This book's interdisciplinary scope aims at bridging various communities: 1) cosmochemists, who study meteoritic samples from our own solar system, 2) (sub-) millimetre astronomers, who measure the distribution of dust and gas of star-forming regions and planet-forming discs, 3) disc modellers, who describe the complex photo-chemical structure of parametric discs to fit these to observation, 4) computational astrophysicists, who attempt to decipher the dynamical structure of magnetised gas...

Exoplanet research is one of the most explosive subjects in astronomy today. More than 500 exoplanets are now known, and groups world-wide are actively involved in a broad range of observational and theoretical efforts. This book ties together these many avenues of investigation - from the perspectives of observation, technology and theory - to give a comprehensive, up-to-date review of the entire field. All areas of exoplanet investigation are covered, making it a unique and valuable guid...

Colloids are submicron particles that are ubiquitous in nature (milk, clay, blood) and industrial products (paints, drilling fluids, food). In recent decades it has become clear that adding depletants such as polymers or small colloids to colloidal dispersions allows one to tune the interactions between the colloids and in this way control the stability, structure and rheological properties of colloidal dispersions. This book offers a concise introduction to the fundamentals of depletion e...

This book consists of invited reviews written by world-renowned experts on the subject of the outskirts of galaxies, an upcoming field which has been understudied so far. These regions are faint and hard to observe, yet hide a tremendous amount of information on the origin and early evolution of galaxies. They thus allow astronomers to address some of the most topical problems, such as gaseous and satellite accretion, radial migration, and merging.The book is published in conjunctio...

This book provides the first complete and up-to-date summary of the state of the art in HAXPES and motivates readers to harness its powerful capabilities in their own research. The chapters are written by experts. They include historical work, modern instrumentation, theory and applications. This book spans from physics to chemistry and materials science and engineering. In consideration of the rapid development of the technique, several chapters include highlights illustrating future oppo...

This book provides a state-of-the art overview of a highly interesting emerging research field in solid state physics/nanomaterials science, topological structures in ferroic materials. Topological structures in ferroic materials have received strongly increasing attention in the last few years. Such structures include domain walls, skyrmions and vortices, which can form in ferroelectric, magnetic, ferroelastic or multiferroic materials. These topological structures can have completely dif...

The processing-microstructure-property relationships in steels continue to present challenges to researchers because of the complexity of phase transformation reactions and the wide spectrum of microstructures and properties achievable. This major two-volume work summarises the current state of research on phase transformations in steels and its implications for the emergence of new steels with enhanced engineering properties.Volume 2 reviews current research on diffusionless transformatio...

In 1988, in an article on the analysis of the measurements of the variations in the radial velocities of a number of stars, Campbell, Walker, and Yang reported an - teresting phenomenon;the radial velocity variations of Cephei seemed to suggest the existence of a Jupiter-like planet around this star. This was a very exciting and, at the same time, very surprising discovery. It was exciting because if true, it would have marked the detection of the ?rst planet outside of our solar system. I...

This volume contains the updated and expanded lecture notes of the 37th Saas-Fee Advanced Course organised by the Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy. It offers the most comprehensive and up to date review of one of the hottest research topics in astrophysics - how our Milky Way galaxy formed. Joss Bland-Hawthorn & Ken Freeman lectured on Near Field Cosmology - The Origin of the Galaxy and the Local Group. Francesca Matteucci’s chapter is on Chemical evolution of the Milky Way and...

Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths: Including Actinides is a continuous series of books covering all aspects of rare earth science, including chemistry, life sciences, materials science, and physics. The book's main emphasis is on rare earth elements [Sc, Y, and the lanthanides (La through Lu], but whenever relevant, information is also included on the closely related actinide elements. Individual chapters are comprehensive, broad, up-to-date, critical reviews written by ...

This book contains the elaborated and updated versions of the 24 lectures given at the 43rd Saas-Fee Advanced Course. Written by four eminent scientists in the field, the book reviews the physical processes related to star formation, starting from cosmological down to galactic scales. It presents a detailed description of the interstellar medium and its link with the star formation. And it describes the main numerical computational techniques designed to solve the equations governing self-...

This book summarizes the current knowledge of two-dimensional oxide materials. The fundamental properties of 2-D oxide systems are explored in terms of atomic structure, electronic behavior and surface chemistry. The concept of polarity in determining the stability of 2-D oxide layers is examined, charge transfer effects in ultrathin oxide films are reviewed as well as the role of defects in 2-D oxide films. The novel structure concepts that apply in oxide systems of low dimensionality are...