Diverse Topics In Theoretical And Mathematical Physics

In this volume, topics are drawn from field theory, especially gauge field theory, as applied to particle, condensed matter and gravitational physics, and concern a variety of interesting subjects. These include geometricalDtopological effects in quantum theory, fractional charge, time travel, relativistic quantized fields in and out of thermal equilibrium and quantum modifications of symmetry in physical systems.Many readers will find this a useful volume, especially theoretical physicists and mathematicians. The material will be of interest to both the expert who will find well-presented novel and stimulating viewpoints of various subjects and the novice who will find complete, detailed and precise descriptions of important topics of current interest, in theoretical and mathematical physics.

In this volume, topics are drawn from field theory, especially gauge field theory, as applied to particle, condensed matter and gravitational physics, and concern a variety of interesting subjects. These include geometricalDtopological effects in quantum theory, fractional charge, time travel, relativistic quantized fields in and out of thermal equilibrium and quantum modifications of symmetry in physical systems.Many readers will find this a useful volume, especially theoretical physicists and mathematicians. The material will be of interest to both the expert who will find well-presented novel and stimulating viewpoints of various subjects and the novice who will find complete, detailed and precise descriptions of important topics of current interest, in theoretical and mathematical physics.

For physics students interested in the mathematics they use, and for math students interested in seeing how some of the ideas of their discipline find realization in an applied setting. The presentation strikes a balance between formalism and application, between abstract and concrete. The interconnections among the various topics are clarified both by the use of vector spaces as a central unifying theme, recurring throughout the book, and by putting ideas into their historical context. Enough of the essential formalism is included to make the presentation self-contained.

This textbook, pitched at the advanced-undergraduate to beginning-graduate level, focuses on mathematical topics of relevance in contemporary physics that are not usually covered in texts at the same level. Its main purpose is to help students appreciate and take advantage of the modern trend of very productive symbiosis between physics and mathematics. Three major areas are covered: (1) linear operators; (2) group representations and Lie algebra representations; and (3) topology and differential geometry. The features of this work include: an exposition style which is a fusion of those common in the standard physics and mathematics literatures; a level of exposition that varies from quite elementary to moderately advanced, so that the text should be of interest to a wide audience; a strong degree of thematic unity, despite the diversity of the topics covered; and cross references, so that, from any part of the book, the reader can trace easily where specific concepts or techniques are introduced.

This is an approachable introduction to the important topics and recent developments in the field of condensed matter physics. First, the general language of quantum field theory is developed in a way appropriate for dealing with systems having a large number of degrees of freedom. This paves the way for a description of the basic processes in such systems. Applications include various aspects of superfluidity and superconductivity, as well as a detailed description of the fractional quantum Hall liquid.

Useful treatment of classical mechanics, electromagnetic theory, and relativity includes explanations of function theory, vectors, matrices, dyadics, tensors, partial differential equations, other advanced mathematical techniques. Nearly 200 problems with answers.

Starting from an undergraduate level, this book systematically develops the basics of • Calculus on manifolds, vector bundles, vector fields and differential forms, • Lie groups and Lie group actions, • Linear symplectic algebra and symplectic geometry, • Hamiltonian systems, symmetries and reduction, integrable systems and Hamilton-Jacobi theory. The topics listed under the first item are relevant for virtually all areas of mathematical physics. The second and third items constitute the link between abstract calculus and the theory of Hamiltonian systems. The last item provides an introduction to various aspects of this theory, including Morse families, the Maslov class and caustics. The book guides the reader from elementary differential geometry to advanced topics in the theory of Hamiltonian systems with the aim of making current research literature accessible. The style is that of a mathematical textbook,with full proofs given in the text or as exercises. The material is illustrated by numerous detailed examples, some of which are taken up several times for demonstrating how the methods evolve and interact.

This book presents concepts of theoretical physics with engineering applications. The topics are of an intense mathematical nature involving tools like probability and random processes, ordinary and partial differential equations, linear algebra and infinite-dimensional operator theory, perturbation theory, stochastic differential equations, and Riemannian geometry. These mathematical tools have been applied to study problems in mechanics, fluid dynamics, quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, nonlinear dynamical systems, general relativity, cosmology, and electrodynamics. A particularly interesting topic of research interest developed in this book is the design of quantum unitary gates of large size using the Feynman diagrammatic approach to quantum field theory. Through this book, the reader will be able to observe how basic physics can revolutionize technology and also how diverse branches of mathematical physics like large deviation theory, quantum field theory, general relativity, and electrodynamics have many common issues that provide the starting point for unifying the whole of physics, namely in the formulation of Grand Unified Theories (GUTS).

Have you ever wondered why the language of modern physics centres on geometry? Or how quantum operators and Dirac brackets work? What a convolution really is? What tensors are all about? Or what field theory and lagrangians are, and why gravity is described as curvature? This book takes you on a tour of the main ideas forming the language of modern mathematical physics. Here you will meet novel approaches to concepts such as determinants and geometry, wave function evolution, statistics, signal processing, and three-dimensional rotations. You will see how the accelerated frames of special relativity tell us about gravity. On the journey, you will discover how tensor notation relates to vector calculus, how differential geometry is built on intuitive concepts, and how variational calculus leads to field theory. You will meet quantum measurement theory, along with Green functions and the art of complex integration, and finally general relativity and cosmology. The book takes a fresh approach to tensor analysis built solely on the metric and vectors, with no need for one-forms. This gives a much more geometrical and intuitive insight into vector and tensor calculus, together with general relativity, than do traditional, more abstract methods. Don Koks is a physicist at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation in Adelaide, Australia. His doctorate in quantum cosmology was obtained from the Department of Physics and Mathematical Physics at Adelaide University. Prior work at the University of Auckland specialised in applied accelerator physics, along with pure and applied mathematics.