Condensed Matter Physics

Book Description

A modern, unified treatment of condensed matter physics

This new work presents for the first time in decades a sweeping review of the whole field of condensed matter physics. It consolidates new and classic topics from disparate sources, teaching "not only about the effective masses of electrons in semiconductor crystals and band theory, but also about quasicrystals, dynamics of phase separation, why rubber is more floppy than steel, electron interference in nanometer-sized channels, and the quantum Hall effect."

Six major areas are covered---atomic structure, electronic structure, mechanical properties, electron transport, optical properties, and magnetism. But rather than defining the field in terms of particular materials, the author focuses on the way condensed matter physicists approach physical problems, combining phenomenology and microscopic arguments with information from experiments. For graduate students and professionals, researchers and engineers, applied mathematicians and materials scientists, Condensed Matter Physics provides:
* An exciting collection of new topics from the past two decades.
* A thorough treatment of classic topics, including band theory, transport theory, and semiconductor physics.
* Over 300 figures, incorporating many images from experiments.
* Frequent comparison of theory and experiment, both when they agree and when problems are still unsolved.
* More than 50 tables of data and a detailed index.
* Ample end-of-chapter problems, including computational exercises.
* Over 1000 references, both recent and historically significant.

An Instructor's Manual presenting detailed solutions to all the problems in the book is available from the Wiley editorial department.

Customer Reviews:

Comprehensive but poor.......2004-06-25

I admire anyone who attempts to teach all of condensed matter physics in one book. That being said, being comprehensive and being comprehendible are two very different things. While being the former it sacrifices the latter. Marder does not do a good job of explaining the physical concepts needed to build a better understanding of advanced material. In addition, his end-of-chapter problems can be relatively uninformative and tedious i.e. you are left asking why did I just do this problem? Inevitably I find myself going back to Ashcroft & Mermin's wonderful but dated book. Hopefully one day they will publish a new edition...

Broad coverage, but lacking detail.......2003-10-05

I used Marder's book (the corrected printing) during a solid state physics course this past Spring 2003 semeseter. While I have to commend Marder at his attempt to provide a great deal of breadth on the enormous field of condensed matter, I think he fell short on the details and pedagogy that are necessary for someone new to the subject. Too often, I found myself (and the others I worked with) having to refer to Ashcroft & Mermin's text to complete HW problems assigned out of Marder's book. Also, his notation in certain chapters was unnecessarily confusing, especially the chapter(s) on phonons. I have since read most of the book by Taylor & Heinonen, and I found it to be of much more use than Marder's book. T&H's book is very well written and the concepts flow smoothly from one to the next. In fact, many of the things I struggled to understand last semester were so clearly explained in their text, that I wondered how I could have been so confused! Marder's book has been praised by others as a modern improvement to the A&M standard, but up-to-date topics are of little use if the first-timer has difficulty understanding the nuances of core ideas (e.g., transport, band-structure, and electron-phonon interactions). My opinion is that a good library should include A&M's text for those fundamentals that never go away (crystal structure, semiconductors, etc.) and a book such as T&H's or Chaikin & Lubensky's for the more modern topics ("soft" condensed matter, mesoscopic physics, etc.).

corrected printing has appeared.......2001-05-08

Note that a corrected printing (not 'new edition') came out in February 2001. Make sure you get this version, which is identified on the cover.

at last, an update for Ashcroft & Mermin's book.......2000-06-16

The classic solid state / condensed matter text by Ashcroft and Mermin (A&M) is now 25 years old. It's a very accessible and elegantly written book, but condensed matter is a fast-moving subject, and it's embarassing that A&M is still used today. The alternatives have all been too specialized, too formal, and/or too leadenly written in comparison.

This book by Marden may finally replace A&M. Like Ashcroft and Mermin, Marden is a member of the Cornell mafia. Some parts of the book practically echo A&M, and the writing style is at least as friendly to the beginning grad student ("Now it will be protested that atoms without dipole moments do not have dipole moments. This is true. However...") But the large number of new developments of the last 25 years are discussed or at least mentioned. In addition to the same-old band structure, magnetism, etc., liquids are covered (a surprising omission in A&M), as are surfaces, soft matter, optical properties of materials, etc. The book is fairly logically structured and works well as a text, except that there is way too much material here to cover in a year.

