Cold Story

Shankar Prasad Das who teaches physics at the JNU has been working on the behaviour of glasses for a long time now. His new book on the topic, Statistical Physics of Liquids at Freezing and Beyond is out from Cambridge University Press.

Exploring important theories for understanding freezing and the liquid-glass transition, this book is useful for graduate students and researchers in soft-condensed matter physics, chemical physics and materials science. It details recent ideas and key developments, providing an up-to-date view of current understanding. The standard tools of statistical physics for the dense liquid state are covered. The freezing transition is described from the classical density functional approach. Classical nucleation theory as well as applications of density functional methods for nucleation of crystals from the melt are discussed, and compared to results from computer simulation of simple systems. Discussions of supercooled liquids form a major part of the book. Theories of slow dynamics and the dynamical heterogeneities of the glassy state are presented, as well as nonequilibrium dynamics and thermodynamic phase transitions at deep supercooling. Mathematical treatments are given in full detail so readers can learn the basic techniques.

The book is in hardcover, 584 pages, ISBN: 9780521858397. The edition is international, priced at £80.00.

Trippin' Along

The latest title in the series Texts and Readings in the Physical Sciences, or TRiPS, is Computational Statistical Physics edited by Sitangshu Santra (IIT-Guwahati) and Purusattam Ray (IMSc, Chennai).

The present book is an outcome of the SERC school on Computational Statistical Physics held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, in December 2008. Numerical experimentation has played an extremely important role in statistical physics in recent years. Lectures given at the School covered a large number of topics of current and continuing interest.

Based on lectures by active researchers in the field- Bikas Chakrabarti, S Chaplot, Deepak Dhar, Sanjay Kumar, Prabal Maiti, Sanjay Puri, Purusattam Ray, Sitangshu Santra and Subir Sarkar- the nine chapters comprising the book deal with topics that range from the fundamentals of the field, to problems and questions that are at the very forefront of current research.

This book aims to expose the graduate student to the basic as well as advanced techniques in computational statistical physics. Following a general introduction to statistical mechanics and critical phenomena, the various chapters cover Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulation methodology, along with a variety of applications. These include the study of coarsening phenomena and diffusion in zeolites.

In addition, graphical enumeration techniques are covered in detail with applications to percolation and polymer physics, and methods for optimization are also discussed. Beginning graduate students and young researchers in the area of statistical physics will find the book useful. In addition, this will also be a valuable general reference for students and researchers in other areas of science and engineering.

In our Physics section, in softcover, 298 pages, Rs 450. ISBN: 9789380250151 

Pray together, Stay together

Andrew Nicholson's is Assistant Professor of Hinduism and Indian intellectual history in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at SUNY, Stony Brook. His recent book Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual history is co-published by Permanent Black and Columbia University Press. 

Some postcolonial theorists argue that the idea of a single system of belief known as “Hinduism” is a creation of nineteenth-century British imperialists. Andrew J. Nicholson introduces another perspective: although a unified Hindu identity is not as ancient as some Hindus claim, it has its roots in innovations within South Asian philosophy from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. During this time, thinkers treated the philosophies of Vedanta, Samkhya, and Yoga, along with the worshippers of Visnu, Siva, and Sakti, as belonging to a single system of belief and practice. Instead of seeing such groups as separate and contradictory, they re-envisioned them as separate rivers leading to the ocean of Brahman, the ultimate reality.

Drawing on the writings of philosophers from late medieval and early modern traditions, including Vijnanabhiksu, Madhava, and Madhusudana Sarasvati, Nicholson shows how influential thinkers portrayed Vedanta philosophy as the ultimate unifier of diverse belief systems. This project paved the way for the work of later Hindu reformers, such as Vivekananda, Radhakrishnan, and Gandhi, whose teachings promoted the notion that all world religions belong to a single spiritual unity. In his study, Nicholson also critiques the way in which Eurocentric concepts — like monism and dualism, idealism and realism, theism and atheism, and orthodoxy and heterodoxy — have come to dominate modern discourses on Indian philosophy.

