Many familiar materials have neither the precise order of crystalline solids nor the completely
random structure of liquids and gases. Colloids such as milk, soap, and detergent
solutions; liquid crystals, well known from flat electronic displays; gels; and many kinds
of ultrastrong fibers are all partially ordered systems. Such systems have emerged as an
important field of study not only from the point of view of basic physics, but also with
practical applications in materials science and other disciplines.
This series includes research monographs and graduate-level texts that deal with condensed
systems at microscopic, mesoscopic, or macroscopic scales that do not have full
long-range spatial and orientational orders. These systems—some of which have also been
called soft matter, complex fluids, or supermolecular fluids—include complex liquids with
molecules or aggregates of molecules organized on long scales; liquid crystals, composed
of monomers or polymers; colloids; molecular crystals; quasicrystals; granular materials;
disordered systems; and aggregates. Books in the series cover all aspects of the materials,
their structures, properties, and formation, as well as percolation and the formation of
fractals and spatiotemporal patterns.