Many-Body Problems and Quantum Field Theory
An Introduction
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Beschreibung
The book gives an introduction to the concepts and methods of many-body problems and quantum fields for graduate students and researchers. The formalism is developed in close conjunction with the description of a number of physical systems: cohesion and dielectric properties of the electron gas, superconductivity, superfluidity, nuclear matter and nucleon pairing, matter and radiation, interaction of fields by particle exchange and mass generation. Emphasis is put on analogies between the various systems rather than on advanced or specialized aspects, with the purpose of illustrating common ideas in different domains of physics. The exposition is self-contained and displays in a coherent way all details of derivations starting from a basic knowledge of quantum mechanics and classical electromagnetism.
This text is a revised and augmented version of a course given to graduate and Ph.D. students in the context of the doctoral school for physics in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. This doctoral school provides a common teaching program for the universities of Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Neuchatel and Lausanne, as well as for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lau sanne. The scope of the course should be sufficiently general to interest both experimentalists and theoreticians wishing to engage in research in condensed matter or nuclear and particle physics. The prerequisites are an introductory course to quantum mechanics and elements of classical electromagnetism and statistical mechanics. Our main concern was how to maintain a reasonably broad level of know ledge for students with different orientations, in a world of research where the price of survival is extreme specialization and competitiveness. Is it still possible in the available time to provide a cultural education in physics by relatively elementary means and in an optimized form? We believe that this is an essential pedagogical duty. Attempting to meet this challenge has de termined the conception of this book: each individual part of it is standard and without novelty but should belong, in our opinion, to the basic culture of every physicist; only their common organization in a single house of decent siz;e might possibly be put to our credit.
Carefully select the really important applications of quantum physics to the physics of matter and develop the theory just to the extent it is actually needed
Pedagocically written and altogether quite different from most books on quantum physics
"Many-Body Problems and Quantum Field Theory" introduces the concepts and methods of the topics on a level suitable for graduate students and researchers. The formalism is developed in close conjunction with the description of a number of physical systems: cohesion and dielectric properties of the electron gas, superconductivity, superfluidity, nuclear matter and nucleon pairing, matter and radiation, interaction of fields by particle exchange and mass generation. Emphasis is placed on analogies between the various systems rather than on advanced or specialized aspects, with the purpose of illustrating common ideas within different domains of physics. Starting from a basic knowledge of quantum mechanics and classical electromagnetism, the exposition is self-contained and explicitly details all steps of the derivations. The nbew ediiton features a subtantially new treatment of nucleon pairing.
Autor*in
Steven Goldfarb
Themen in »Many-Body Problems and Quantum Field Theory«
Bose Gas Einstein-Bose Condensation Electronic Gas Hartree-Fock Method N-Body Problem Nuclear Structure Perturbative Methods in Field Theory Superconductivite Superfluidity quantum mechanics
Stimmen zu »Many-Body Problems and Quantum Field Theory«
"The book is aimed to provide a reasonably broad and nevertheless high level of knowledge to Ph.D. students. I think that this challenge is truly reached. The authors achieve a good balance between formal developments and physical applications. The former are limited to the essential, and the connection between the mathematical representations and the physical concepts and paradigms is pedagogically presented. The latter are well chosen and belong, I believe, to the basic culture of every Ph.D. student, too often driven to specialization. [...] In conclusion, this book provides an excellent introduction to quantum field theory and its applications. It should be considered as one of the favourite books for any Ph.D. student and as a good reference book for more advanced physicists." (Joseph Cugnon, Physicalia, 25/3, 2003)
"[...] came out of a graduate course that presented a unified treatment of condensed-matter, nuclear, and particle theory. The course emphasized the similarities, sometimes even the identity, of the methods used in those fields – a wonderful idea, because students are often led to believe that the fields are disparate and never meet." (Physics Today, April 2003)
"Very well written and has a strong pedagogical style: mathematical steps in the explanations are complete and timely examples worked out in detail… I applaud the authors attempt to bring together the threads of many-body theory, which forms the cornerstone of traditionally distinct problems, into a readable textbook for students… and reference for the practitioner." (The Physicist)
From the reviews of the second edition:
"The book provides a nice unified approach to the quantum field theory of the solid state and the nucleon. … The book applies the same, consistent language for the different and broad fields of physics. This approach makes the book attractive to beginners who want to learn some more advanced methods and … need to see a range of applications … . The book can be used as an introduction for beginners in the field, advanced researchers can use it as a look up reference." (Andreas Knorr, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1065, 2005)
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