This book presents the science of tensors in a didactic way. The various types and ranks of tensors and the physical basis is presented. Cartesian Tensors are needed for the description of directional phenomena in many branches of physics and for the characterization the anisotropy of material properties. The first sections of the book provide an introduction to the vector and tensor algebra and analysis, with applications to physics, at undergraduate level. Second rank tensors, in particu...

This textbook takes a broad yet thorough approach to mechanics, aimed at bridging the gap between classical analytic and modern differential geometric approaches to the subject. Developed by the author from 35 years of teaching experience, the presentation is designed to give students an overview of the many different models used through the history of the field—from Newton to Lagrange—while also painting a clear picture of the most modern developments. Throughout, it makes heavy use of th...

The Fundamentals of Atomic and Molecular Physics is intended as an introduction to the field for advanced undergraduates who have taken quantum mechanics. Each chapter builds upon the previous, using the same tools and methods throughout. As the students progress through the book, their ability to use these tools will steadily increase, along with their confidence in their efficacy. The book treats the two-electron atom as the simplest example of the many-electron atom—as opposed ...

These proceedings comprise invited and contributed papers presented at PLMMP-2014, addressing modern problems in the fields of liquids, solutions and confined systems, critical phenomena, as well as colloidal and biological systems. The book focuses on state-of-the-art developments in contemporary physics of liquid matter. The papers presented here are organized into four parts: (i) structure of liquids in confined systems, (ii) phase transitions, supercritical liquids and glasses, (iii) c...

This book deals with those properties of non-equilibrium soft matter that deviate greatly from the bulk properties as a result of nanoscale confinement.The ultimate physical origin of these confinement effects is not yet fully understood. At the state of the art, the discussion on confinement effects focuses on equilibrium properties, finite size effects and interfacial interactions. However this is a limited vision which does not fully capture the peculiar behaviour of soft matter under c...

This short primer offers non-specialist readers a concise, yet comprehensive introduction to the field of classical fluids – providing both fundamental information and a number of selected topics to bridge the gap between the basics and ongoing research.In particular, hard-sphere systems represent a favorite playground in statistical mechanics, both in and out of equilibrium, as they represent the simplest models of many-body systems of interacting particles, and at higher temperat...

Colloids are submicron particles that are ubiquitous in nature (milk, clay, blood) and industrial products (paints, drilling fluids, food). In recent decades it has become clear that adding depletants such as polymers or small colloids to colloidal dispersions allows one to tune the interactions between the colloids and in this way control the stability, structure and rheological properties of colloidal dispersions. This book offers a concise introduction to the fundamentals of depletion e...

Most of the solid materials we use in everyday life, from plastics to cosmetic gels exist under a non-crystalline, amorphous form: they are glasses. Yet, we are still seeking a fundamental explanation as to what glasses really are and to why they form. In this book, we survey the most recent theoretical and experimental research dealing with glassy physics, from molecular to colloidal glasses and granular media. Leading experts in this field present broad and original perspectives on one o...

This set of lectures provides an introduction to the structure, thermodynamics and dynamics of liquids, binary solutions and polymers at a level that will enable graduate students and non-specialist researchers to understand more specialized literature and to possibly start their own work in this field.Part I starts with the introduction of distribution functions, which describe the statistical arrangements of atoms or molecules in a simple liquid. The main concepts involve mean fi...

The state-of-the-art in the theoretical statistical physics treatment of the Janus fluid is reported with a bridge between new research results published in journal articles and a contextual literature review. Recent Monte Carlo simulations on the Kern and Frenkel model of the Janus fluid have revealed that in the vapor phase, below the critical point, there is the formation of preferred inert clusters made up of a well-defined number of particles: the micelles and the vesicles. This is re...

The study of fluctuations in statistical physics has a long history, and a general theory is well established, connecting fluctuations to response properties of equilibrium systems. Remarkably, this framework fails as soon as some current is flowing across the system, driving it out of equilibrium.The presence of currents is quite common in nature and produces rich phenomena which are far from being included in a general framework. This thesis focuses on this general problem by stud...

This book presents recent advances, new ideas and novel techniques related to the field of nonlinear dynamics, including localized pattern formation, self-organization and chaos. Various natural systems ranging from nonlinear optics to mechanics, fluids and magnetic are considered. The aim of this book is to gather specialists from these various fields of research to promote cross-fertilization and transfer of knowledge between these active research areas. In particular, nonlinear optics a...