Density wave theory of freezing and the solid

The theory of the liquid to solid transition, in three as well as in two dimensions, is reviewed. The transition can be viewed either as the melting of the solid due to phonon or defect proliferation instabilities or alternatively as freezing of the liquid into a density wave state with crystalline symmetry. A theory due to Yussouff and the author, based on the latter idea, is discussed and its predictions are compared with experiment. It is shown that the theory leads to a new approach to the properties of a deformed (e.g., sheared) solid and of defects such as grain boundaries and dislocations in a solid. The approach brings out explicitly the structural nature of these properties, and is not restricted to small deviations from perfect periodicity (harmonic approximation) since the solid, the liquid and anything in between can be handled theoretically.