The Mathematics of Long-Range Aperiodic Order

Download or read book The Mathematics of Long-Range Aperiodic Order written by R.V. Moody and published by Springer. This book was released on 1997-03-31 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THEOREM: Rotational symmetries of order greater than six, and also five-fold rotational symmetry, are impossible for a periodic pattern in the plane or in three-dimensional space. The discovery of quasicrystals shattered this fundamental 'law', not by showing it to be logically false but by showing that periodicity was not synonymous with long-range order, if by 'long-range order' we mean whatever order is necessary for a crystal to produce a diffraction pat tern with sharp bright spots. It suggested that we may not know what 'long-range order' means, nor what a 'crystal' is, nor how 'symmetry' should be defined. Since 1984, solid state science has been under going a veritable K uhnian revolution. -M. SENECHAL, Quasicrystals and Geometry Between total order and total disorder He the vast majority of physical structures and processes that we see around us in the natural world. On the whole our mathematics is well developed for describing the totally ordered or totally disordered worlds. But in reality the two are rarely separated and the mathematical tools required to investigate these in-between states in depth are in their infancy.