Principles of Condensed Matter Physics: Book Review

Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 83. Nos.
5/6, 1996
Book Review: Principles of Condensed Matter Physics
Principles of Condensed Matter Physics. P. M. Chaikin and T. C.

Lubensky, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1995.
As stated in the preface, this book is intended to bridge a gap in the exist-
ing condensed matter literature. There are a number of good textbooks on
solid-state and many-body physics, but virtually none that venture into the
field of soft condensed matter and presents in a unified format the basic
concepts of condensed matter physics. These are exemplified by broken
symmetry, critical phenomena, and the role of fluctuations and topological
defects in establishing different ordered phases and associated transitions.
The present book is especially welcome at a time when we are witnessing
vigorous activity in all fields concerned with "soft" matter, starting from
the classical examples of liquid crystalline and polymer physics and mem-
brane physics, leading up to "hard" condensed matter, which encompasses
quasicrystals, incommensurate crystals, classical fluids, and regular crystals.
The book is aimed at a graduate audience and contains a selection of
problems following each chapter. It contains a thorough and detailed treat-
ment of all the subjects and is intended also to be suitable as a reference
text for active reseachers.
The book starts with two chapters that present introductory material
on the basic concepts of condensed matter physics and techniques that are
used in analyzing problems in that area_ In an overview of the subject the
authors choose water as a paradigm to introduce the concepts of order
parameters, broken symmetry, fluctuations, critical phenomena, and
universality. Since the book deals exlusively with macro and mesoscopic
levels of description, the authors choose to introduce the microscopic
forces and interactions underlying different phenomena only sketchily. The
summary on structure and scattering stands by itself as an illuminating,
concise introduction to the multiplicity of ordered phases encountered in
condensed matter, encompassing crystalline solids, liquid crystals, incom-
mensurate structures, quasicrystals, liquids, and fractals. It has all the
1263
0022..4715/96/0600-1263509.50/0 ~ 1996 Plenum Publishing Corporation

1264 Book Review
indications of an extremely fruitful joint effort of an experimentalist and a

theorist, and is a delight to read.
The next set of four chapters is methodological in nature and I tend
to view them as a series of formal preparatory steps for the themes in the
core of the book. They introduce the topics of thermodynamics and statisti-
cal mechanics, mean-field theory, field theories, critical phenomena, and
the renormalization group as well as a description of dynamics in terms of
correlation and response functions. These are presented at various levels of
detail. Some chapters are completely self-contained and exhaustive (e.g., the
treatment of the mean-field approximation in its various guises), whereas
others tend to read more as an introduction to more specialized literature
(e.g., the chapter on field theories, critical phenomena, and the renor-
malization group). The variety of illustrations of models and the discussion
of experimental realizations of various general methodologies is almost
encyclopedic. To my way of thinking the chapter on mean-field theory and
the phenomenology associated would be difficult to surpass. Again, I think
the book is at its best in those parts in which the authors have achieved
a balance of experimental breadth and theoretical depth.
The core of the book in my view is contained in the three chapters on
generalized elasticity, hydrodynamics, and topological defects. A variety of
different model and experimental illustrations are used to exemplify various
theoretical points. The elastic theory of mesophases as well as solids is
treated exhaustively together with a discussion of x-ray line shapes, scatter-
ing in general, and fluctuations of the different order parameters.
Hydrodynamic theory is built from the example of rigid rotors on a lattice
and advances to the hydrodynamics of mesophases and dynamic critical
phenomena. Again the wealth and breadth of different illustrations of
general developments is impressive. The elastic theory of topological defects
is developed starting from vortex configurations in the x y model and
progresses to the phenomenology and energetics of different topological
defects in mesophases and defect-mediated phase transitions. It ends with
a detailed exposition of the TGB phase.
There is a lot that generally surpasses the graduate level and I am sure
that seasoned researchers in different fields of condensed matter physics will
find topics of direct relevance to their immediate research interests. In dis-
cussing this book with various colleagues I got the impression that all
share the feeling that it is destined to become the standard reference work
on soft condensed matter physics. This book presents a most fortunate
blend of theoretical depth and encyclopedic grasp of phenomenology, while
being written in a pedagogically sound and elegant manner. Of course I am
not "happy" that it lacks some of my currently favorite systems, but there
is simply no room left to cram in even more material.
Book Review 1265
All in all, this monograph is a well-written, thorough, modern book

on soft condensed matter physics that I wholeheartedly recommend to
everybody with an interest in this subject.
Rudolf Podgornik
Laboratory of Structural Biology
Division of Computer Research and Technology
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, Maryland 20892

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Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 83. Nos.

Book Review: Principles of Condensed Matter Physics

Principles of Condensed Matter Physics. P. M. Chaikin and T. C.

0022..4715/96/0600-1263509.50/0 ~ 1996 Plenum Publishing Corporation

indications of an extremely fruitful joint effort of an experimentalist and a

All in all, this monograph is a well-written, thorough, modern book

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