M. Lax

At the time of its publication this classic text, co-written by the Nobel Laureate Max Born, represented the definitive account of the subject and in many ways it still does. The book begins with a general discussion of the statistical mechanics of ideal lattices, leading to the electric polarizability and to the scattering of light. It then provides detailed discussions of long lattice waves, thermal properties, and optical properties.

The semiclassical Franck-Condon principle is shown to be related to the more rigorous (``exact'') quantum-mechanical perturbation formula in the following ways: (1) the Franck-Condon formula can be derived from the ``exact'' formula by using a mean value approximation or by neglecting certain commutators; (2) if the electric dipole moments are treated as approximately independent of position, the Franck-Condon and the ``exact'' absorption (or emission) spectrum have the same zeroth, first, and second moments, i.e., the same integrated spectrum, mean absorption frequency, and breadth; (3) the errors in higher moments than the second become relatively unimportant at high temperatures. If the electron-nuclear interaction is sufficiently strong the errors are unimportant even at absolute zero. The use of a quasi-molecular description in a many particle problem is found to be possible only if the masses or stiffnesses are allowed to be temperature dependent. A detailed analysis is made of the case in which the energy difference between the two electronic states is a linear function of the vibrational coordinates—and the latter are describable by normal modes. ``Exact'' formulas for the absorption and emission spectrum are obtained.

A general theory of stochastic transport in disordered systems has been developed. The theory is based on a generalization of the Montroll-Weiss continuous-time random walk (CTRW) on a lattice. Starting from a general mobility formalism, specialized $\stackrel{\mathrm{\ifmmode\acute\else\textasciiacute\fi{}}}{\mathrm{t}}$o hopping conduction, an exact expression for the conductivity $\ensuremath{\sigma}(\ensuremath{\omega})$ for the CTRW process is derived. The frequency dependence of $\ensuremath{\sigma}(\ensuremath{\omega})$ is determined by the Fourier transform of the zeroth and second spatial moments of the function $\ensuremath{\psi}(\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{s}},t)$, which is equal to the probability per unit time that the displacement and time between hops is $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{s}}$, $t$. The conductivity corresponding to characteristically different types of hopping distributions is discussed, as well as the basic approximation in adopting a CTRW on a lattice to transport in disordered solids.

In this paper we are concerned with the propagation of a light beam through an inhomogeneous, isotropic medium with a possibly nonlinear index of refraction. The customary paraxial approximations of neglecting grad $\mathrm{div}\mathcal{E}$ and seeking a plane-polarized solution are shown to be incompatible with the exact Maxwell equations. By starting from Maxwell's equations, and scaling transverse and longitudinal distances by the beam waist ${w}_{0}$ and diffraction length $l$, respectively, an expansion procedure in powers of $\frac{{w}_{0}}{l}$ is developed. The exact equations obeyed by the zeroth-order fields are not Maxwell's equations but the customary paraxial approximation to Maxwell's equations. Equations for the first-, second-, and third-order fields are developed. The first-order field is found to be a longitudinal field. It is solved for explicitly in terms of the zeroth-order field which is transverse. Thus a precise knowledge of the meaning and accuracy of paraxial wave optics is obtained.