This volume contains the collected works of the eminent chemist and physicist Lars Onsager, one of the most influential scientists of the 20th Century.The volume includes Onsager's previously unpublished PhD thesis, a biography by H C Longuet-Higgins and M E Fisher, an autobiographical commentary, selected photographs, and a list of Onsager discussion remarks in print.Onsager's scientific achievements were characterized by deep insights into the natural sciences. His two best-known accomplishments are his reciprocal relations for irreversible processes, for which he received the 1968 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and his explicit solution of the two-dimensional Ising model, a mathematical tour de force that created a sensation when it appeared. In addition, he made significant theoretical contributions to other fields, including electrolytes, colloids, superconductivity, turbulence, ice, electrons in metals, and dielectrics.In this volume, Onsager's contributions are divided into the following fields: irreversible processes; the Ising model; electrolytes; colloids; helium II and vortex quantization; off-diagonal long-range order and flux quantization; electrons in metal; turbulence; ion recombination; fluctuation theory; dielectrics; ice and water; biology; Mathieu functions. The different fields are evaluated by leading experts. The commentators are P W Anderson, R Askey, A Chorin, C Domb, R J Donnelly, W Ebeling, J-C Justice, H N W Lekkerkerker, P Mazur, H P McKean, J F Nagle, T Odijk, A B Pippard, G Stell, G H Weiss, and C N Yang.

This invaluable book presents most of the important papers of Emil Wolf, published over half-a-century. It covers chiefly diffraction theory (especially the analysis of the focal region), the theory of direct and inverse scattering, phase-space methods in quantum mechanics, the foundation of radiometry, phase conjugation and coherence theory. Several papers which have become classics of the optical literature are included, such as those on Wolf's rigorous formulation of the theory of partial coherence and partial polarization, the introduction of diffraction tomography, and his discovery of correlation-induced shifts of spectral lines (often called the Wolf effect). There are also papers dealing with the historical development of optics and some review articles.

Hans A Bethe received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1967 for his work on the production of energy in stars. A living legend among the physics community, he helped to shape classical physics into quantum physics and increased the understanding of the atomic processes responsible for the properties of matter and of the forces governing the structures of atomic nuclei.This collection of papers by Prof Bethe dates from 1928, when he received his PhD, to now. It covers several areas and reflects the many contributions in research and discovery made by one of the most important and eminent physicists of all time. Special commentaries have been written by Prof Bethe to complement the selected papers.

This book is a collection of Professor Chen Ning Yang's personally selected papers (1971-2012) supplemented by his commentaries. Its contents reflect the professor's changing interests after he reached age sixty.

Professor Chen Ning Yang, an eminent contemporary physicist, was Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, from 1955 to 1966, and Albert Einstein Professor of Physics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook until his retirement in 1999. He has been Distinguished Professor-at-Large at the Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1986 and Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, since 1998.Since receiving his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1948, Prof Yang has made great impacts in both abstract theory and phenomenological analysis in modern physics. In 1983, he published “Selected Papers (1945-1980), With Commentary”. It has been considered by Freeman Dyson as one of his favorite books. The present book is a sequel to that earlier volume. It is a collection of his personally selected papers (1971-2012) supplemented by his insightful commentaries. Its contents reflect Professor Yang's changing interests after he reached age sixty. It also includes commentaries written by him in 2011 when he is 89 years old.The papers and commentaries in this unique collection comprise a remarkable personal and professional chronicle, shedding light on both the intellectual development of a great physicist and on the nature of scientific inquiry.

This important book contains selected research papers of Prof Bunji Sakita. Included are his pioneering papers on SU(6) symmetry, strong coupling theory, string theory, supersymmetry and the method of collective coordinates. There is also a vivid personal account of his journey in physics. The book brings to light some of the key concepts of modern high energy physics.

Professor Kun Huang is widely known for his collaboration with Max Born in writing the classic monograph, “Dynamical Theory of Crystal Lattices”. During his years of active research, he has made many important contributions to solid state physics. The present collection of papers is selected at his own choice as representing his most influential works. Thus one finds included his pioneering work on the interaction of radiation field with polar lattices and the resulting coupled vibration modes (later known as “polariton”); the systematic development of his theory of radiative and nonradiative multiphonon transition processes associated with lattice relaxation; his early prediction of diffuse X-ray scattering due to crystal defects; and his recent research works on low-dimensional semiconductor structures, etc.Professor Huang has found by his experience that scientists interested in these papers often want to know more particulars underlying the research work (background, motivation and rationale involved etc.). Thus he was led to write a commentary which is published alongside the papers.