Defects and Geometry in Condensed Matter Physics Nelson Hardback 9780521801591

Defects and Geometry in Condensed Matter PhysicsAuthor(s): David R. Nelson\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521801591, 978-0521801591\nSynopsis\nThermally excited defects such as vortices, disclinations, dislocations, vacancies and interstitials play a key role in the physics of crystals, superfluids, superconductors, liquid crystals and polymer arrays. Geometrical aspects of statistical mechanics become particularly important when thermal fluctuations entangle or crumple extended line-like or surface-like objects in three dimensions. In the case of entangled vortices above the first-order flux lattice melting transition in high temperature superconductors, the lines themselves are defects. A variety of low temperature theories combined with renormalization group ideas are used to describe the delicate interplay between defects, statistical mechanics and geometry characteristic of these problem.