Skip to main content
  • Textbook
  • © 2002

Many-Body Problems and Quantum Field Theory

An Introduction

  • Carefully select the really important applications of quantum physics to the physics of matter and develop the theory just to the extent it is actually needed
  • Pedagocically written and altogether quite different from most books on quantum physics
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Theoretical and Mathematical Physics (TMP)

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 74.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-1
  2. Classical Fields and Their Associated Particles

    • Philippe A. Martin, François Rothen
    Pages 3-50
  3. Fermions and Bosons

    • Philippe A. Martin, François Rothen
    Pages 51-87
  4. Systems with Variable Particle Number

    • Philippe A. Martin, François Rothen
    Pages 89-125
  5. Electron Gas

    • Philippe A. Martin, François Rothen
    Pages 127-159
  6. Fermion Pairing and Superconductivity

    • Philippe A. Martin, François Rothen
    Pages 161-200
  7. Nucleon Pairing and the Structure of the Nucleus

    • Philippe A. Martin, François Rothen
    Pages 201-232
  8. The Superfluidity of Liquid Helium

    • Philippe A. Martin, François Rothen
    Pages 233-263
  9. Quantum Fields

    • Philippe A. Martin, François Rothen
    Pages 265-332
  10. Perturbative Methods in Field Theory

    • Philippe A. Martin, François Rothen
    Pages 333-400
  11. Perturbative Methods in Many-Body Problems

    • Philippe A. Martin, François Rothen
    Pages 401-430
  12. Back Matter

    Pages 431-441

About this book

This text is a revised and augmented version of a course given to graduate and Ph.D. students in the context of the doctoral school for physics in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. This doctoral school provides a common teaching program for the universities of Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Neuchatel and Lausanne, as well as for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lau­ sanne. The scope of the course should be sufficiently general to interest both experimentalists and theoreticians wishing to engage in research in condensed matter or nuclear and particle physics. The prerequisites are an introductory course to quantum mechanics and elements of classical electromagnetism and statistical mechanics. Our main concern was how to maintain a reasonably broad level of know­ ledge for students with different orientations, in a world of research where the price of survival is extreme specialization and competitiveness. Is it still possible in the available time to provide a cultural education in physics by relatively elementary means and in an optimized form? We believe that this is an essential pedagogical duty. Attempting to meet this challenge has de­ termined the conception of this book: each individual part of it is standard and without novelty but should belong, in our opinion, to the basic culture of every physicist; only their common organization in a single house of decent siz;e might possibly be put to our credit.

Reviews

"The book is aimed to provide a reasonably broad and nevertheless high level of knowledge to Ph.D. students. I think that this challenge is truly reached. The authors achieve a good balance between formal developments and physical applications. The former are limited to the essential, and the connection between the mathematical representations and the physical concepts and paradigms is pedagogically presented. The latter are well chosen and belong, I believe, to the basic culture of every Ph.D. student, too often driven to specialization. [...] In conclusion, this book provides an excellent introduction to quantum field theory and its applications. It should be considered as one of the favourite books for any Ph.D. student and as a good reference book for more advanced physicists." (Joseph Cugnon, Physicalia, 25/3, 2003)

"[...] came out of a graduate course that presented a unified treatment of condensed-matter, nuclear, and particle theory. The course emphasized the similarities, sometimes even the identity, of the methods used in those fields – a wonderful idea, because students are often led to believe that the fields are disparate and never meet." (Physics Today, April 2003)

"Very well written and has a strong pedagogical style: mathematical steps in the explanations are complete and timely examples worked out in detail… I applaud the authors attempt to bring together the threads of many-body theory, which forms the cornerstone of traditionally distinct problems, into a readable textbook for students… and reference for the practitioner." (The Physicist)

From the reviews of the second edition:

"The book provides a nice unified approach to the quantum field theory of the solid state and the nucleon. … The book applies the same, consistent language for the different and broad fields of physics. This approach makes the book attractive to beginners who want to learn some more advanced methods and … need to see arange of applications … . The book can be used as an introduction for beginners in the field, advanced researchers can use it as a look up reference." (Andreas Knorr, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1065, 2005)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Institute for Theoretical Physics, Swiss Federal Institute for Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Philippe A. Martin

  • Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    François Rothen

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Many-Body Problems and Quantum Field Theory

  • Book Subtitle: An Introduction

  • Authors: Philippe A. Martin, François Rothen

  • Series Title: Theoretical and Mathematical Physics

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04894-8

  • Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-662-04894-8Published: 11 November 2013

  • Series ISSN: 1864-5879

  • Series E-ISSN: 1864-5887

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 441

  • Number of Illustrations: 70 b/w illustrations

  • Additional Information: Original French edition published by: Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes, Lausanne, 1990

  • Topics: Quantum Physics, Mathematical Methods in Physics, Particle and Nuclear Physics, Condensed Matter Physics

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 74.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access