This book advances understanding of light-induced phase transitions and nonequilibrium orders that occur in a broken-symmetry system. Upon excitation with an intense laser pulse, materials can undergo a nonthermal transition through pathways different from those in equilibrium. The mechanism underlying these photoinduced phase transitions has long been researched, but many details in this ultrafast, non-adiabatic regime still remain to be clarified. The work in this book reveals new insights into this phenomena via investigation of photoinduced melting and recovery of charge density waves (CDWs). Using several time-resolved diffraction and spectroscopic techniques, the author shows that the light-induced melting of a CDW is characterized by dynamical slowing-down, while the restoration of the symmetry-breaking order features two distinct timescales: A fast recovery of the CDW amplitude is followed by a slower re-establishment of phase coherence, the latter of which is dictated by the presence of topological defects in the CDW. Furthermore, after the suppression of the original CDW by photoexcitation, a different, competing CDW transiently emerges, illustrating how a hidden order in equilibrium can be unleashed by a laser pulse. These insights into CDW systems may be carried over to other broken-symmetry states, such as superconductivity and magnetic ordering, bringing us one step closer towards manipulating phases of matter using a laser pulse.

?Density Waves in Solids is written for graduate students and scientists interested in solid-state sciences. It discusses the theoretical and experimental state of affairs of two novel types of broken symmetry ground states of metals, charge, and spin density waves. These states arise as the consequence of electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions in low-dimensional metals.Some fundamental aspects of the one-dimensional electron gas, and of the materials with anisotropic properties, are discussed first. This is followed by the mean field theory of the phases transitions?discussed using second quantized formalism?together with the various experimental observations on the transition and on the ground states. Fluctuation effects and the collective excitations are reviewed next, using the Ginzburg-Landau formalism, followed by the review of the interaction of these states with the underlying lattice and with impurities. The final chapters are devoted to the response of the ground states to external perturbations.

This updated edition of the book blends in new e-commerce technologies. Mobile commerce (M-commerce) and use of cloud computing are offering a new set of challenges and opportunities for those individuals who know what they are and how they are related to e-commerce. Their use opens up new markets, expanding the need for larger operations, which in turn requires greater knowledge of the operations management subjects presented in this book.The book is focused on issues, concepts, philosophies, procedures, methodologies, and practices of running e-commerce operations. It connects the basic operations management activities undertaken by every organization (e.g., inventory management, scheduling, etc.) and translates their application into issues and problems faced in the field of e-commerce.The book also provides current research findings, strategies, and practices that can help students in the field of operations management run and improve their e-commerce operations. It covers most of the basic operations management activities and functions and has been designed for an upper-level undergraduate business, a graduate business or engineering management course on e-commerce operations management for university students. Students interested in e-commerce operations will find this book a valuable guide to the important aspects of starting up and running an e-commerce operation. They can learn from reading this book how supply chains, products and processes, human resources and purchasing functions can supported and enhanced by the use of e-commerce. In addition, students can learn how to undertake forecasting and scheduling in e-commerce operations. Decision-makers and managers who have to reengineer e-commerce operations can also use this book as a guide to understanding e-commerce.The Instructor Manual and PowerPoint Slides for the book are available upon request for all instructors who adopt this book as a course text. Please send your request to .

Following an explosion of research on Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) ignited by demonstration of the effect by 2001 Nobel prize winners Cornell, Wieman and Ketterle, this book surveys the field of BEC studies. Written by experts in the field, it focuses on Bose–Einstein condensation as a universal phenomenon, covering topics such as cold atoms, magnetic and optical condensates in solids, liquid helium and field theory. Summarising general theoretical concepts and the research to date - including novel experimental realisations in previously inaccessible systems and their theoretical interpretation - it is an excellent resource for researchers and students in theoretical and experimental physics who wish to learn of the general themes of BEC in different subfields.

This book develops the subject from the basic principles of quantum mechanics. The emphasis is on a single statement of the ideas underlying the various approximations that have to be used and care is taken to separate sound arguments from conjecture. This book is written for the student of theoretical physics who wants to work in the field of solids and for the experimenter with a knowledge of quantum theory who is not content to take other people's arguments for granted. The treatment covers the electron theory of metals as well as the dynamics of crystals, including the author's work on the thermal conductivity of crystals which has been previously published in English.

Volume 12 in this distinguished series starts with a chapter on high temperature superconductivity. The chapter is of general interest, giving a historical perspective of the various speculations in the past on the possibility of such superconductors and the possible mechanisms for the superconductivity in the recently discovered materials. Other chapters illustrate the wide range of physics which are more usual low temperature topics, such as spin polarized 3He gas and the Kapitza thermal boundary resistance at mainly millikelvin temperatures. Topics from neighbouring fields such as metal physics and applications of low-temperature physics are dealt with in chapters on charge density waves and multi-SQUID devices and their applications.