This is the first book dedicated to the glass transition since this concept became recognized as a distinct and independent field of investigation. The glass transition is a synonym for relaxation and dynamics in complex disordered systems, especially in liquids. It embraces time-scales ranging from picoseconds to years. The book describes and interrelates the following processes: cooperative alpha processes in a cold liquid, structural relaxation in the glass near Tg, the Johari-Goldstein beta process, the Williams-Götze process in a warm liquid, fast nonactivated cage rattling and boson peak, and ultraslow Fischer modes. By describing the salient facts, explaining and discussing the fundamentals, the author attempts to introduce a unifying concept for the entire material. The formulas, diagrams and references are carefully selected to illustrate the main current ideas about the glass transition.

From the reviews:

"A welcome addition to the literature on a subject that is currently attracting a very heavy research interest... the author means the entire process of viscous slowdown and vitrification... he may well be the best-read author in this field. I found information that was new and interesting to me in nearly every section. There seems to be no element of the subject on which Donth has not read widely and deeply. [His] use of figures, backed up by appropriate text, can be an effective way of conveying a lot of information about (and insight into) the system behavior... This book is an excellent choice of reading material for someone newly entering the field, who wants to be made aware of its elements. It also provides much food for thought for the experts."

- Physics Today