Customer Reviews:

Old book, but the physics is the same .......2007-08-06

The Ashcroft text is superior to other Solid State texts because of its readbility. It is not over-written like some texts, and its presentation of fundamentals is appropriate for a graduate course in solid state physics. It is not fair to under-rate the book simply because it is "old". Despite having several decades to write a better book, few authors have.

There are advanced chapters toward the end of the book that lay the foundations for superconductivity and vibrations in solids, among other things. Like most physics books, the direct application of the physics to real world tools is an afterthought, as it took me 5 years of experience to finally realize that Ashcroft's treatment of phonons in later chapters could be used to describe the piezoelectric efficiency of acoustic sensors. Perhaps this is because the book is dated, or perhaps it is because many physics texts fail to make the link between consumer technologies and fundamental breakthroughs in understanding, as if it is beneath the moral integrity of physics to worry about the engineering that follows. The work in superconductivity is advanced for a typical solid state course and might be better for a special topics series, as it was when I was a graduate student.

Ashcroft will serve as a good primer for most solid state topics, and it is well augmented with Kittel. A lesser book by Ibach and Luth, while it has just a few positive qualities, will fail a student unless they have Ashcroft on hand. Between Ashcroft and Kittel, a student would have a strong reference library.

As a side note, while it seems to be par for the course for most solid state texts, little is done to address the findamentals of crystalline structure that have led to the growth and evolution of the field of materials science. One of Ashcroft's introductory chapters summarizes a fundamental MSE text (such as Callister) very well by describing different crystalline structures and calculating packing fractions. However, it requires a leap of understanding to see that solid state physics is not just about semiconductors, but it is also about strength of materials and the fundamentals of transmission electron microscopy, among other things. Ashcroft is not to blame for this oversight - perhaps publishers would rather separate these topics for diversification and an overall increase in sales.

In short, if you are an instructor considering a text for you upcoming course, I strongly recommend Ashcroft. The physics hasn't changed since the book was introduced, though the applications have.

Bible for Solid State Physics.......2007-01-10

Unfortunately this is the only solid fundamental Solid State physics book available. The problems at the ends of chapters have very little to do with the reading and there is no solution manual available. As a source for reading the book works very well, as concepts are explained throughly. However I do not recommend using this book as a source for homework since the problems are more concerned with mindless algebra rather than physical concepts. A lot of "make this expression look like this" type problems.

science has marched on..........2006-06-29

This is a very well-written book, but it is OVER THIRTY YEARS OLD. The selection of topics was excellent for the time, but it is now a different time. If you are not yet brain-dead, i.e. not content with teaching only what you learned as a grad student, try something more current, such as Chaikin and Lubensky.

about time for a new edition?.......2006-05-18

For undergrads or grads who are majoring in solid state physics, there are often two common choices of texts. This one and one of Kittel's books. There are differences. Ashcroft & Mermin tends to have better diagrams, of reciprocal space and Fermi levels, for example. And overall, the topics are discussed at a slightly more advanced level.

The biggest problem with Ashcroft and Mermin is that it surely is time for a new edition. Notably to include high temperature superconductors. Plus the quantum Hall effect. And maybe giant magnetoresistance. The latter is responsible for much of the advances in disk drive capacities in the 90s, for example.

Another problem is the sheer cost of this book. $155 list price?! Sounds like gouging.

Good intro to a growing science.......2006-01-04

The 20th century saw the birth of quantum mechanics, and its connection with physics, chemistry and engineering to form the discipline collectively known as solid state science. Dealing with the properties of solids at the atomic-scale, the advances in this field have made the entire Digital Age possible. As such, the literature, both educational and scientific, in this field has grown exponentially over the past 50 years. One of the best books in this field is Solid State Physics by Ashcroft and Mermin. This extremely thorough book covers the field from basic crystallography and bonding models up through magnetic, optical, and superconducting properties. The book includes lots of derivations, sample problems, and all the important equations. Also, the book covers both experimental techniques used in solid state science, and the growing field of computer simulations, especially those using density functional theory. All in all a great book to read for those working in or planning to work in this field.

The Physics of Solar Cells (Properties of Semiconductor Materials)

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Good

The Physics of Solar Cells (Properties of Semiconductor Materials)
Jenny Nelson
Manufacturer: Imperial College Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1860943497

Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the physics of the photovoltaic cell. It is suitable for undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers new to the field. It covers: basic physics of semiconductors in photovoltaic devices; physical models of solar cell operation; characteristics and design of common types of solar cell; and approaches to increasing solar cell efficiency. The text explains the terms and concepts of solar cell device physics and shows the reader how to formulate and solve relevant physical problems. Exercises and worked solutions are included.

