Competing Interactions and Patterns in Nanoworld

1. Introduction
1.1 How the story begun
1.2 First theoretical approaches for competing interactions
1.3 Beautiful patterns govern the world
2. Self-competition or how to choose the best from the worse
2.1 Frustration: the world is not perfect
2.2 Self-competition of the short-range interactions
2.3 Self-competition of the long-range interactions
2.4 Ordering entropy
2.5 Problems/Solutions
3. Famous competition between a short- and a long-range interaction
3.1 Localized particles
3.2 Delocalized particles
3.3 Problems/Solutions
4. Competition between a long-range dipolar interaction and an anisotropy
4.1 Ultrathin magnetic films
4.2 Ultrthin magnetic particles
5. Competition between two interactions of the same range
5.1 Two short-range interactions
5.2 Two long-range interactions
5.3 Problems/Solutions
6. Dynamics of self-organized systems close to equilibrium
6.1 Polarization reversal
6.2 Wave phenomena
6.3 Diffusion-limited aggregation
6.4 Dynamics of nanoparticles
References

"... very desirable addition to the literature in a rapidly developing interdisciplinary field."

"... Vedmedenko's interdisciplinary approach and logical organization makes what is a very complex topic easy to follow, and the examples are useful for a variety of applications."
SciTech Book News, vol. 31 no. 3, September 2007

Vedmedenko (applied physics, U. of Hamburg) writes for students as well as researchers with different professional backgrounds in this introduction to systems that display competing interactions, a situation that can significantly impact many aspects of nanoscience. She classifies phenomena by the type of competing interaction involved to better present the underlying principles and universal laws governing the behavior of various systems, covering the basics of self-competition,
competition between a short-range and a long-range interaction, competition between interactions on a scale of similar length, interplay between anisotropies and inter-particle interactions, and dynamic selforganization. She provides comprehensive references for each topic. Vedmedenko's interdisciplinary approach and logical organization makes what is a very complex topic easy to follow, and the examples are useful for a variety of applications.
SciTech Book News, vol. 31 no. 3, September 2007