AIP PHYSICS TODAY ## Solid State Physics ✓ N. W. Ashcroft; N. D. Mermin; R. Smoluchowski Check for updates Physics Today 30 (1), 61–65 (1977); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3037370 CrossMark ## Measure Ready ## M81-SSM E-Book New Low-Level Measurement Techniques for Device Characterization Lake Shore CRYOTRONICS ADVANCING SCIENCE relativity to undergraduates—and perhaps also to himself—will find Ohanian's book suggestive, and many of the details interesting and original. * * * Wolfgang Rindler is Professor of Physics and Mathematics at The University of Texas at Dallas and is himself the author of two texts on relativity. He coined the terms “event horizon” and “particle horizon” and gave those entities their earliest systematic treatment. ## Structure and Evolutionary History of the Solar System H. Alfven, G. Arrhenius 276 pp. D. Reidel, Dordrecht, Holland, 1975. $32.00 clothbound, $24.00 paperbound The book is based on, and is in fact almost identical to, four papers published in "Astrophysics and Space Science." The authors give their own views of the structure and formation of the solar system and make no attempt at reviewing, or even mentioning, rival theories. Consequently, this is a very useful book if one is interested in the theories of Hannes Alfven and Gustaf Arrhenius, but it is of little use for general information regarding the subject. Of course, both Alfven and Arrhenius are major contributors to the field, and their personal views are therefore of considerable interest. Alfvén and Arrhenius believe that the Sun, with a magnetic field many times stronger than its present field, accreted matter from an interstellar cloud: During its infall this matter becomes ionized. The authors recognize three distinct ionization regions, roughly where the nonvolatile, the compounds of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen and hydrogen and helium become ionized. When ionization occurs, the material is influenced by the magnetic field, which prevents further infall and gives the material angular momentum. Thus three rings—or bands—are formed, each of different composition. (Unfortunately, these compositional bands do not correspond to those found in our planetary system; the ordering is different.) The authors then discuss the formation of planets within such rings and describe the idea of “jet streaming,” a form of gravitational focusing where collisions between the particles in a band produce a tighter and tighter ring or stream, which eventually accumulates into one body. Alfvén and Arrhenius also believe that the satellite systems formed byAIP PHYSICS TODAY ## Solid State Physics ✓ N. W. Ashcroft; N. D. Mermin; R. Smoluchowski Check for updates Physics Today 30 (1), 61–65 (1977); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3037370 CrossMark ## Measure Ready ## M81-SSM E-Book New Low-Level Measurement Techniques for Device Characterization Lake Shore CRYOTRONICS ADVANCING SCIENCE relativity to undergraduates—and perhaps also to himself—will find Ohanian's book suggestive, and many of the details interesting and original. * * * Wolfgang Rindler is Professor of Physics and Mathematics at The University of Texas at Dallas and is himself the author of two texts on relativity. He coined the terms “event horizon” and “particle horizon” and gave those entities their earliest systematic treatment. ## Structure and Evolutionary History of the Solar System H. Alfven, G. Arrhenius 276 pp. D. Reidel, Dordrecht, Holland, 1975. $32.00 clothbound, $24.00 paperbound The book is based on, and is in fact almost identical to, four papers published in "Astrophysics and Space Science." The authors give their own views of the structure and formation of the solar system and make no attempt at reviewing, or even mentioning, rival theories. Consequently, this is a very useful book if one is interested in the theories of Hannes Alfven and Gustaf Arrhenius, but it is of little use for general information regarding the subject. Of course, both Alfven and Arrhenius are major contributors to the field, and their personal views are therefore of considerable interest. Alfvén and Arrhenius believe that the Sun, with a magnetic field many times stronger than its present field, accreted matter from an interstellar cloud: During its infall this matter becomes ionized. The authors recognize three distinct ionization regions, roughly where the nonvolatile, the compounds of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen and hydrogen and helium become ionized. When ionization occurs, the material is influenced by the magnetic field, which prevents further infall and gives the material angular momentum. Thus three rings—or bands—are formed, each of different composition. (Unfortunately, these compositional bands do not correspond to those found in our planetary system; the ordering is different.) The authors then discuss the formation of planets within such rings and describe the idea of “jet streaming,” a form of gravitational focusing where collisions between the particles in a band produce a tighter and tighter ring or stream, which eventually accumulates into one body. Alfvén and Arrhenius also believe that the satellite systems formed by