Customer Reviews:

Good.......2007-03-22

Though it is of softcover instead of hardcover edition, but totally new and mailed quite quickly.

Many Particle Physics (Physics of Solids and Liquids)

Average customer rating:

Good book but so much money
Containing too many misprints.
Bien detaille, comprehensible.

Many Particle Physics (Physics of Solids and Liquids)
Gerald D. Mahan
Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Hardcover

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Accessories:

ASIN: 0306463385
Release Date: 2007-05-25

Book Description

This comprehensive textbook utilizes Green's functions and the equations derived from them to solve real physical problems in solid-state theoretical physics. Green's functions are used to describe processes in solids and quantum fluids and to address problems in areas such as electron gas, polarons, electron transport, optical response, superconductivity and superfluidity.
The updated third edition features several new chapters on different mean-free paths, Hubbard model, Coulomb blockade, and the quantum Hall effect. New sections have been added, while original sections have been modified to include recent applications.
This text is ideal for third- or fourth-year graduate students and includes numerous study problems and an extensive bibliography.

Customer Reviews:

Good book but so much money.......2006-07-22

This book is massive and covers a huge spectrum of material. Probably not cost effective in comparison to Fetter and Walecka unless you get it for under eighty bucks. I enjoyed it quite a bit until the Postal Service stole it from me.

Containing too many misprints........2001-11-19

Unfortunately, the 3rd edition of Mahan's book contains enormous number of misprints. Sometimes, it is impossible to understand what is meant by the author without consulting the previous edition. For example, in Sec. 4.1.5. the author refers in the text to the equation which apparently should be between Eqs. (4.126) and (4.127) but which had been omitted. At the same time, some evident drawbacks of the previous edition have not been corrected. For example, the definition of the thermodynamic average used in Sec. 3.6 is different from that used in the previous sections, although it is not mentioned in the text. Despite the book is an excellent introduction into the field of Many-Particle Physics, I would recommend to the customer to either buy the previous edition or to wait for a new one.

Bien detaille, comprehensible........1999-03-16

Un excellent livre sur un sujet d'actualite. G. Mahan discute de nombreuses en detaillant a chaque fois les etapes necessaires et en ne negligeant pas les explications ni les liens entre les differentes theories. Vu le prix, courez a votre bibliotheque pour vous le procurer!

Atomic and Electronic Structure of Solids

Average customer rating:

Splendid work

Atomic and Electronic Structure of Solids
Efthimios Kaxiras
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521523397

Book Description

This graduate textbook designed for students in physics, chemistry and materials science provides a modern treatment of the theory of solids dealing with the physics of electron and phonon states in crystals and how they determine the structure and properties of solids. The first part of the book deals with electrons and atoms in a crystal, and the second part extends the discussion to defects in crystals and to structures without crystalline symmetry. There are numerous exercises throughout and appendices to provide the necessary background.

Download Description

This text is a modern treatment of the theory of solids. The core of the book deals with the physics of electron and phonon states in crystals and how they determine the structure and properties of the solid. The discussion uses density functional theory as a starting point and covers electronic and optical phenomena, magnetism and superconductivity. There is also an extensive treatment of defects in solids, including point defects, dislocations, surfaces and interfaces. A number of modern topics where the theory of solids applies are also explored, including quasicrystals, amorphous solids, polymers, metal and semiconductor clusters, carbon nanotubes and biological macromolecules. Numerous examples are presented in detail and each chapter is accompanied by problems and suggested further readings. An extensive set of appendices provides all the necessary background for deriving all the results discussed in the main body of the text.

Customer Reviews:

Splendid work.......2005-01-18

As analytical and synthesis techniques become more powerful, it is now possible to examine and fine-tune materials at the atomic scale. Likewise, continual advances in computer hardware and software have allowed more people the ability to model processes and materials at the atomic scale. Consequently, there is a growing need for good textbooks on the atomic and electronic structure of solids. Alas, most of the relevant textbooks suffer from one or more of the following drawbacks:

1. There is too much math and physics for most people. In other words, there are too many equations, proofs, and derivations. This usually manifests itself in sections on quantum mechanics and ab initio modeling.

2. The texts become less an educational tool and more a showcase of the latest and greatest achievements by the author(s). This negative can often be spotted by looking at the book's table of contents. If each chapter is written by a separate author, then you can be sure that the text often end up as extended reviews of that author(s)' publications.

