Customer Reviews

Nonlinear Waves, Solitons and Chaos

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Solitons, are cool. Modeling them is hard, but definitely worth it. They're everywhere. This book has much to teach. Great physics classic.

The main thrust of this textbook is soliton theory and examples in plasma physics. There is some additional material borrowed from fluid dynamics, but the flavor is still plasmas. This text is very analytic. The derivations are often hard or impossible to follow, and the authors seem to assume general familiarity with plasma physics. I don't have that familiarity, so I found the choice of topics covered and the ensuing theory ad hoc and unmotivated. This is the kind of text where you can spend an enormous amount of time grinding through it, and at the end of the day come away with very litte applicable knowledge.

This book delves far beyond the capabilities of a non-physicist such as myself and is not for everyone. However, I have had a regular tennis game for many years with co-author Professor George Rowlnds of Warwick University (UK). Over beer afterwards, he has often expounded on the importance of choas theory in the real world. I doubt but that a handful of people have the expertise to write a proper review of this book but, as none have done so, I offer this as a poor replacement. Your round, George!