Kinks and Domain Walls: An Introduction to Classical and Quantum Solitons
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 9/14/2006
EAN 9780521836050, ISBN10: 0521836050
Hardcover, 192 pages, 24.4 x 17 x 1.3 cm
Language: English
Kinks and domain walls are the simplest kind of solitons and are invaluable for testing various ideas and for learning about non-perturbative aspects of field theories. They are the subject of research in essentially every branch of physics, ranging from condensed matter to cosmology. This book is an introduction to kinks and domain walls and their principal classical and quantum properties. The book examines classical solitons, building from examples in elementary systems to more complicated settings. The formation of solitons in phase transitions, their dynamics and their cosmological consequences are further discussed. The book closes with an explicit description of a few laboratory systems containing solitons. Kinks and Domain Walls includes several state-of-the-art results, some previously unpublished. Each chapter closes with open questions and research problems and will be of great interest to both graduate students and academic researchers in theoretical physics, particle physics, cosmology and condensed matter physics.
Preface
1. Classical kinks
2. Kinks in more complicated models
3. Interactions
4. Kinks in quantum field theory
5. Condensates and zero modes on kinks
6. Formation of kinks
7. Dynamics of domain walls
8. Gravity and cosmology of domain walls
9. Kinks in the lab
Appendix A. Units, numbers and conventions
Appendix B. SU(N) generators
Appendix C. Solution to a common differential equation
Appendix D. Useful operator identities
Appendix E. Variation of the determinant
Appendix F. Summary of cosmological equations
Reference
Index.
"This book covers an extremely wide range of material and is excellently written and presented, with clear explanations of both the concepts involved and the mathematics used to describe these structures."
Ian A.B. Strachan, Mathematical Reviews