Statistical Mechanics

Entropy, Order Parameters, and Complexity

James P. Sethna - Collection Oxford Master Series in Statistical, Computational, and Theoretical Physics

350 pages, parution le 06/04/2006

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Résumé

In each generation, scientists must redefine their fields: abstracting, simplifying and distilling the previous standard topics to make room for new advances and methods. Sethna's book takes this step for statistical mechanics - a field rooted in physics and chemistry whose ideas and methods are now central to information theory, complexity, and modern biology. Aimed at advanced undergraduates and early graduate students in all of these fields, Sethna limits his main presentation to the topics that future mathematicians and biologists, as well as physicists and chemists, will find fascinating and central to their work. The amazing breadth of the field is reflected in the author's large supply of carefully crafted exercises, each an introduction to a whole field of study: everything from chaos through information theory to life at the end of the universe.

L'auteur - James P. Sethna

James Sethna, Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University

Sommaire

List of Figures
What is Statistical Mechanics?
Random walks and emergent properties
Temperature and equilibrium
Phase-space dynamics and ergodicity
Entropy
Free Energies
Quantum statistical mechanics
Calculation and computation
Order parameters, broken symmetry, and topology
Correlations, response, and dissipation
Abrupt phase transitions
Continuous phase transitions
Appendix A: Fourier methods
References
Index

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Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Oxford University Press
Auteur(s)	James P. Sethna
Collection	Oxford Master Series in Statistical, Computational, and Theoretical Physics
Parution	06/04/2006
Nb. de pages	350
Format	19 x 24,5
Couverture	Broché
Poids	886g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780198566779