In our Religion, Philosophy, Culture sections. In hardcover, 280 pages, Rs 750. ISBN: 9788178243283

Sacrifices aplenty

Maggi Lidchi Grassi, writer and homeopath, has lived at the Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry since 1959. In The Great Golden Sacrifice of The Mahabharata she reinterprets Vyasa’s epic from Arjuna’s point of view. 

First published in parts, including one of the same title, by Writer's Workshop, Kolkata, the present edition is from Random House, and has been called a stunningly lyrical work, The Great Golden Sacrifice of the Mahabharata reinterprets Vyasa s epic from Arjuna s point of view. As Arjuna relives the battle of Kurukshetra, he senses a profound change coming upon himself. He begins to understand the true meaning of surrender and sacrifice. 

The book comprises three parts, narrated principally by Arjuna. Part I takes us through the childhood and youth of the Pandavas and Kauravas, the game of dice, the Pandavas exile, and ends with the armies arrayed for battle at Kurukshetra. Part II recounts the battle itself, and the teachings of the Bhagvad Gita. Part III presents a moving and brilliantly original take on the Mahabharata, as Lidchi-Grassi gives a voice to the forgotten victims of every war the ordinary citizens who must pick themselves up, and resume the business of life. An old order has been swept away, but can the new age the Kali Yuga help lessen human strife and misery? Vastly ambitious in scope and epic in scale, The Great Golden Sacrifice of the Mahabharata is an astonishing read. 

Lidchi-Grassi's life story is unusual and has a major impact on her interpretation of the Mahabharata as a parable for all times. What is not here is nowhere else... 

In our Religion and Philosophy sections, 960 pages, Rs 999 in hardcover, ISBN: 9788184001464 

Save them from becoming Pulp Nonfiction!

In case the mass mailing from World Scientific did not reach you, the following titles are being sold by them at $9 a book. Yes, you read that right, US$9. 

