Bond-Orientational Order in Condensed Matter Systems

One of the most important aspects of solid materials is the regularity of the arrangement of the constituent molecules, that is, the long-range order. The focus of this book is on the contribution made by the ordering of bond orientations (as distinguished from the orientations of the molecules themselves) on the behavior of condensed systems, particularly their phase transitions. Examples in which bond-orientational effects play an important role are liquid crystals, quasicrystals, and two-d…