Random Heterogeneous Materials

theory of random heterogeneous structures and to expose the tools that have led to a resurgence of interest in these and related materials. The author is in a very good position to achieve these goals, since he is responsible for much of the recent progress in this subject area, and because of his interest in the study of complex systems. Furthermore, much of the material has not appeared in any previous book on the subject . . . This is a well-written monograph with a high degree of originality. The pedagogy is strong, with most of the mathematical derivations elaborated in detail and without excessive verbiage. Much of the book is written so as to be accessible to specialists and advanced students. The mathematical background required of the reader is not extensive. In fact, a number of open research questions are outlined in the course of presentation. Torquato's book does not contain any exercises, but on the other hand there are many carefully worked out examples and meticulous notes about the history and literature in the field . . . [This book] answers a demand for a long awaited textbook for those who wish to learn about this fascinating and still poorly understood area of condensed matter physics which is sure to remain a focus of intense research activity in the years to come. Torquato's monograph should make an excellent text for self-study or for a graduate course in disordered materials. It will be welcomed by the physical and materials science communities." (Christian Brosseau, Optics & Photonics News, February 2003)"This book ... primarily concerns the mathematical analysis of random structures. This work can serve as a foundation for those who wish to design random heterogeneous structures with specified bulk properties. A major contribution of the book is to clearly and rigorously explain the statistical characterization of the microstructure of these materials ... . An extensive reference list is provided. Random Heterogeneous Materials ... should become a standard reference for those beginning a study of random heterogeneous media." (H.W. Haslach Jr., Applied Mechanics Reviews, 55:4, 2002)"The aim of the book is to give broad information about random heterogeneous materials, particularly based on microstructural and macrostructural properties of the constituent materials. ... The book is well written and might be very useful to researchers working in the area of composite materials and porous media. I, therefore, strongly recommend to personal users and to the institute libraries to keep the book on their shelves." (Hilmi Demiray, Zentralblatt MATH, 988:13, 2002)"This book contains an incredible amount of (nontrivial) results, many of which were first obtained by the author himself (in collaboration with his Princeton group). ... A large number of exact results, too many to summarize here, as well as upper and lower bounds for the effective properties are provided together with an extensive list of references (30 pages). This book should be useful to anybody interested in the quantitative study of complex materials, whatever their origin." (M. Baus, Physicalia, 38:4, 2002)