Thisrevisedandupdatedsecondeditionofahighlysuccessfulbookistheonlytextatthisleveltoembraceauniversaiapproachtothreemajordevelopmentsinclassicalphysics;namelynonlinearwaves,solitonsandchaos.Theauthorsnowincludenewmaterialonbiologyandlasertheory,andgoontodiscussimportantrecentdevelopmentssuchassolitonmetamorphosis.
Acomprehensivetreatmentofbasicplasmaandfluidconfigurationsandinstabilitiesisfollowedbyastudyoftherelevantnonlinearstructures.Examplesofthesearecoherententitieslikenonlinearwavesandsolitons,aswellastheincoherentstructuresassociatedwithchaos.Thefirstpartofthebookisaself-containedintroductiontogeneraltopicsassociatedwithnonlineargraduatephysics,andwouldbeaccessibletofinal-yearundergraduatesandbeginninggraduatestudents.Theremainderofthebook,forexamplethetreatmentofcylindricalsolitons,ismoreadvancedandwillhaveawideappealtospecialistsinanumberofbranchesofphysics.Eachchapterconcludeswithasetofproblems.
Thistextwillbeparticularlyvaluableforstudentstakingcoursesinnonlinearaspectsofphysics.Ingeneral,itwill.beofvaluetofinal-yearundergraduatesandbeginninggraduatestudentsstudyingfluiddynamics,plasmaphysicsorappliedmathematics.