Statistical Mechanics: Entropy, Order Parameters and Complexity (Oxford Master Series in Physics) - Hardcover

Sethna, James P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019856676X ISBN 13: 9780198566762

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2006

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Prof. James P. Sethna is Professor of Physics, Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Review

"Sethna's book provides an important service to students who want to learn modern statistical mechanics."-- Physics Today

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 019856676X
• ISBN 13: 9780198566762
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 374