•  Advances in Information Storage Systems, Vol. 8
• After the Beginning
• A Cosmic Journey through Space and Time
• Alkali-Doped Fullerides
• Narrow-Band Solids with Unusual Properties
• Almighty Chance
• Altas of Vibrational Spectra of Liquid Crystals
• An Elementary Course on the Continuum Theory for Nematic Liquid Crystals
• Analystical Dynamics
• Course Notes
• Annual Reviews of Computational Physics I
• Annual Reviews of Computational Physics II
• Annual Reviews of Computational Physics III
• Annual Reviews of Computational Physics IV
• Annual Reviews of Computational Physics V
• Annual Reviews of Computational Physics VI
• Annual Reviews of Computational Physics VII
• Annual Reviews of Computational Physics VIII
• Annual Reviews of Computational Physics IX
• Applied Quantum Mechanics
• Application of Noncovariant Gauges in the Algebraic Renormalization Procedure
• Aspects of Modern Magnetism
• Lecture Notes of the Eighth Chinese International Summer School of Physics
• Asymptotic Symmetry & Its Implication in Elementary Particle Physics
• At the Frontier of Particle Physics
• Handbook of QCD (Volume 4)
• Atoms in Electromagnetic Fields
• Beta Decay
• Beta Decays (Revised 2nd Edition)
• Beginning of Paramagnetic Resonance
• Big Bang and Other Explosions in Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics
• Calculated Electronic Properties of Ordered Alloys: A Handbook
• Candid Science IV
• Canted Antiferromagnetism: Hematite
• Career in Theoretical Physics
• Challenges in Granular Physics
• Classical and Quantum Electrodynamics and the B(3) Field
• Classical Theory of Electromagnetism
• Second Edition (with Companion Solution Manual)
• Coherent Anomaly Method
• Mean Field, Fluctuations and Systematics
• Collision Theory
• A Short Course
• Compact Synchrotron Light Sources
• Composite Fermions
• A Unified View of the Quantum Hall Regime
• Compound Semiconductor Electronics
• The Age of Maturity
• Computing Boolean Statistical Models
• Condensed Matter — Disordered Solids
• Current Research on Optical Materials, Devices and Systems in Taiwan
• Dark Matter in the Universe
• Second Edition
• Deparametrization and Path Integral Quantization of Cosmological Models
• Development of Perturbative QCD, The
• Directions in Chaos, vol 2
• Disorder and Competition in Soluble Lattice Models
• Dynamic Kerr Effect
• The Use and Limits of the Smoluchowski Equation and Nonlinear Inertial Responses
• Dynamics of Negative Ions
• Effective Field Approach to Phase Transitions and Some Applications to Ferroelectrics
• Electromagnetic Analysis Using Transmission Line Variables
• Electromagnetic Processes at High Energies in Oriented Single Crystals
• Electromagnetic Scattering Modelling for Quantitative Remote Sensing
• Electronic Processes at Solid Surface
• Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and New Physics at the TeV Scale
• Elementary Process of Bremsstrahlung, The
• Encounters in Magnetic Resonances
• Encounters in Nonlinear Optics
• Selected Papers of Nicolaas Bloembergen (With Commentary)
• Energy and Geometry
• An Introduction to Deformed Special Relativity
• Exotic Properties of Superfluid Helium 3
• Experiment Study and Characterization of Chaos
• A Collection of Reviews and Lecture Notes
• Extensive Air Showers
• Festschrift in Honor of Vernon W Hughes
• Finite Superstrings
• Formation and Evolution of Black Holes in the Galaxy
• Selected Papers with Commentary
• Foundations of Quantum Mechanics in the Light of New Technology
• Selected Papers from the Proceedings of the First through Fourth International Symposia on Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
• From Black Clouds to Black Holes (2/e)
• Free and Guided Optical Beams
• Proceedings of the International School of Quantum Electronics
• From Integrable Models to Gauge Theories
• A Volume in Honor of Sergei Matinyan
• From Order to Chaos
• Essays: Critical, Chaotic and Otherwise
• From Quarks to Black Holes
• Interviewing the Universe
• From the Preshower to the New Technologies for Supercolliders
• From Thermal Field Theo to Neural Networks: A Day to Remember Tanguy Altherr
• Fundamentals in Hadronic Atom Theory
• Fundamentals of Laser Optoelectronics
• Fundamentals of Practical Aberration Theory
• Fundamental Knowledge and Technics for Optical Designers
• Garden of Quanta, A
• Essays in Honor of Hiroshi Ezawa
• Gauge Theories in the Twentieth Century
• Geometric Methods in the Elastic Theory of Membranes in Liquid Crystal Phases
• Geometry in Condensed Matter Physics
• Getting to Know Semiconductors
• Gift of Prophecy
• Gravitation: Following the Prague Inspiration
• Great Solid State Physicists of the 20th Century
• Gribov Theory of Quark Confinement, The
• Hadronic Physics From Lattice QCD
• Here Erred Einstein
• High Conductivity Solid Ionic Conductors
