Quantum Theory of the Solid State: An Introduction

✍ Scribed by Lev Kantorovich (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 642
• Series: Fundamental Theories of Physics 136
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

"Quantum Physics of the Solid State: an Introduction" Draft foreword: 26/09/03 If only this book had been available when I was starting out in science! It would have saved me countless hours of struggle in trying to apply the general ideas of the standard solid-state text-books to solve real problems. The fact is that most of the texts stop at the point where the real difficulties begin. The great merit of this book is that it describes in an honest and detailed way what one really has to do in order to understand the multifarious properties of solids in terms of the fundamental physical theory of quantum mechanics. University students of the physical sciences are taught about the fundamental the­ ories, and know that quantum mechanics, together with relativity, is our basis for understanding the physical world. But the practical difficulties of using quantum mechanics to do anything useful are usually not very well explained. The truth is that the application of quantum theory to achieve our present detailed understand­ ing of solids has required the development of a large array of mathematical tech­ niques. This is closely analogous to the challenge faced long ago by theoretical astronomers in trying to apply Newton's equations of motion to the heavens -they too had to develop a battery of theoretical and computational techniques to do cal­ culations that could be compared with observation.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xxv
Structures....Pages 1-44
The reciprocal lattice and X-ray diffraction....Pages 45-68
Binding in Crystals....Pages 69-99
Atomic vibrations....Pages 101-201
Electrons in a periodic potential....Pages 203-297
Magnetism....Pages 299-365
Superconductivity....Pages 367-419
Dielectric materials....Pages 421-469
Modern methods of electronic structure calculations....Pages 471-593
Back Matter....Pages 595-626

✦ Subjects

Condensed Matter Physics;Statistical Physics, Dynamical Systems and Complexity;Physical Chemistry;Theoretical, Mathematical and Computational Physics;Characterization and Evaluation of Materials