3. Not enough coverage of background information. The study of solids at the atomic level is being approached by multiple fields that usually have NO interdisciplinary overlap in education institutions. Examples include geology, electrical engineering, biochemistry, tribology, materials science, etc... Therefore, a book to serve members from all these fields should have a lot of background information in topics such as thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, crystal structure and defects, group theory, etc...

4. Lack of pictorial representation. A picture is worth a thousand words; and even more so if you are trying to understand microscopic phenomena such as bonding, dislocation motion, etc... Too many textbooks have too few, well-explained pictures.

This book by Kaxiras does not suffer from any of these drawbacks. I consider it the best book so far on this topic.

First, it is written entirely by one author, yet I could not find a single reference to any of his publications within the book. There was absolutely no feeling that this book was trying to review someone's work, or some body of work. Instead, the book read like a well writtent textbook.

Second, the topics are written for a general audience, with enough background information that undergraduate science and engineering students can understand it. Specifically, the first chapter of the book starts with the Periodic Table of Elements and explains why different elements form different types of solids. This is extremely valuable information for anyone who has never had a course in materials science, which probably means most chemists, electrical engineers, biologists, etc...

3. Lots and lots of review literature is cited- WITH explanations of why it was suggested to the reader for further reading.

4. I counted 1 picture per every 2 pages. That is astounding. Even though the pictures were B&W, I understand all of them. Every one had axes labeled, a legend, a descriptive header, etc...

5. Thorough and basic explanation of band structures. Too many texts spend too much time explaining the different methods of obtaining band structures (LMTO, LAPW, pseudopotential + plane waves, APW, PAW, etc...). This book instead provided a whole chapter on understanding a band diagram, correlating a band diagram with the geometry of a material, and the physical origins of band structures. This is prerequisite knowledge before any further attempts to understand the electronic properties of materials.

6. Justification of each approximation, along with accompanying successes and failures. This book examined the mean-field, Born-Oppenheimer, frozen-phonon, pseudopotential, and other approximations commonly used in atomic-scale modeling, and provided thorough, well-organized justification of each one, along with a listing of their successes and failures.

In all, I recommend this book to anyone as a prerequisite reading before attempting to do research on the atomic or electronic structure of materials.

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Perfect for engineers

Modern Physics for Engineers
Jasprit Singh
Manufacturer: Wiley-Interscience
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471330442

Book Description

Linking physics fundamentals to modern technology-a highly applied primer for students and engineers

Reminding us that modern inventions-new materials, information technologies, medical technological breakthroughs-are based on well-established fundamental principles of physics, Jasprit Singh integrates important topics from quantum mechanics, statistical thermodynamics, and materials science, as well as the special theory of relativity. He then goes a step farther and applies these fundamentals to the workings of electronic devices-an essential leap for anyone interested in developing new technologies.

From semiconductors to nuclear magnetic resonance to superconducting materials to global positioning systems, Professor Singh draws on wide-ranging applications to demonstrate each concept under discussion. He downplays extended mathematical derivations in favor of results and their real-world design implication, supplementing the book with nearly 100 solved examples, 120 figures, and 200 end-of-chapter problems.

Modern Physics for Engineers provides engineering and physics students with an accessible, unified introduction to the complex world underlying today's design-oriented curriculums. It is also an extremely useful resource for engineers and applied scientists wishing to take advantage of research opportunities in diverse fields.

Customer Reviews:

Perfect for engineers.......2000-08-22

This book covers topics in modern physics that are the most important for the engineer. It makes an equilibrated use of figures, tables and conceptual diagrams, thus providing a clear guideline for the student. It also provides small but interesting historic introductions in some chapters, that also help to understand why different theories appeared. This could all be done without forgetting the necessary theoretical and mathematical rigorousness. A very good book for engineers.

Nitride Semiconductors: Handbook on Materials and Devices

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Nitride Semiconductors: Handbook on Materials and Devices

Manufacturer: Wiley-VCH
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3527403876

Book Description

Semiconductor components based on silicon have been used in a wide range of applications for some time now. These elemental semiconductors are now well researched and technologically well developed. In the meantime the focus has switched to a new group of materials: ceramic semiconductors based on nitrides are currently the subject of research due to their optical and electronic characteristics. They open up new industrial possibilities in the field of photosensors, as light sources or as electronic components.