• Recent Trends and Applications
• High Magnetic Fields
• Science and Technology (In 3 Volumes)
• Horn Radiators of Complex Configuration
• Hubbard Model, The
• Recent Results
• Ideals and Realities — Selected Essays of Abdus Salam (2/e)
• Impedances and Wakes in High Energy Particle Accelerators
• In Conclusion
• A Collection of Summary Talks in High Energy Physics
• In the Intermissions...
• Collected Works on Research into the Essentials of Theoretical Physics in Russian Federal Nuclear Center, Arzamas-16
• Insertion Devices for Synchrotron Radiation and Free Electron Laser
• Insulating and Semiconducting Glasses
• Interaction of Electromagnetic Field with Condensed Matter
• Interaction of Photons and Neutrons with Matter
• Intermediate Electromagnetic Theory
• Introduction to a Realistic Quantum Physics, An
• Invitation to Contemporary Physics
• Itep Lectures on Particle Physics and Field Theory (in 2 volumes)
• Jingshin Theoretical Physics Symposium in Honor of Professor Ta-You Wu
• Joy of the Search for Knowledge, The
• A Tribute to Professor Dan Tsui
• Landmark Papers on Photorefractive Nonlinear Optics
• Large N Expansion in Quantum Field Theory and Statistical Physics, The
• From Spin Systems to 2-Dimensional Gravity
• Laser Spectroscopy
• Proceedings of the XVI International Conference
• Lasers and Holography
• Latest Advances in Atomic Clusters Collisions
• Fission, Fusion, Electron, Ion and Photon Impact
• Lecture Notes on Equilibrium Point Defects and Thermophysical Properties of Metals
• Lectures in Particle Physics
• Lectures in Synergetics
• Lectures Notes on Phase Transformations in Nuclear Matter
• Legacy of Léon Van Hove, The
• Lepton and Photon Interactions at High Energies
• Lepton-Photon 2003
• Proceedings of the XXI International Symposium
• Ligands and Modifiers in Vitreous Materials
• Spectroscopy of Condensed Systems
• Liquid Crystals in the Nineties and Beyond
• Liquid Crystals
• Fundamentals
• Liquid Crystals — Applications and Uses
• Low-Dimensional Organic Conductors
• Magnetic and Superconducting Materials
• Proceedings of the First Regional Conference (In 2 Volumes)
• Magnetic Systems with Competing Interactions
• Magnetism in Heavy Fermion Systems
• Many Faces of the Superworld, The
• Yuri Gelfand Memorial Volume
• Many-Body Theory of Atomic Structure and Photoionization
• Massive Neutrinos in Physics and Astrophysics
• Mathematical Perspectives on Theoretical Physics
• A Journey from Black Holes to Superstrings
• Mathematical Problems of Statistical Mechanics
• Maunder Minimum and the Variable Sun-Earth Connection, The
• Mechanical Action of Light on Atoms
• Mechanical Properties of Metals
• Atomistic and Fractal Continuum Approaches
• Membranes and Other Extendons (Volume 39)
• Microscopic Approaches to Quantum...(Volume 4)
• Models and Modelers of Hydrogen
• Modern Many-Particle Physics
• Atomic Gases, Quantum Dots and Quantum Fluids
• Modern Physics and Technology for Undergraduates
• Modern Semiconductor Quantum Physics
• Modern Topics in Electron Scattering
• Modern Topics in Liquid Crystals
• Modified Maxwell Equations in Quantum Electrodynamics
• Modulation Spectrometry of Neutrons with Diffractometry Applications
• Multiple Facets of Quantization and Supersymmetry
• Near Field Optics and Nanoscopy
• Neurtinos and Other Matters
• Neutrinos and Implications for Physics Beyond the Standard Model
• New Many-Body Theories on Soft X-Ray Spectroscopy of Insulating Solids
• New Problems, Methods and Techniques in Quantum Field Theory and Statistical Mechanics
• Nonlinear Dynamics
• The Richard Rand 50th Anniversary Volume
• Nonlinear Dynamics in Particle Accelerators
• Nonlinear Optical Properties of Liquid Crystals and Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals
• Nonlinear Periodic Waves and Their Modulations
• An Introductory Course
• Nonlinear Physics for Beginners
• Fractals, Chaos, Solitons, Pattern Formation, Cellular Automata and Complex Systems
• Novel Radiation Sources Using Relativistic Electrons
• From Infrared to X-Rays
• Nuclear Molecules
• On Certain Unitary Representations of an Infinite Group of Transformations
• Thesis by Léon Van Hove
• Optical Properties of Surfaces
• Second Edition
• Order, Disorder and Criticality
• Advanced Problems of Phase Transition Theory
• Origin of Symmetries
• Oskar Klein Memorial Lectures (Volume 2)
• Oskar Klein Memorial Lectures (Volume 3)
• Oskar Klein Memorial Lectures (Volume 1)
• Personal History of Cesr ane Cleo, A
• The Cornell Electron Storage Ring and Its Main Particle Detector Facility
• Perspectives in Optoelectronic
• Perspectives of Polarons
• Perspectives on Solvable Model
• Peyresq Lectures on Nonlinear Phenomena
• Phase Transition Approach to High Temperature Superconductivity
• Universal Properties of Cuprate Superconductors
• Phase Transitions in Complex Fluids
