Physics Of Solitons

This textbook gives an instructive view of solitons and their applications for advanced students of physics.

The soliton is a dramatic concept in nonlinear science. What makes this book unique in the treatment of this subject is its focus on the properties that make the soliton physically ubiquitous and the soliton equation mathematically miraculous. Here, on the classical level, is the entity field theorists have been postulating for years: a local traveling wave pulse; a lump-like coherent structure; the solution of a field equation with remarkable stability and particle-like properties. It is a fundamental mode of propagation in gravity- driven surface and internal waves; in atmospheric waves; in ion acoustic and Langmuir waves in plasmas; in some laser waves in nonlinear media; and in many biologic contexts, such as alpha-helix proteins.

Solitons were discovered by John Scott Russel in 1834, and have interested scientists and mathematicians ever since. They have been the subject of a large body of research in a wide variety of fields of physics and mathematics, not to mention engineering and other branches of science such as biology. This volume comprises the written versions of the talks presented at a workshop held at Queen's University in 1997, an interdisciplinary meeting wherein top researchers from many fields could meet, interact, and exchange ideas. Topics covered include mathematical and numerical aspects of solitons, as well as applications of solitons to nuclear and particle physics, cosmology, and condensed-matter physics. The book should be of interest to researchers in any field in which solitons are encountered.

With contributions by numerous experts

Topological solitons occur in many nonlinear classical field theories. They are stable, particle-like objects, with finite mass and a smooth structure. Examples are monopoles and Skyrmions, Ginzburg-Landau vortices and sigma-model lumps, and Yang-Mills instantons. This book is a comprehensive survey of static topological solitons and their dynamical interactions. Particular emphasis is placed on the solitons which satisfy first-order Bogomolny equations. For these, the soliton dynamics can be investigated by finding the geodesics on the moduli space of static multi-soliton solutions. Remarkable scattering processes can be understood this way. The book starts with an introduction to classical field theory, and a survey of several mathematical techniques useful for understanding many types of topological soliton. Subsequent chapters explore key examples of solitons in one, two, three and four dimensions. The final chapter discusses the unstable sphaleron solutions which exist in several field theories.

Systems driven far from thermodynamic equilibrium can create dissipative structures through the spontaneous breaking of symmetries. A particularly fascinating feature of these pattern-forming systems is their tendency to produce spatially confined states. These localized wave packets can exist as propagating entities through space and/or time. Various examples of such systems will be dealt with in this book, including localized states in fluids, chemical reactions on surfaces, neural networks, optical systems, granular systems, population models, and Bose-Einstein condensates. This book should appeal to all physicists, mathematicians and electrical engineers interested in localization in far-from-equilibrium systems. The authors - all recognized experts in their fields - strive to achieve a balance between theoretical and experimental considerations thereby giving an overview of fascinating physical principles, their manifestations in diverse systems, and the novel technical applications on the horizon.

Nonlinearity is a fascinating element of nature whose importance has been appreciated for many years when considering large-amplitude wave motions observed in various fields ranging from fluids and plasmas to solid-state, chemical, biological, and geological systems. Localized large-amplitude waves called solitons, which propagate without spreading and have particle-like properties, represent one of the most striking aspects of nonlinear phenomena. Although a wealth of literature on the subject, including theoretical and numerical studies, is available in good recent books and research journals, very little material has found its way into introductory texbooks and curricula. This is perhaps due to a belief that nonlinear physics is difficult and cannot be taught at an introductory level to undergraduate students and practitioners. Consequently, there is considerable interest in developing practical material suitable for students, at the lowest introductory level. This book is intended to be an elementary introduction to the physics of solitons, for students, physicists, engineers and practitioners. We present the modeling of nonlinear phenomena where soliton-like waves are involved, together with applications to a wide variety of concrete systems and experiments. This book is designed as a book of physical ideas and basic methods and not as an up-to-the minute book concerned with the latest research results. The background in physics and the amount of mathematical knowledge assumed of the reader is within that usually accumulated by junior or senior students in physics.

This 2001 book gives a self-contained exposition of the theory of gravitational solitons and provides a comprehensive review of exact soliton solutions to Einstein's equations. The text begins with a detailed discussion of the extension of the Inverse Scattering Method to the theory of gravitation, starting with pure gravity and then extending it to the coupling of gravity with the electromagnetic field. There follows a systematic review of the gravitational soliton solutions based on their symmetries. These solutions include some of the most interesting in gravitational physics such as those describing inhomogeneous cosmological models, cylindrical waves, the collision of exact gravity waves, and the Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes. A valuable reference for researchers and graduate students in the fields of general relativity, string theory and cosmology, this book will also be of interest to mathematical physicists in general.