Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) has been observed in a dilute gas of sodium atoms. A Bose-Einstein condensate consists of a macroscopic population of the ground state of the system, and is a coherent state of matter. In an ideal gas, this phase transition is purely quantum-statistical. The study of BEC in weakly interacting systems which can be controlled and observed with precision holds the promise of revealing new macroscopic quantum phenomena that can be understood from first principles.

Bose-Einstein condensation in a gas of sodium atoms

to be done in this area. Face recognition is a problem that scarcely clamoured for attention before the computer age but, having surfaced, has involved a wide range of techniques and has attracted the attention of some fine minds (David Mumford was a Fields Medallist in 1974). This singular application of mathematical modelling to a messy applied problem of obvious utility and importance but with no unique solution is a pretty one to share with students: perhaps, returning to the source of our opening quotation, we may invert Duncan's earlier observation, 'There is an art to find the mind's construction in the face!'.

Linear and nonlinear waves, by G. B. Whitham. Pp.636. £50. 1999. ISBN 0 471 35942 4 (Wiley).

The advent of ultraintense laser pulses generated by the technique of chirped pulse amplification (CPA) along with the development of high-fluence laser materials has opened up an entirely new field of optics. The electromagnetic field intensities produced by these techniques, in excess of ${10}^{18}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{W}∕{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$, lead to relativistic electron motion in the laser field. The CPA method is reviewed and the future growth of laser technique is discussed, including the prospect of generating the ultimate power of a zettawatt. A number of consequences of relativistic-strength optical fields are surveyed. In contrast to the nonrelativistic regime, these laser fields are capable of moving matter more effectively, including motion in the direction of laser propagation. One of the consequences of this is wakefield generation, a relativistic version of optical rectification, in which longitudinal field effects could be as large as the transverse ones. In addition to this, other effects may occur, including relativistic focusing, relativistic transparency, nonlinear modulation and multiple harmonic generation, and strong coupling to matter and other fields (such as high-frequency radiation). A proper utilization of these phenomena and effects leads to the new technology of relativistic engineering, in which light-matter interactions in the relativistic regime drives the development of laser-driven accelerator science. A number of significant applications are reviewed, including the fast ignition of an inertially confined fusion target by short-pulsed laser energy and potential sources of energetic particles (electrons, protons, other ions, positrons, pions, etc.). The coupling of an intense laser field to matter also has implications for the study of the highest energies in astrophysics, such as ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, with energies in excess of ${10}^{20}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$. The laser fields can be so intense as to make the accelerating field large enough for general relativistic effects (via the equivalence principle) to be examined in the laboratory. It will also enable one to access the nonlinear regime of quantum electrodynamics, where the effects of radiative damping are no longer negligible. Furthermore, when the fields are close to the Schwinger value, the vacuum can behave like a nonlinear medium in much the same way as ordinary dielectric matter expanded to laser radiation in the early days of laser research.

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Optics in the relativistic regime

http://absimage.aps.org/image/DAMOP12/MWS_DAMOP12-2012-000066.pdf

Optics in the Relativistic Regime

Dark optical solitons: physics and applications

Soliton stability in plasmas and hydrodynamics

The Hamiltonian description of hydrodynamic type systems in application to plasmas, hydrodynamics, and magnetohydrodynamics is reviewed with emphasis on the problem of introducing canonical variables. The relation to other Hamiltonian approaches, in particular natural-variable Poisson brackets, is pointed out. It is shown that the degeneracy of noncanonical Poisson brackets relates to a special type of symmetry, the relabeling transformations of fluid-particle Lagrangian markers, from which all known vorticity conservation theorems, such as Ertel's, Cauchy's, Kelvin's, as well as vorticity frozenness and the topological Hopf invariant, are derived. The application of canonical variables to collisionless plasma kinetics is described. The Hamiltonian structure of Benney's equations and of the Rossby wave equation is discussed. Davey–Stewartson's equation is given the Hamiltonian form. A general method for treating weakly nonlinear waves is presented based on classical perturbation theory and the Hamiltonian reduction technique.

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Hamiltonian formalism for nonlinear waves

It is shown that when analyzing Langmuir waves a change in the boundary conditions can lead to drastically different mathematical results.

Solitons in a parametrically unstable plasma

http://math.arizona.edu/~zakharov/papers/pdf/1996_PLA_DKSZ.pdf

Analytical description of the free surface dynamics of an ideal fluid (canonical formalism and conformal mapping)

/pdf/multi-scale-expansions-in-the-theory-of-systems-integrable-2p8p98138a.pdf

E. A. Kuznetsov

Papers

Soliton stability in plasmas and hydrodynamics

Hamiltonian formalism for nonlinear waves

Solitons in a parametrically unstable plasma

Analytical description of the free surface dynamics of an ideal fluid (canonical formalism and conformal mapping)

Multi-scale expansions in the theory of systems integrable by the inverse scattering transform