Book Description

A modern presentation of theoretical solid state physics that builds directly upon Kittel's Introduction to Solid State Physics. Treats phonon, electron, and magnon fields, culminating in the BCS theory of superconductivity. Considers Fermi surfaces and electron wave functions and develops the group theoretical description of Brillouin zones. Applies correlation functions to time-dependent effects in solids, with an introduction to Green's functions. With 110 problems, the text is well-suited for the classroom or for self-instruction.

Customer Reviews:

Still a good book.......2003-02-21

It is too bad this book is out of print, for it gives a good introduction to the quantum theory as applied to condensed matter, despite the many advances that have taken place since the date of publication, such as high-temperature superconductivity, the fractional quantum Hall effect, and nanoscale physics. Therefore, if a copy can be found, it is still worth perusing and having on one's shelf. I only read the first 8 chapters of the book, so my review will be confined to them.

After a brief introduction to the mathematics needed in the book, the author begins in chapter 2 with a treatment of acoustic phonons, which arise from the canonical quantization of the transverse motion of a continuous elastic line under tension. This object is handled using the Lagrangian formalism, and after finding the Hamiltonian density, employing a canonical transformation, the (bosonic) creation and annihilation operators are found: phonon excitations. Both longitudinal and transverse modes are shown to exist in general. Bogoliubov transformations are then used to show how phonons may arise in a system of weakly interacting particles. The author then derives the expression for the velocity of "second sound" in a phonon gas. Experimental evidence for second sound in liquid helium was known at the time of publication, but since then evidence has accumulated in Bose gases and in certain types of crystals, such as KTaO and SrTiO. The phenomenon of second sound has also been of considerable interest in the study of nonlinear optical phenomena in smectic liquid crystals. The author also discusses the occurence of van Hove singularities in the phonon frequency distribution function, and points to their connection with Morse theory.

In chapter 3 the author concentrates his attention on plasmons, which arises from longitudinal excitations in an electron gas, and optical phonons in ionic crystals. He then extends the latter analysis to include the interaction of optical phonons with photons, which he also treats using quantum field theory, giving what he calls a quantum theory of a classical dielectric.

The theory of spin waves, or "magnons" is discussed in chapter 4, wherein the author first treats ferromagnetic magnons via the consideration of the Hamiltonian consisting of nearest-neighbor exchange and Zeeman contributions. The dispersion relation for both optical and acoustical magnons in a spin system forming a Bravais lattice is derived and compared with experiment for magnetite. The author then treats antiferromagnetic magnons and discusses the zero-point sublattice magnetization and the heat capacity of antiferromagnets. He then returns to ferromagnetic magnons but from a more macroscopic point of view, treating the magnetization as a macroscopic field, rather than dealing with individual spins. Lastly, he considers the excitation of ferromagnetic magnons by parallel pumping and the temperature dependence of effective exchange.

After a short review of the Hartree-Fock approximation in chapter 5, the author considers the all-important electron gas in chapter 6. The electron gas, particularly in two dimensions, has been the subject of great interest since this book was first published, not only because of its technological importance, but also its role in the quantum Hall effect and the fractional quantum Hall effect. Although density functional and renormalization group methods are the current favored ones for studying the electron gas, readers can still gain much from the reading of the chapter. The author concentrates his attention on the approximate calculation of the correlation energy of the degenerate electron gas, particularly at high density. To do this he uses the self-consistent field approach and he exploits the frequency and wavevector dielectric constant as a tool for studying many-body interactions. Several bread-and-butter topics in quantum many-body theory appear in this chapter, such as the linked cluster expansion, which appear in other more complicated (relativistic) contexts, such as high energy physics.

The author introduces polarons in chapter 7 as a consequence of any deformation of the ideal periodic lattice of positive ion cores on the motion of conduction electrons, and notes that even the zero-point motion of phonons effects this motion. The interaction of an electron with the lattice results in a "lattice polarization field" around the electron, and the resulting composite particle is the polaron, which, as expected, has a larger effective mass then the electron in an unperturbed lattice. The electron-phonon interaction results in resistivity, results in attenuation of ultrasonic waves in metals, and results in some cases to an attractive interaction between electrons, this being one of the precursors of superconductivity. The problem of electron-phonon interaction in metals has been the subject of much study in attempts to give quantum field theory a rigorous mathematical foundation, particularly via the study of the "jellium model".

