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Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2009

Arthur S. Nowick
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
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Summary

The study of the anisotropic properties of crystals, often called ‘Crystal Physics’, is the oldest branch of solid-state physics, dating back to the turn of the twentieth century and the treatises of W. Voigt. It deals with the ‘matter tensors’ that describe such anisotropic properties, and the way that these tensors are simplified as a result of the existence of crystal symmetry. In recent years, there have been many textbooks on this subject. Most widely known is that by J. F. Nye (Physical Properties of Crystals, Oxford University Press, 1957), who introduced matrices and tensors to create a more compact notation than that used earlier, but did not use group theory.

Group theory provides the ideal mathematical tools for dealing with these problems elegantly and compactly. These methods have been used by various authors, notably Fumi, Bhagavantum and Juretshke. However, the usefulness of group theory was not always recognized. In fact Nye (page 122 of his book), commenting on work using group theory, states: ‘group theory … does not reveal which moduli are independent but only the total number of independent ones’. The present book is dedicated to showing, not only that this statement is untrue, but that the use of group theory lends elegance and beauty to what would otherwise be dull calculations. In this book we utilize the method of symmetry coordinates, very much as is used in the study of molecular vibrations (e.g. as described in the book by Wilson, Decius and Cross).

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1995

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  • Preface
  • Arthur S. Nowick, Columbia University, New York
  • Book: Crystal Properties via Group Theory
  • Online publication: 18 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511524318.001
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  • Preface
  • Arthur S. Nowick, Columbia University, New York
  • Book: Crystal Properties via Group Theory
  • Online publication: 18 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511524318.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preface
  • Arthur S. Nowick, Columbia University, New York
  • Book: Crystal Properties via Group Theory
  • Online publication: 18 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511524318.001
Available formats
×