Dynamics of Ordering Processes in Condensed Matter

Book excerpt: The International Symposium on Dynamics of Ordering Processes in Condensed Matter was held at the Kansai Seminar House, Kyoto, for four days, from 27 to 30 August 1987, under the auspices of the Physical Soci ety of Japan. The symposium was financially supported by the four orga nizations and 45 companies listed on other pages in this volume. We are very grateful to all of them and particularly to the greatest sponsor, the Commemorative Association for the Japan World Exposition 1970. A total Df 22 invited lectures and 48 poster presentations were given and 110 participants attended from seven nations. An objective of the Symposium was to review and extend our present understanding of the dynamics of ordering processes in condensed matters, (for example, alloys, polymers and fluids), that are brought to an un stable state by sudden change of such external parameters as temperature and pressure. A second objective, no less important, was to identify new fields of science that might be investigated by similar, but sometimes more sophisticated, concepts and tactics. An emphasis was laid on those universal aspects of the laws governing the ordering processes which transcended the detailed differences among the substances used. The 71 lectures reproduced in this volume bear witness to the success of the Symposium in meeting amply the first objective and, to a lesser extent, the second.