Introduction

Abstract

Nonlinear wave propagation has been a subject of serious scientific investigation since the 1800s, but the early work was concerned mostly with gases and was almost entirely theoretical. Experimental investigations of shock compression of condensed matter have been reported since the early 1900s and military applications motivated a marked increase in interest in the subject during the 1940s and 1950s. Since this early period the field has grown in both depth and breadth and work is now being reported by hundreds of investigators working in countries scattered throughout the world.