Quantum Magnetism (eBook)

This book is based on lectures during the Pacific Institute of Theoretical Physics summer school on "Quantum Magnetism", held June 2006. It covers a broad spectrum of modern subjects in quantum magnetism, with connections to nanophysics, quantum computation. Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Quantum Magnetism, Les Houches, France, 6-23 June 2006

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This bookis based on some of the lectures duringthe Paci?c Institute of Theoretical Physics (PITP) summer school on "e;Quantum Magnetism"e;, held during June 2006 in Les Houches, in the French Alps. The school was funded jointly by NATO, the CNRS, and PITP, and entirely organized by PITP. Magnetism is a somewhat peculiar research ?eld. It clearly has a quant- mechanical basis - the microscopic exchange interactions arise entirely from the exclusion principle, in conjunction with repulsive interactions between electrons. And yet until recently the vast majority of magnetism researchersand users of m- netic phenomena around the world paid no attention to these quantum-mechanical roots. Thus, e.g., the huge ($400 billion per annum) industry which manufactures hard discs, and other components in the information technology sector, depends entirely on room-temperature properties of magnets - yet at the macroscopic or mesoscopic scales of interest to this industry, room-temperature magnets behave entirely classically.