Books And Reviews(Under Construction) Sunday, Jun 11 2006
Uncategorized 3:01 pm
In this page, we intend to collect a comprehensive list of physics books with our personal take on them. In addition, you can also see the links to some other reviews here(including Amazon, Google etc.).
In due time, we plan to make separate pages for each of the five big themes of theoretical physics - classical, quantum, statistical, field theoretical and Mathematical aspects of physics.
We also plan to have separate pages for the two of the broad fields
- Condensed Matter
- High Energy
Now, we come to Experimental Physics. We have a tentative list here for the pages we intend to create. Of course, we welcome any suggestion from our readers in the comment section.
- Electronics and allied stuff
- Optics and Spectroscopy
- Low temperature and Vacuum techniques
- Material diagnostics
- Radiation detection and Measurement
- Observational Astronomy
- Beams and Accelerators
- Machine work
June 11, 2006 at 4:08 pm
One may also include the MathPhys book by Dennery, Dover Pub
There is a classy Stat Mech literature by Richard C. Tolman.
Then there are those on stat mech by Pathria, and Reif.
Include some gravity stuff: Weinberg: Remebered cause I am reading it right now!
Has somebody read a book on Classical mech by Gantmacher, Mir Pub : I had a copy while in college, i have forgotten where I have put it, thought it was a good one.
June 13, 2006 at 4:24 am
Done.
I couldn’t find Gantmacher at Amazon/Google though. I guess you’re referring to this book
F. Gantmacher, “Lectures in Analytical Mechanics”, Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1975.
I’ven’t seen this book. Are you sure it’s there in IITK Lib for example ?
June 16, 2006 at 2:21 pm
There is this really good book that I came across in the IITK library which introduces group theory and its applications in Modern Physics and also a whole range of other interesting mathematical tools used in Theoretical Physics.
The title says it all: “Symmetries In Quantum Mechanics” . I am not able to locate this on google though.
Also what about books on Optics. Ghatak, Hecht, Born and Wolf, Jenkins& White. Cant say which is the best becuase I havent read anything more than a few pages except Hecht and Ghatak , both of which are decent. Then please do include Eisberg and Rensnick under the Qm section. I know most people are familiar with it but that shouldnt exclude it from any decent list on the subject.
And I suppose you are leaving out advanced texts on CMT and Physics Physics for a separate list.
Venkateshan
June 17, 2006 at 7:31 pm
This may be of some use :
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Administrivia/booklist.html
June 22, 2006 at 5:07 am
Is it possible that you are talking about Quantum Mechanics: Symmetries by Walter Greiner, Berndt Muller ?
I’ve added the rest of the books.And since the list has already become long, I’ve also begin the work on the separate pages for the different themes.
And yes, I do have in mind an idea of creating separate lists for Condensed matter physics and High energy physics. But, for now I’m more worried about experimental physics being left out - I guess that is a job for somebody else
And, about the booklist at the link you’ve given , the list tastes a bit old - some of the old classics are of course still worth reading but often new books/new editions of old books are definitely better. By the way, that site contains a lot of other interesting stuff too and it deserves a separate blog physica post. See also for example, another shorter list of maths/physics books from the same site at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/books.html.
June 23, 2006 at 5:23 pm
No, that is NOT the book I was referring to. Actually I am not sure if I got the title right; it was probably ‘Symmetry Principles In Quantum Mechanics”. Authored by two physicists (Italian if I am no mistaken) and first published in the 70’s.
The way Lie groups was introduced and the associated ideas and definitions presented was excellent, always maintaining the fine balance between intuitive understanding required for physics and formal mathematical rigour.
June 24, 2006 at 5:16 pm
some good books on condensed matter/stat mech not listed above:
1. Chaikin and Lubensky, Principles of condensed matter physics.
comment: probably the best existing book for general ideas in soft condensed matter and stat mech in general. Especially good treatment of hydrodynamics (chapter 8 ) and defects in condensed matter (chapter 9 and 10).
2. Polyakov, Guage fields and strings
comment: Polyakov’s `diary’. It is not a textbook or even a research monograph so portions of the book may be inaccesible depending on one’s background. Studded with nice insights and analogies. (A major part of the book centres around non-abelian stuff for which I am not the right person to say anyhting due to my lack of knowledge, but the rest of it could be quite useful from stat mech point of view).
3. P. W. Anderson, Basic Notions of
Condensed matter physics
comment: A unique persepective on some of the most basic concepts in condesned matter like symmetry breaking, scaling and renormalization. Provides good understanding without much algebra.
4.Philip Phillips, Advanced Solid State Physics.
comment: probably the only text-book which contains basic background for `new’ stuff in condensed matter physics (Kondo problem, Quantum hall effect) at one place . May get (or already?) outdated soon on topics of current research interest (like quantum phase transitions) but still a good intro to conventional topics like linear response and superconductivity.
One point I liked (though someone else may not) is that book relies less on diagrammatics and more on `direct approach’ unlike G.D. Mahan’s book on many-body problem.
July 1, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Tom,
The book I was talking about, bears the same name, and is published by Mir. It must be the same book. I found it nowhere! Actually I have axerox copy of the book : one Prof. from Presidency had given it to me (from his own collection) and had asked to get it xeroxed. I did not find much time to read a considerable section of it, but the approach the author had proposed as an intro to Hamiltonian Dynamics was something I did not come across anywhere else and hence liked the book pretty much. I guess I still have a copy of it at home!!