Statistical Mechanics
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Description
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.Features
- Broad principles widely applicable in modern physics, computer science, mathematics, complexity theory, and biology
- Exciting exercises, introducing new fields and illustrating broad principles
- Powerful, advanced methods presented simply - new, modern concepts distilled and incorporated into undergraduate-level presentation
- Hundreds of illustrations and figures illustrating theory, experiment, and applications
- Hundreds of marginal notes providing background, illustration, vocabulary, and advanced concepts
Reviews
"It would take quite a long time to list all the interesting subjects treated in this textbook, but overall, this is a very good starting point for an undergraduate student who is interested in pursuing a career in research and wants to have a global idea of the different problems that are currently developed in laboratories."--Mathematical Reviews
"Sethna's book provides am important service to students who want to learn modern statistical mechanics."-- Physics Today
"An extremely intelligent and elegant introduction to fundamental concepts, well suited for the beginning graduate level."--William Gelbart, University of California at Los Angeles
"The author's style, although quite concentrated, is simple to understand, and has many lovely visual examples to accompany formal ideas and concepts, which makes the exposition live and intuitively appealing."--Journal of Statistical Physics
About the Author(s)
Prof. James P. Sethna is Professor of Physics, Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
