PHYSICS OF QUASICRYSTALS, THE

by Paul J. Steinhardt (Editor)

This book comprises an introductory lecture outlining the basic concepts and challenges in the field. This is followed by a collection of reprinted articles which are important in understanding the subject. The book will focus mainly on mathematical and physical foundations of the subject rather than experimental progress. By concentrating on theoretical topics, this volume has long-lasting as well as immediate value to physicists, crystallographers, metallurgists and mathematicians.

Genres: Physics

Hardcover

First published December 31, 1987

About the author

Paul Joseph Steinhardt (born December 25, 1952) is an American theoretical physicist whose principal research is in cosmology and condensed matter physics. He is currently the Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton University where he is on the faculty of both the Departments of Physics and of Astrophysical Sciences.

Steinhardt is best known for his development of new theories of the origin, evolution and future of the universe. He is also well known for his exploration of a new form of matter, known as quasicrystals, which were thought to exist only as man-made materials until he co-discovered the first known natural quasicrystal in a museum sample.

He subsequently led a separate team that followed up that discovery with several more examples of natural quasicrystals recovered from the wilds of the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia.

Reviews

[Jovany Agathe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Instead of the universe inexplicably springing into existence from a mysterious initial singularity, the Big Bang was a collision between two universes like ours existing as parallel membranes floating in a higher-dimensional space that we’re not aware of. One bang is followed by another, in a potentially endless series of cosmic cycles, each one spelling the end of a universe and the beginning of a new one. Not one bang, but many. Sir Roger Penrose has changed his mind about the Big Bang. He now imagines an eternal cycle of expanding universes where matter becomes energy and back again in the birth of new universes and so on and so on.