Book Description

This book, edited by M. A. Ramos and contributed by several reputed physicists in the field, presents a timely review on low-temperature thermal and vibrational properties of glasses, and of disordered solids in general. In 1971, the seminal work of Zeller and Pohl was published, which triggered this relevant research field in condensed matter physics. Hence, this book also commemorates about 50 years of that highlight with a comprehensive, updated review.In brief, glasses (firstly genuine amorphous solids but later on followed by different disordered crystals) were found to universally exhibit low-temperature properties (specific heat, thermal conductivity, acoustic and dielectric attenuation, etc.) unexpectedly very similar among them — and very different from those of their crystalline counterparts.These universal 'anomalies' of glasses and other disordered solids remain very controversial topics in condensed matter physics. They have been addressed exhaustively in this book, through many updated experimental data, a survey of most relevant models and theories, as well as by computational simulations.