This bookis based on some of the lectures duringthe Paci?c Institute of Theoretical Physics (PITP) summer school on "Quantum Magnetism", held during June 2006 in Les Houches, in the French Alps. The school was funded jointly by NATO, the CNRS, and PITP, and entirely organized by PITP. Magnetism is a somewhat peculiar research ?eld. It clearly has a quant- mechanical basis - the microscopic exchange interactions arise entirely from the exclusion principle, in conjunction with repulsive interactions between electrons. And yet until recently the vast majority of magnetism researchersand users of m- netic phenomena around the world paid no attention to these quantum-mechanical roots. Thus, e.g., the huge ($400 billion per annum) industry which manufactures hard discs, and other components in the information technology sector, depends entirely on room-temperature properties of magnets - yet at the macroscopic or mesoscopic scales of interest to this industry, room-temperature magnets behave entirely classically.

Inhalt

A Gentle Introduction to the Functional Renormalization Group: the Kondo Effect in Quantum Dots; S. Andergassen et al.- Halfvortices in Flat Nanomagnets; G.-W. Chen et al.- Spin Structure and Dynamical Magnetic Response of Spin-Orbital Polarons in Lightly Doped Cobaltates; M. Daghofer et al.- Quantum Corrections to the Ising Interactions in LiY1-xHoxF4; A. Chin, P.R. Eastham.- Spin-orbital-lattice Physics in a Ca-based Ruthenates; M. Cuoco et al.- Local Moment Approach to Multi-orbatal Anderson and Hubbard Models; A. Kauch, K. Byczuk.- High Field Level Crossing Studies on Spin Dimers in the Low Dimensional Quantum Spin System Na2T2(C2O4)3(H2O)2 with T=Ni,Co,Fe,Mn; C. Mennerich et al.- Quantum Nanomagnets and Nuclear Spins: an Overview; A. Morello.- Quantum Dimer Models and Exotic Orders; K.S. Raman et al.- Imaging Transverse Electron Focusing in Semiconducting Heterostructures with Spin-orbit Coupling; A.A. Reynoso et al.- Spectroscopic Analysis of Finite Size Effects around a Kondo Quantum Dot; P. Simon, D. Feinberg.- Effective Magnus Force on a Magnetic Vortex; L.R. Thompson, P.C.E. Stamp.- Anisotropic Exchange in Spin Chains; D. Zakharov et al.- A Review of Bose-Einstein Condensation in Certain Quantum Magnets Containing Cu and Ni; V.S. Zapf.