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Quantum Field Theory in Condensed Matter Physics (Theoretical and Mathematical Physics)
Product Description This book covers a broad range of important topics and recent developments in this field. 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, the emphasis being on phase transitions. Applications include various aspects of superfluidity and superconductivity, as well as a detailed description of the fractional quantum Hall liquid. This monograph addresses graduate students and researchers working in related disciplines looking for an approachable but thorough introduction to the field of condensed matter physics. Book Info Covers a broad range of important topics and recent developments Quantum Field theory. Targets graduate students and researchers working in related disciplines looking for an approachable but thorough introduction to the field of condensed matter physics. DLC: Quantum field theory. Reader Reviews First of all, I want to emphasize that my review below is dedicated to both the "Quantum field theory of condensed matter physics", and its companion volume "Quantum field of strongly correlated electron systems". Condensed matter physics, or more specially, the many body physics has experienced some revolutionary changes in the past forty years. Although the classic book by AGD still serves as the best introduction to the Fermi liquid theory and the diagrammatic techniques, there indeed exist a gap and a difference in flavors between the older textbook and the research literature. As far as I know, the only textbook prior to Nagaosa's two-volume set of monograph, which stresses the functional integral approach to many body physics is Negele and Orland's book. However, the latter is devoted to the discussions of formalism. Only very few specific condensed matter problems are addressed in this book and many interesting results are buried in the unsolved problem sets. This is an annoying feature for people who use this book for self study. In the past several years, some textbooks which stress the "modern approaches" start to appear on the market. These include X.-G. Wen's book and A. Altland and B. Simon's book. Both of the books are very good. In my opinion, Nagaosa's two-volume set of little books stand out from the following distinguishing features: First, it is short and clear, and most of the calculational details are clearly presented so that we can really finishing reading these books. Second, within the limited pages, it does a good job of introducing as many different topics as possible. For example, the first volume contains a nice discussion of the classic topics such as the RPA theory of the Coulomb gas and the Bogoliubov's theory of superfludity. The discussion of the superconductivity is completely modern. Nagaosa stresses the RG point of view and presents a detailed discussions of the phase action and the effect of dissipation on the Josephson junction. The first volume also contains a nice discussion of the U(1) lattice gauge theory and the related confinement problem. The last chapter has a brief but nice introduction of the Chern-Simon gauge transformation and the Ginzburg-Landau-Chern-Simons theory of the quantum Hall effect. The second volume devotes more exclusively to the "non-perturbative" techniques of field theory. Among them, the low dimensional field theory techniques are neatly introduced in the first two chapters. The book then turn into the introductions of topics such as the t-J model, magnetic instabilities of correlated electron systems, and the gauge theoretical approach to correlated electron systems. Overall, I would say that this two-volume set is a must for anyone who is eager for learning a modern field theoretical approach to many body physics. My only complaint about this book is about its price , concerning it page number-to-price ratio. For this reason, I give it four stars. Comment | | (Report this)
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