Statistical Mechanics An Introductory Graduate Course

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Synopsis

In a comprehensive treatment of Statistical Mechanics from thermodynamics through the renormalization group, this book serves as the core text for a full-year graduate course in statistical mechanics at either the Masters or Ph.D. level. Each chapter contains numerous exercises, and several chapters treat special topics which can be used as the basis for student projects. 

The concept of scaling is introduced early and used extensively throughout the text. At the heart of the book is an extensive treatment of mean field theory, from the simplest decoupling approach, through the density matrix formalism, to self-consistent classical and quantum field theory as well as exact solutions on the Cayley tree. Proceeding beyond mean field theory, the book discusses exact mappings involving Potts models, percolation, self-avoiding walks and quenched randomness, connecting various athermal and thermal models. Computational methods such as series expansions and Monte Carlo simulations are discussed, along with exact solutions to the 1D quantum and 2D classical Ising models. The renormalization group formalism is developed, starting from real-space RG and proceeding through a detailed treatment of Wilson’s epsilon expansion. Finally the subject of Kosterlitz-Thouless systems is introduced from a historical perspective and then treated by methods  due to Anderson, Kosterlitz, Thouless and Young.

Altogether, this comprehensive, up-to-date, and engaging text offers an ideal package for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses or for use in self study.

Book details

Edition:
1st ed. 2019
Series:
Graduate Texts in Physics
Author:
A. J. Berlinsky, A. B. Harris
ISBN:
9783030281878
Related ISBNs:
9783030281861
Publisher:
Springer International Publishing
Pages:
N/A
Reading age:
Not specified
Includes images:
Yes
Date of addition:
2019-11-30
Usage restrictions:
Copyright
Copyright date:
2019
Copyright by:
Springer Nature Switzerland AG 
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Categories:
Earth Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Nonfiction, Science