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008 081203s2006 enka |b 001 0 eng d
020 _a019856676X (hbk.)
020 _a0198566778 (pbk.)
020 _a9780198566762
020 _a9780198566779
039 9 _a201402040111
_bVLOAD
_c201009200946
_dmalmash
_c200812151019
_dvenkatrajand
_c200812031056
_dNoora
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_zNoora
050 0 0 _aQC174.8
_b.S48 2006
100 1 _aSethna, James P.
_938042
245 1 0 _aStatistical Mechanics :
_bEntropy, Order Parameters, and Complexity /
_cJames P. Sethna.
260 _aOxford ;
_aNew York :
_bOxford University Press,
_c2006.
300 _axix, 349 p. :
_bill. ;
_c26 cm.
440 0 _aOxford master series in statistical, computational, and theoretical physics
_938043
440 0 _aOxford master series in physics ;
_v14
_938044
504 _aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [313]-321) and index.
505 0 _aWhat is statistical mechanics? -- Random walks with emergent properties. -- Temperature and equilibrium. -- Phase-space dynamics and ergodicity. -- Entropy. -- Free energies. -- Quantum statistical mechanics. -- Calculation and computation. -- Order parameters, broken symmetry, and topology. -- Correlations, response, and dissipation. -- Abrupt phase transitions. -- Continuous phase transitions. -- Appendix: Fourier methods.
520 _aIn 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.
650 0 _aStatistical mechanics.
_94708
942 _2lcc
_n0
_cBK
999 _c16937
_d16937