Short description Systems displaying competing interactions of some kind are widespread - much more, in fact, as commonly anticipated (magnetic and Ising-type interactions or the dynamics of DNA molecules being only two popular examples). This is the first book to describe their common features and the universal laws governing patterns that evolve under the influence of such competing interactions.
From the contents 1. Introduction 1.1 How the story begun 1.2 First theoretical approaches for competing interactions 1.3 Beautiful patterns govern the world 2. Self-competition or how to choose the best from the worse 2.1 Frustration: the world is not perfect 2.2 Self-competition of the short-range interactions 2.3 Self-competition of the long-range interactions 2.4 Ordering entropy 2.5 Problems/Solutions 3. Famous competition between a short- and a long-range interaction 3.1 Localized particles 3.2 Delocalized particles 3.3 Problems/Solutions 4. Competition between a long-range dipolar interaction and an anisotropy 4.1 Ultrathin magnetic films 4.2 Ultrthin magnetic particles 5. Competition between two interactions of the same range 5.1 Two short-range interactions 5.2 Two long-range interactions 5.3 Problems/Solutions 6. Dynamics of self-organized systems close to equilibrium 6.1 Polarization reversal 6.2 Wave phenomena 6.3 Diffusion-limited aggregation 6.4 Dynamics of nanoparticles References
