This book first introduces a single polaron and describes recent achievements in analytical and numerical studies of polaron properties in different e-ph models. It then describes multi-polaron physics as well as many key physical properties of high-temperature superconductors, colossal magnetoresistance oxides, conducting polymers and molecular nanowires, which were understood with polarons and bipolarons.

This book presents the polaron and bipolaron theory of high-temperature superconductivity.

This book presents theoretical as well as experimental articles focused on recent new results in high temperature superconductivity. All contributors are high ranking scientists who have done major work to enhance the understanding of this phenomenon. A few articles deal with ferroelectricity and its applications. The book is dedicated to Prof. Dr. K. Alex Müller on his 80th birthday. During his scientific career he made major advances in the understanding of ferroelectricity.

The search for microscopic models to explain the many superconducting substances has introduced seminal concepts and techniques in many-body physics and in statistical mechanics. The complexity of the high-temperature superconductors has required a remarkable refinement of experimental techniques in order to allow a reliable characterization of the samples, and is partly the reason why so many different microscopic models have so far been proposed. This Enrico Fermi Course on Superconductivity was provided an up-to date presentation of selected experimental and theoretical theories on the (so called) conventional superconductivity and on the high temperature superconductivity. The attention was focused on those reliable measurements which are expected to provide the theory with key constraints, viz: Raman and Infrared Spectroscopy, Nuclear Spin Resonance, Angular Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy, transport measurements, Josephson effect. The lectures devoted to the overview of the BCS theory and to the discussion of minimal models and of the crossover from BCS to Bose-Einstein condensation may be particularly useful. The remaining part of the program was shared between phonon and non-phonon based mechanisms. On the one hand, special emphasis has been devoted to the breakdown of the Migdal theorem and to polaronic theories. On the other, the book contains an overview of strongly correlated electron theories, including magnetic interactions. A survey of the physics of vortices completes the theoretical part of the lectures.

The articles in this exceptional book contain regular papers, extended papers and reviews, and thus vary in length and are useful for all kinds of audience. They describe, as the book's name suggests, HTSC models and methodologies. Physical models (like extended BCS model, bipolaron model, spin bag model, RVB (resonating valence bond) model, preformed Cooper pairs and antiferromagnetic spin fluctuation (AFSF) based models, stripe phase, paired cluster (spin glass (SG) frustration based) model, Kamimura-Suwa (Hund's coupling mechanism based) model, electron- plasmon interaction, electron- phonon interaction, etc.), theoretical methods (methodologies) (like generalised BCS-Migdal-Eliashberg theory, Hubbard model, t-J model, t-t'-U model, Hubbard-Holstein model, Fermi-, non Fermi- and marginal Fermi- liquid concepts, generalised Hartree-Fock formalism, etc.) and, experimental status and methodologies are all described there. For comparison with cuprates, fullerenes, ruthenates, organic-, non Cu-containing oxide-and conventional (elemental, A15)- superconductors, molecular crystals, nickelates, manganites, borides etc. are also discussed.

This book reviews recent developments in the field of polarons, starting with the basics and covering a number of active directions of research. It integrates theory and experimental results.

After an introduction by J.G. Bednorz, describing the discovery of high Tc superconductivity and its consequences, the book goes on to describe modern research, dealing with general problems, new materials and structures, phase separation, electronic homogeneities and related problems, and applications. Specific systems dealt with include the La-cuprates. the Bi-cuprates and the Y-cuprates and related compounds.

This book provides a comprehensive review of the subject of polaron and a thorough account of the sophisticated theories of the polaron. It explains the concept of the polaron physics in as simple a manner as possible and presents the theoretical techniques and mathematical derivations in great detail. Anybody who follows this book will develop a solid command over the subject both conceptually and technically and will be in a position to contribute to this field.

Quickly becoming the hottest topic of the new millennium (2.4 billion dollars funding in US alone) Current status and future trends of micro and nanoelectronics research Written by leading experts in the corresponding research areas Excellent tutorial for graduate students and reference for "gurus" Provides a broad overlook and fundamentals of nanoscience and nanotechnology from chemistry to electronic devices

The focus of the workshop is the role of crystal lattices, i.e. atomic structure, phonons, lattice distortions, in the mechanism of high temperature superconductivity in oxides. In spite of the intense research effort during the last five years the mechanism of high temperature superconductivity still remains unknown. While earlier theories forcused primarily on the role of magnetic interaction, recent experimental results strongly suggest that anharmonic local atomic displacements, in particular those induced by charge carriers, are critically involved in creating high temperature superconductivity. In this workshop, experimentalists and theoreticians address this issue with the hope of stimulating real progress in this area.