• Lectures on Phase Transitions
• Photomagneton and Quantum Field Theory, The
• Volume 1 of Quantum Chemistry
• Photon's Magnetic Field, The
• Optical NMR Spectroscopy
• Physics of New Methods of Charged Particle Acceleration
• Collective Effects in Dense Charged Particle Ensembles
• Physical Properties of High Temperature Superconductors V
• Physics of Clusters
• Physics of Dendrites
• Computational Experiments
• Physics of Non-Ideal Plasma, The
• Physics of Nonneutral Plasmas
• Physiology, Promiscuity and Prophecy at the Millennium
• A Tale of Tails
• Principles of Quantum General Relativity
• Problems and Solutions in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics Second Edition (Volume I: Introductory Level)
• Problems and Solutions in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics Second Edition (Volume II: Advanced Level)
• Problems and Solutions in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics (Volume II: Advanced Level)
• Probability and Schrödinger's Mechanics
• Proceedings of the Dirac Centennial Symposium
• Progress in the Physics of Clusters
• Quantum Mechanics, High Energy Physics and Accelerators: Selected Papers of John S Bell (WITH COMMENTARY)
• Quantum Aspects of Beam Physics 2003
• Proceedings of the Joint 28th ICFA Advanced Beam Dynamics and Advanced and Novel Accelerators Workshop
• Quantum Field Theory with Application to Quantum Nonlinear Optics
• Quantum Measurement Approach To Tunnelling
• Tunnelling by Quantum Measurement
• Quantum Physics and Observed Reality
• A Critical Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics
• Quantum Theory of Tunneling
• Quark Model and High Energy Collisions (Second Edition)
• Quark-Gluon Plasma 2
• Quark-Gluon Plasma 3
• Quarks and Gluons
• A Century of Particle Charges
• Quasicrystals The State of the Art (2nd Edition)
• Quasiparticle Theory of Defects in Solids
• Quest for Perspectives, A
• Selected Works of S Chandrasekhar (With Commentary) - In 2 Volumes
• Quest for Symmetry, A
• Selected Works of Bunji Sakita
• Recent Advances in Quantum Monte Carlo Methods
• Relativity: An Intro to the Special Theory
• Remnants of the Fall
• Revelations of Particle Secrets
• Research on Particle Imaging Detectors
• Review of Fundamental Processes and Applications of Atoms and IONS
• Selected Papers of J Robert Schrieffer In Celebration of His 70th Birthday
• Selected Paper, with Commentary of Tony Hilton Royle Skyrme
• Selected Scientific Papers of Sir Rudolf Peierls (With Commentary)
• Selected Topics on the General Properties of Quantum Field Theory
• Semiconductor Superlattices
• Growth and Electronic Properties
• Simple Views on Condensed Matter
• Simple Views on Condensed Matter (Expanded Edition)
• Sir Nevill Mott-65 Years in Physics
• Sixty Years of Double Beta Decay
• From Nuclear Physics to Beyond Standard Model Particle Physics
• Solar and Interplanetary Disturbances
• Solid State Spectroscopies
• Basic Principles and Applications
• Some Comments on the Foundations of Physics
• Special Relativity
• Spectroscopy with Coherent Radiation
• Selected Papers of Norman F Ramsey (With Commentary)
• Spherical Tensor Operators
• Tables of Matrix Elements and Symmetries
• Spin and Torsion in Gravitation
• Spin Phenomena in Particle Interactions
• Statistical Dynamics
• A Stochastic Approach to Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics
• Statistical Physics of Crystals and Liquids
• A Guide to Highly Accurate Equations of State
• Statistical Physics
• An Introductory Course
• Strings, Branes and Extra Dimensions
• Superconducting State in Magnetic Fields, The
• Special Topics and New Trends
• Superconductivity and Localization
• Superconductivity
• Elementary Topics
• Symmetry and Modern Physics
• Yang Retirement Symposium
• Symplectic Matrices, First Order Systems and Special Relativity
• Synchrotron Radiation Theory and Its Development
• In Memory of I M Ternov
• Theories of Matter
• A Festschrift for Prof Joseph L Birman
• Theory of Nuclear Reactions
• Theory of Single and Multiple Interfaces
• The Method of Surface Green Function Matching
• Theory of Transonic Astrophysical Flows
• Towards a Nonlinear Quantum Physics
• Trajectories and Rays: The Path-Summation in Quantum Mechanics and Optics I
• Transport, Correlation and Structural Defects
• Transuranium People, The
• The Inside Story
• Transverse Spin Physics
• Treatment of Collective Coordinates in Many-Body Systems, The
• Tunneling in Complex Systems
• Universal Fluctuations
• The Phenomenology of Hadronic Matter
• Universality and Diversity in Science
• Festschrift in Honor of Naseem K Rahman's 60th Birthday
• Visible and the Invisible, The
• Wavelets in Physics
• X-Ray Scattering From Semiconductors
• Yang-Mills Theories in Algebraic Non-Covariant Gauges
• Canonical Quantization and Renormalization

