Clifford Algebra: A Computational Tool for Physicists [Hardcover]

John Snygg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0195098242 | ISBN-13: 978-0195098242

Clifford algebras have become an indispensable tool for physicists at the cutting edge of theoretical investigations. Applications in physics range from special relativity and the rotating top at one end of the spectrum, to general relativity and Dirac's equation for the electron at the other. Clifford algebras have also become a virtual necessity in some areas of physics, and their usefulness is expanding in other areas, such as algebraic manipulations involving Dirac matrices in quantum thermodynamics; Kaluza-Klein theories and dimensional renormalization theories; and the formation of superstring theories. This book, aimed at beginning graduate students in physics and math, introduces readers to the techniques of Clifford algebras.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A wonderful book...I have browsed through it while occupied with several other competing projects. In the process I have internalized the classification of Clifford algebras, learned how physicists use Dirac's equation, what they are doing when they talk about gauge theory, understood Hodge duality much better and so the codifferential operator. And I still have only browsed through a small portion of the text. I think we mathematicians should study [the] book to learn how to improve our own levels of exposition." --Daniel H. Gottlieb, Department of Mathematics, Purdue University

"...this text will be most useful to research students and other scientists who need a satisfactory level of completeness and intellegebility to use Cliffod algebras as a computational tool."--Mathematical Reviews

About the Author

John Snygg is at Upsala College, NJ.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 356 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 6, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195098242
• ISBN-13: 978-0195098242
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #663,877 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly good!, February 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Clifford Algebra: A Computational Tool for Physicists (Hardcover)

From a letter to the author. John, I have to write you to tell you what a wonderful book you wrote. I still can't believe how good it is. Yesterday I was waiting for a television show to begin in ten minutes and I picked your book up while I sat front of the TV set. When I finally looked up 45 minutes later, I had missed the show! In 35 years as an algebraic topologist, I have tried to learn various things about Clifford algebras because of their role in K-theory and in the Atiyah- Singer Index theorem, and more recently because of the Seiberg-Witten equations. With only mediocre intensity, mostly browsing, I have had little success. In the month since I met you and bought your book, I have browsed through it while occupied with several other competing projects. In the process I have internalized the classification of Clifford algebras, learned how physicists use Dirac's equation, what they are doing when they talk about gauge theory, understood Hodge duality much better and so the codifferential operator. And I still have only browsed through a small portion of the text. I think we mathematicians should study your book to learn how to improve our own levels of exposition. Sincerely, Daniel Henry Gottlieb

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gem!, May 8, 2001

By 

M de Wit (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clifford Algebra: A Computational Tool for Physicists (Hardcover)

I would rate this book as a gem! To calibrate that let me say that I think Weinreich's Geometrical Vectors and Foster and Nightingale's General Relativity are gems. Chapter 1 gives a beautiful, clear and concise introduction to Clifford Algebra in flat 3-space using Dirac's anti-commuting gamma matrices. If you have ever wondered about off-hand comments that rotations are double reflections and why half angles enter into this business this is the place to get enlightened. In an amusing series of photographs the author illustrates the 4-pi periodicity of certain objects. The object here is a copy of MTW's Gravitation - one of the more imaginative uses of this tome. As an example of the application of the CA results the chapter ends with a treatment of the spinning top without using Euler's equations for rigid body motion. If you have ever struggled through Goldstein's Classical Mechanics treatment of this problem, from Euler angles to infinitessimal rotations to d-Omega which is not a differential of a vector to dyadics to body diferentials and space differentials to Euler's equations, you will really appreciate Snygg's direct solution using CA. Sure, I know Goldstein's has to be a general treatment of solid body motion and thus more complex so he can treat more general problems, but it is good to find a more direct solution that is cristal clear and only a few pages long. This chapter is real little gem. Chapter 2 takes CA to Minkowsky 4-space rotations. Chapters 3 and 4 take you to flat n-dimensional spaces and curved subspaces embedded in them. Again beautiful explanations are presented of the meaning of tangent spaces, parallel transport and how the covariant derivative arises naturally in curved spaces. I had the silly hope that with Clifford numbers and their products all would be well and done. Unfortunately the exterior product wedges its nose under the tent flap and pretty soon the exterior derivative and its side-kick the co-differential operator soon follow it into the tent. All this is explained in Chapter 7. With Chapter 5 the learning curve steepens with the introduction of Fock-Ivanenko 2-vectors and the curvature 2-vector (or 2-form) and finally the curvature tensor. Chapter 6 solves the field equations for the Schwartzchild metric based on the F-I 2-vector approach. Chapter 8 on the Dirac equation is again an approach different than that found in the usual texts. Chapter 9 derives the Kerr metric, something you won't find in MTW published 8 to 10 years after Kerr's papers. Unfortunately the starting point is some obscure problem from an earlier chapter and Snygg does not provide the delightful physical insight of earlier examples. However, there is discussion at the of the chapter. While you might be able to solve the field equations for the Schartzchild metric on your own, once you know it can be done, I certainly would not be able to do so for the Kerr metric. Snygg takes you through step by step, none of them particularly difficult, but the sequence is certainly not something I would have found by myself. Chapter 10 I only skimmed, the index notation, with underscored and bracketed indices, becomes overloaded for my level of sophistication. Chapter 11 organizes all the matrix stuff together, again a beautiful, straightforward and clear presentation. Here is shown how to construct a matrix representation for the gammas. As you might expect, the book is a veritable beehive of sub- and superscripts over bars and carets Greek and Latin indices and full of gamma gymnastics. Even Pauli's less complementary comment on Dirac algebra comes to mind. The text has a few typos but blessedly few in the Clifford number and gamma indices. By the way, if you expect to find out how to do trace computations on gamma expressions you won't find it here. The explicit form of the gamma matrices is hardly ever mentioned until chapter 11 nor is it needed in the present context.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Light, clear, and understandable., August 6, 2000

By 

Theodore Erler - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clifford Algebra: A Computational Tool for Physicists (Hardcover)

Snygg's book is a thoroughly delightful introduction to Clifford Algebra and its applications in physics. It is detailed, readable, and at times even humorous... but always clear and educational. Snygg presents Clifford Algebra above all as a practical tool, rather than as the ultimate algebraic representation of spatial geometry. This gives a refreshing alternative to Hestenes' writings which, although quite good, can at times be philosophically pedantic and difficult to connect with standard theory.