Book Description

Reissue of Encyclopedia of Physics/Handbuch der Physik, Vol. XXV/2b I am very pleased that my book is now to be reprinted and rebound in a new format which should make it accessible at a modest price to students and active researchers in condensed matter physics. In writing this book I had in mind an audience of physicists and chemists with no previous deep exposure to symmetry analysis of crystalline matter, non to the use of symmetry in simplifying and refining predictions of the results of optical experiments. Hence the book was written to explain and illustrate in all necessary detail how to: 1) describe the space group symmetry in terms of space group symmetry operations; 2) obtain irreducible representations and selection rules for optical infra-red and Raman and other transition processes. On the physical side I redeveloped the traditional theory of classical and quantum lattice dynamics, illustrating how space-time symmetry designations in the equations of motion can: 1) simplify and rationalize calculations of the classical eigenvectors of the dynamical equation; 2) permit classification of the eigenstates of the quantum lattice-dynamic pro blem; 3) give specific selection rules for optical infra-red and Raman lattice processes, and thus make "go, no-go" predictions including polarization of absorbed or scattered radiation; and 4) simplify the modern many-body theories of optical processes.