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About sixty years ago, the anomalous magnetic response of certain magnetic alloys drew the attention of theoretical physicists. It soon became clear that understanding these systems, now called spin glasses, would give rise to a new branch of statistical physics. As physical materials, spin glasses were found to be as useless as they were exotic. They have nevertheless been recognized as paradigmatic examples of complex systems with applications to problems as diverse as neural networks, amorphous solids, biological molecules, social and economic interactions, information theory and constraint satisfaction problems.This book presents an encyclopaedic overview of the broad range of these applications. More than 30 contributions are compiled, written by many of the leading researchers who have contributed to these developments over the last few decades. Some timely and cutting-edge applications are also discussed. This collection serves well as an introduction and summary of disordered and glassy systems for advanced undergraduates, graduate students and practitioners interested in the topic.
With contributions from 24 global experts in diverse fields, and edited by world-recognized leaders in physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysics, Structural Glasses and Supercooled Liquids: Theory, Experiment, and Applications presents a modern, complete survey of glassy phenomena in many systems based on firmly established characteristics of the underlying molecular motions as deduced by first principle theoretical calculations, or with direct/single-molecule experimental techniques. A well-rounded view of a variety of disordered systems where cooperative phenomena, which are epitomized by supercooled liquids, take place is provided. These systems include structural glasses and supercooled liquids, polymers, complex liquids, protein conformational dynamics, and strongly interacting electron systems with quenched/self-generated disorder. Detailed calculations and reasoned arguments closely corresponding with experimental data are included, making the book accessible to an educated non-expert reader.
This tenth volume in the Poincaré Seminar Series describes recent developments at one of the most challenging frontiers in statistical physics - the deeply related fields of glassy dynamics, especially near the glass transition, and of the statics and dynamics of granular systems. These fields are marked by a vigorous interchange between experiment, theory, and numerical studies, all of which are well represented by the leading experts who have contributed articles to this volume. These articles are also highly pedagogical, as befits their origin in lectures to a broad scientific audience. Highlights include a Galilean dialogue on the mean field and competing theories of the glass transition, a wide-ranging survey of colloidal glasses, and experimental as well as theoretical treatments of the relatively new field of dense granular flows. This book should be of broad general interest to both physicists and mathematicians.
Modern developments of Random Matrix Theory as well as pedagogical approaches to the standard core of the discipline are surprisingly hard to find in a well-organized, readable and user-friendly fashion. This slim and agile book, written in a pedagogical and hands-on style, without sacrificing formal rigor fills this gap. It brings Ph.D. students in Physics, as well as more senior practitioners, through the standard tools and results on random matrices, with an eye on most recent developments that are not usually covered in introductory texts. The focus is mainly on random matrices with real spectrum.The main guiding threads throughout the book are the Gaussian Ensembles. In particular, Wigner’s semicircle law is derived multiple times to illustrate several techniques (e.g., Coulomb gas approach, replica theory).Most chapters are accompanied by Matlab codes (stored in an online repository) to guide readers through the numerical check of most analytical results.
An intuitive, up-to-date introduction to random matrix theory and free calculus, with real world illustrations and Big Data applications.
A concise, comprehensive introduction to the topic of statistical physics of combinatorial optimization, bringing together theoretical concepts and algorithms from computer science with analytical methods from physics. The result bridges the gap between statistical physics and combinatorial optimization, investigating problems taken from theoretical computing, such as the vertex-cover problem, with the concepts and methods of theoretical physics. The authors cover rapid developments and analytical methods that are both extremely complex and spread by word-of-mouth, providing all the necessary basics in required detail. Throughout, the algorithms are shown with examples and calculations, while the proofs are given in a way suitable for graduate students, post-docs, and researchers. Ideal for newcomers to this young, multidisciplinary field.
This book presents new experimental tools and theoretical concepts of collective nonequilibrium behavior of quantum systems. The book is based on the Les Houches Summer School of August 2012, "Strongly interacting quantum systems out of equilibrium".
Most everyday solid materials, from plastics to cosmetic gels, exist in a non-crystalline, amorphous form: they are glasses. Yet we are still seeking an explanation as to what glasses really are and to why they form. In this book, leading experts present broad and original perspectives on one of the deepest mysteries of condensed matter physics.
This self-contained text describes the modern mean field theory of simple structural glasses using a quantum statistical mechanical approach. Describing the theory in clear and simple terms, this is a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers working in condensed matter physics and statistical mechanics.
Random matrix theory has many roots and many branches in mathematics, statistics, physics, computer science, data science, numerical analysis, biology, ecology, engineering, and operations research. This book provides a snippet of this vast domain of study, with a particular focus on the notations of universality and integrability. Universality shows that many systems behave the same way in their large scale limit, while integrability provides a route to describe the nature of those universal limits. Many of the ten contributed chapters address these themes, while others touch on applications of tools and results from random matrix theory. This book is appropriate for graduate students and researchers interested in learning techniques and results in random matrix theory from different perspectives and viewpoints. It also captures a moment in the evolution of the theory, when the previous decade brought major break-throughs, prompting exciting new directions of research.