Customer Reviews

The Versatile Soliton

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

 

 

The author of this lovely book writes about an important scientific problem - recognition of the importance of the soliton concept - in ways that will be of interest to both novices to nonlinear theory and those who are familiar with the underlying ideas. The latter will find much of value in the careful historical discussions, which make it clear that solitary-wave theory has been of interest to many scientists for the past century and a half, and in the references to Soviet and Russian contributions, which have been substantial. For those who come new to this subject, the Dr. Filippov explains all of the key ideas in clear English, using simple physical examples and metaphors. This book should be on the shelves of all who would better understand the many roles that soliton theory now plays in optical communications, superconductive electronics, elementary-particle theory, solid-state physics, and - last but not least - hydrodynamics, where the original Great Wave of Translation - studied in the middle of the nineteenth century by John Scott Russell provides a clear model for the tsunami that has recently devastated the rim of the Indian Ocean.

This book gives a nice insight into the history of the concept of soliton. After a long (but interesting) historical introduction, the author goes deeper into the physical and mathematical concepts related to waves and (nonlinear) dynamics. Although the treatment always stays at an elementary level , the author always try to enlight the physical meaning of the results. From this point of view it will please the beginner already having some notions of these concepts.
All the areas of science where the concept of soliton has been proved to be useful are mentionned, which makes the books quite complete on the subject.
I dont give 5 stars because of a lake of clarity of the last chapter on particle physics (but I must admit that this is subjective and that this area of physics is not my speciality) and because of the price (this book is quite expensive). Needless to say that this book remains an original and quite pedagogical introduction on the subject. You will need some other books to get skilled with all the notions relative to soliton (the book by Dauxois and Peyrard will be a good choice to pursue your personnal reading). A good starting point nevertheless !