction to new concepts of statistical physics for mechanics and engineers. To this end the first half of the book consists of introductory chapters and the second half contains the results that have emerged from this new approach.

Publishes papers that report results of research in statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics. There are sections on (1) methods of statistical physics, (2) classical fluids, (3) liquid crystals, (4) diffusion-limited aggregation, and dendritic growth, (5) biological physics, (6) plasma physics, (7) physics of beams, (8) classical physics, including nonlinear media, and (9) computational physics.

During a century, from the Van der Waals mean field description (1874) of gases to the introduction of renormalization group (RG techniques 1970), thermodynamics and statistical physics were just unable to account for the incredible universality which was observed in numerous critical phenomena. The great success of RG techniques is not only to solve perfectly this challenge of critical behaviour in thermal transitions but to introduce extremely useful tools in a wide field of daily situations where a system exhibits scale invariance. The introduction of scaling, scale invariance and universality concepts has been a significant turn in modern physics and more generally in natural sciences. Since then, a new "physics of scaling laws and critical exponents", rooted in scaling approaches, allows quantitative descriptions of numerous phenomena, ranging from phase transitions to earthquakes, polymer conformations, heartbeat rhythm, diffusion, interface growth and roughening, DNA sequence, dynamical systems, chaos and turbulence. The chapters are jointly written by an experimentalist and a theorist. This book aims at a pedagogical overview, offering to the students and researchers a thorough conceptual background and a simple account of a wide range of applications. It presents a complete tour of both the formal advances and experimental results associated with the notion of scaling, in physics, chemistry and biology.

From the reviews: "...This book is a very useful addition to polymer literature, and it is a pleasure to recommend it to the polymer community." (J.E. Mark, University of Cincinnati, POLYMER NEWS)

"Statistical Mechanics in a Nutshell offers a concise, self-contained advanced undergraduate to graduate level introduction to this rapidly developing field, requiring a background in elementary calculus and elementary mechanics. It starts with the basics, introduces the most important developments in classical statistical mechanics over the last thirty years, and guides readers to the very threshold of today's cutting-edge research. The author has revised the first 5 chapters (harmonizing the notation, improving the proofs, checking all exercises and adding a few additional interesting ones). He has also added a new chapter on stochastic thermodynamics, which finds its place after the 9th chapter. The appendices will also be completely rewritten, emphasizing the role of convexity and the Jensen inequality. Chapter 8 will be improved to include some important topics: namely, thermostats and fast algorithms. Chapter 9 will also be rewritten to modernize it and to transition to the new chapter on stochastic thermodynamics. Chapter 10 will be split in two, to focus on "disordered systems" and "complex systems," to emphasize applications (including neural networks and optimization algorithms), and to introduce some fundamental techniques (like the cavity method and message passing) at an elementary level. The goal of the new edition is to help the reader find her/his way into and through the vast, recent literature concerning statistical mechanics and to build a sense of the many fields in which the discipline has recently been applied"--

This proceedings volume contains selected talks and poster presentations from the 9th International Conference on Path Integrals — New Trends and Perspectives, which took place at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany, during the period September 23-28, 2007. Continuing the well-developed tradition of the conference series, the present status of both the different techniques of path integral calculations and their diverse applications to many fields of physics and chemistry is reviewed. This is reflected in the main topics in this volume, which range from more traditional fields such as general quantum physics and quantum or statistical field theory through technical aspects like Monte Carlo simulations to more modern applications in the realm of quantum gravity and astrophysics, condensed matter physics with topical subjects such as Bose-Einstein condensation or quantum wires, biophysics and econophysics. All articles are successfully tied together by the common method of path integration; as a result, special methodological advancements in one topic could be transferred to other topics.