Nonlinearity in Condensed Matter : Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Conference, Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 5-9 May, 1986 PDF

The Sixth Annual Conference of the Center for Nonlinear Studies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory was held May 5-9, 1986, on the topic "Nonlinearity in Condensed Matter: Lessons from the Past and Prospects for the Future. " As conference organizers, we felt that the study of non- linear phenomena in condensed matter had matured to the point where it made sense to take stock of the numerous lessons to be learned from a variety of contexts where nonlinearity plays a fundamental role and to evaluate the prospects for the growth of this general discipline.

The successful 1978 Oxford Symposium on nonlinear (soliton) struc- ture and dynamics in condensed matter (Springer Ser.

Solid-State Sci. , Vol. 8) was held at a time when the ubiquity of solitons was just begin- ning to be appreciated by the condensed matter community; in subsequent years the soliton paradigm has provided a rather useful framework for in- vestigating a large number of phenomena, particularly in low-dimensional systems.

Nevertheless, we felt that the importance of nonlinearity in wider arenas than "solitonics" merited a significant expansion in the scope of the conference over that of the 1978 symposium.

Indeed, many of the lessons are quite general and their potential for cross-fertilization of otherwise poorly connected disciplines was certainly one of the prime motivations for this conference.

Thus, while these proceedings contain many contribu- tions pertaining to soliton behavior in different contexts, the reader will find much more as well, particularly in the later chapters.