Check out the details on the World Scientific page. If you have any difficulty ordering them, just write to Himanshu@SwB. We can't promise to get each title for Rs 450 (shipping might be extra), but we will get them for you as economically as possible.

These are a major steal! Do stock up...

Season of Intolerance

Alladi Uma and Sridhar, both at the University of Hyderabad, have made many texts that were in Telugu accessible to a wider audience through their careful and sensitive translations. Their translated works include Ayoni and Other Stories, Rachakonda Viswantha Sastry’s Beware, the Cows are Coming!, K. Siva Reddy’s Mohana! Oh, Mohana!, a volume of poems, and Allam Rajaiah’s collection of short stories,  Bhoomi. Their translation of G Kalyana Rao's AntaraniVasantam is the latest addition to their oeuvre.

 Untouchable Spring, a memory text, is a family/community saga, a novel and a historical document rolled into one. Using the oral story-telling tradition, Rao has brought to the fore not just the social and cultural life of generations of Dalits, but their art forms. Through the stories of successive generations, we are taken on a journey to their heart—from those who were exploited to those who discover their humanity through defiance. The reminiscences of Ruth take us to her husband Reuben’s family in Yennela Dinni, to the boy Yellanna, his being chased away by his caste ‘superiors’, his music, his son Sivaiah’s escape from the drought along with his wife, the latter’s conversion to Christianity, the brutality against him and other Dalit Christians, the birth of Reuben when things seem to fall apart and he is later left in an orphanage, and then to Reuben’s search for his roots. This faithful translation from the Telugu, arousing pity for all that is pitiable and rage at what man has done to man, points to the growing awareness of people’s rights and how they are driven to armed struggle.

In paperback in our Biography, Dalit Studies and Indian Literature in Translation sections, 292 pages, Rs 325. ISBN: 9788125039457

A Beautiful Mind

Chandra- as many people called him- was a brilliant writer, both for the style with which he wrote, as for the content of what he wrote. Famously, he worked in one or the other aspect of astrophysics (or some other branch of physics) for something like a decade after which he wrote his view of the field in a masterly and usually definitive book, and then turned his attention to another field... This approach resulted in a number of important and influential books, including Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science, a superb collection of essays that caused Sir Hermann Bondi to remark, in a review in Nature, "What a splendid book! Reading it is a joy, and for me, at least, continuing reading it became compulsive. . . . Chandrasekhar is a distinguished astrophysicist and every one of the lectures bears the hallmark of all his work: precision, thoroughness, lucidity."

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–95) was only 19 when he discovered what is hailed as one of the most important discoveries in astrophysics – the Chandrasekhar limit – This paved the way for the unearthing of neutron stars and black holes, and in a career that spanned six decades, Chandra’s research resulted in a large number of papers and monographs, which have had a huge influence on astronomy and astrophysics. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1968 and the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983. His neice Radhika Ramnath, the daughter of Chandrasekhar’s youngest brother, has recently brought out S. Chandrasekhar: A man of science from Harper Collins.

The world knows S. Chandrasekhar as a Nobel laureate and an outstanding astrophysicist. But he was, at the same time, a caring uncle, a devoted husband and a compassionate brother, who made it a point to reach out to everyone around him despite his legendary status. This compilation brings out the various facets of the man and the scientist. It includes some of his more general essays and lectures in which he lucidly presents his thoughts on the pursuit of science, creativity, his work, and his abiding love for his motherland.

There are also reminiscences by family members who interacted with him and grew to adore the man who, they remember, had as beautiful a heart as his handwriting. This collection strives to bring to the fore the person that was Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and the life he led: from his engagement with science to the little anecdotes that illuminated the lives of those around him.

In our Biography section, in hardcover, 268 pages, Rs 499, ISBN: 9789350290293