It is possible to "stretch" a liquid and, when suitably prepared, liquids are capable of sustaining substantial levels of tension, often for significant periods of time. These negative pressure states are metastable but can last for days - long enough for substantial experimental investigation. This volume is a review of recent and current research into the behaviour of liquids under negative pressure. Part I deals with the thermodynamics of stretched liquids. Part II discusses the physical and chemical behaviour of liquids under negative pressure. Part III contains papers on the effect of negative pressure on the solidification of a liquid. Part IV is devoted to stretched helium and Part V discusses cavitation in various stretched liquids. Part VI deals with the effect of foreign substances on cavitation.

This book is unique in supplying a comprehensive presentation of high pressures, negative pressures, random constraints and strong electric field exogenic (external) impacts on various soft matter systems. The book is an excellent guide in this novel and still puzzling research area. The book comes as a result from the ARW NATO brainstorming discussion in Odessa, Ukraine (8-12 Oct. 2005). It contains 31 papers prepared by key specialists in the field.

Written by leading experts in the field, the first edition of this textbook was the first of its kind to address numerous potential applications such as the technology of high-voltage insulation in pulsed inhomogeneous fields, and applications related to cavitation development in liquid dielectrics, treatment of different materials and plasma medicine. This second edition addresses the development of the theory over the past few years and features extensive revisions, as well as some expanded chapters. A new inclusion is an explanation of how the critical pressure at which cavitation is initiated is determined according to the surface tension coefficient at the boundary of small nanovoids and microbubbles. Discussion of the quantum mechanical nature of the cavitation inception in liquid helium is also provided, along with the derived values of critical negative pressure for the appearance of cavitation, and its characteristics at low temperatures.

These proceedings comprise a selection of the peer-reviewed papers that were presented at the 2nd International Symposium on Liquid Crystals: Science and Technology. Volume is indexed by Thomson Reuters CPCI-S (WoS). The topics of the 102 papers cover: the physics of liquid crystals, the chemistry of liquid crystals, applications of liquid crystals and related materials. This work will provide guidance to physicists, chemists and materials scientists working in the field of liquid crystals.

Metastable Liquids provides a comprehensive treatment of the properties of liquids under conditions where the stable state is a vapor, a solid, or a liquid mixture of different composition. It examines the fundamental principles that govern the equilibrium properties, stability, relaxation mechanisms, and relaxation rates of metastable liquids. Building on the interplay of kinetics and thermodynamics that determines the thermophysical properties and structural relaxation of metastable liquids, it offers an in-depth treatment of thermodynamic stability theory, the statistical mechanics of metastability, nucleation, spinodal decomposition, supercooled liquids, and the glass transition. Both traditional topics--such as stability theory--and modern developments--including modern theories of nucleation and the properties of supercooled and glassy water--are treated in detail. An introductory chapter illustrates, with numerous examples, the importance and ubiquity of metastable liquids. Examples include the ascent of sap in plants, the strategies adopted by many living organisms to survive prolonged exposure to sub-freezing conditions, the behavior of proteins at low temperatures, metastability in mineral inclusions, ozone depletion, the preservation and storage of labile biochemicals, and the prevention of natural gas clathrate hydrate formation. All mathematical symbols are defined in the text and key equations are clearly explained. More complex mathematical explanations are available in the appendixes.