Abstract

<h2>Acta Crystallographica Section A</h2><h3>Crystal Physics, Diffraction, Theoretical and General Crystallography</h3><h3>0567-7394</h3> <h2>book reviews</h2> Volume 30 Part 3 Pages 459-460 May 1974 <h2> The physics of phonons by J. A. Reissland</h2> G. S. Zhdanov The physics of phonons. By J. A. REISSLAND. Pp.xi + 319, Figs. 70, Tables 29. New York: John Wiley, 1973. Price £7.00. The range of this book is narrower than its title suggests. The author has deliberately limited his task by examining 'the physics of phonons' only in the ideal, nonmetallic crys- tal in which lattice dynamics is manifested in a pure form, without the complications encountered in a real crystal by structural defects and in a metal by the electron gas. Such limitation of the range of material is quite justified and the author has fulfilled his objective with great skill and brilli- ance. Reissland's book is characterized by the logic of his treatment and the strict selection of his material and the reader is thus acquainted in the most efficient way with modern methods, theory and applications of lattice dyna- mics. The book gives clear physical interpretations of the material with which it deals even in those chapters dealing with the mathematical formalism (as,