Chapter 8 is very important, and its content reveals again the age of the book. The phenomenon of superconductivity, and its description by the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory, is known as one of the triumphs of the quantum theory of solids. Of course, when this book was published, superconducting materials at high temperature, were not known. The author though gives a detailed overview of the BCS theory, starting with the Hamiltonian for the electrons, phonons, and their first-order interactions (the strength measured by a certain real constant D). Using a canonical transformation, the author reduces the Hamiltonian to one with no off-diagonal terms of order D. This results in an expression for an electron-electron interaction which can be attractive for excitation energies in a certain range (involving the Debye energy). Keeping only this interaction in the Hamiltonian, for wave vectors that satisfy this range constraint, the author studies the properties of bound electron pairs, and shows how they bring about superconductivity. He also outlines an alternative solution to the BCS equation, using what he calls the equation-of-motion method. More modern treatments of superconductivity employ the use of Higgs fields and the renormalization group, these approaches shedding light on whether one can indeed view superconductivity as a "macroscopic manifestation of quantum physics".

Good Overall Review of Advanced Solid State Theory.......2000-05-28

A good book in addition to another introductory text. I covers the subject manner in an orderly fashion and reviews the theory in an intricate fashion. However, the mathematical notation is not what one would expect from other Solid State texts however the same conventions are used from his introductory book on Solid State Physics. An excellent investment for those interested.

Excellent book!.......2000-03-30

This book contains all the necessary formalism to become aquainted with many-body theory and Green's functions. The writing is clear and to the point.

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Physics of Ice
Victor F. Petrenko , and Robert W. Whitworth
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0198518943

Book Description

Ice is one of the most abundant and environmentally important materials on Earth, and its unique and intriguing physical properties present fascinating areas of study for a wide variety of researchers. This book is about the physics of ice, by which is meant the properties of the material itself and the ways in which these properties are interpreted in terms of water molecules and crystalline structure. Although ice has a simple crystal structure its hydrogen bonding results in unique properties, which continue to be the subject of active research. In this book the physical principles underlying the properties of ice are carefully developed at a level aimed at pure and applied researchers in the field. Important topics like current understandings of the electrical, mechanical, and surface properties, and the occurrence of many different crystalline phases are developed in a coherent way for the first time. An extensive reference list and numerous illustrations add to the usefulness and readability of the text.

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Miraculous Textbook
Landmark of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics book!!!
Simple Language

Condensed Matter Field Theory
Alexander Altland , and Ben Simons
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521845084

Book Description

Over the past few decades, in concert with ground-breaking experimental advances, condensed matter theory has drawn increasingly from the language of low-energy quantum field theory. This primer is aimed at elevating graduate students of condensed matter theory to a level where they can engage in independent research. It emphasizes the development of modern methods of classical and quantum field theory with applications oriented around condensed matter physics. Topics covered include second quantization, path and functional field integration, mean-field theory and collective phenomena, the renormalization group, and topology. Conceptual aspects and formal methodology are emphasized, but the discussion is rooted firmly in practical experimental application. As well as routine exercises, the text includes extended and challenging problems, with fully worked solutions, designed to provide a bridge between formal manipulations and research-oriented thinking. This book will complement graduate level courses on theoretical quantum condensed matter physics.

Customer Reviews:

Miraculous Textbook.......2007-06-11

This book is really incredible. It is one of only a handful of really readable physics texts, and it carefully moves from very friendly explanations of basic concepts, such as a two page review of Gaussian integrals (things like this make it a great reference), to very advanced material. The last chapter on topology, for example, doesn't hold back from using the full machinery of differential geometry, but also provides a great tutorial on the subject.

Also, a closer read reveals that this book's point of view is thoroughly modern, in the sense that it puts symmetry concepts and non-perturbative techniques front and center. The authors do readers a huge service by promoting the idea that one of the keys to understanding complex quantum systems is to correctly identify their fundamental excitations.

Landmark of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics book!!!.......2007-02-05

This is an extremely well-written book, which covers almost all the modern topics in condensed matter physics while keeps the physics and mathematics clear and simple.

It is an invaluable reference or textbook for graduate students who are interested in theoretical condensed matter physics, esp. in strongly correlated systems.

It is almost the best book I have seen for a graduate student to study the functional method, renormalization-group theory, etc., applied to condensed matter systems.

Simple Language.......2007-01-23

This book is a good introduction to Field Theory applied in condensed matter physics. In dealing with two difficult subjects the authors do it in a very simple language. This is very important either to beginners or experts. There are very good solved examples to illustrate each section. Besides, there are small boxes citing the people behind the development of the issue.

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