Computational Physics [Paperback]

J. M. Thijssen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521575885 | ISBN-13: 978-0521575881 | Publication Date: June 28, 1999

Computional physics involves the use of computer calculations and simulations to solve physical problems. This book describes computational methods used in theoretical physics with emphasis on condensed matter applications. Coverage begins with an overview of the wide variety of topics and algorithmic approaches studied in this book. The next chapters concentrate on electronic structure calculations, presenting the Hartree-Fock and Density Functional formalisms, and band structure methods. Later chapters discuss molecular dynamics simulations and Monte Carlo methods in classical and quantum physics, with applications to condensed matter and particle field theories. Each chapter details the necessary fundamentals, describes the formation of a sample program, and includes problems that address related analytical and numerical issues. Useful appendices on numerical methods and random number generators are also included. This volume bridges the gap between undergraduate physics and computational research. It is an ideal textbook for graduate students as well as a valuable reference for researchers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The growing importance of computational physics to physics research as a whole will depend not only on increasingly powerful computers, but also on the continuing development of algorithms and numerical techniques for putting these machines to use. Furthermore, physics departments will need to augment their curricula to provide students with the skills needed to perform research using computers....In Computational Physics, Joseph M. Thijssen has produced a book that is well suited to meeting these needs....This book makes it easier to approach a new topic and encourages the reader to consider a modular approach when writing programs." Physics Today

Book Description

Computational physics involves using computer calculations and simulations to solve physical problems. This book describes computational m ethods used in theoretical and condensed matter physics. Each chapter begins with an exposition of necessary fundamentals, describes the formation of a sample programme and ends with problems addressing related issues. Useful appendices are included and the book contains extensive references. Suitable for graduate students, it bridges the gap between undergraduate physics and computational research. Also valuable as a reference for researchers in Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics and Biology.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (June 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521575885
• ISBN-13: 978-0521575881
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #669,813 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:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book for the price, September 22, 2004

By 

Newton Ooi (Phoenix, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Computational Physics (Paperback)

This book was assigned in a class I took on the computer modeling of materials. The text itself was slightly above my understanding; but thats fine, I just was not prepared for it. The problem is that there are many exercises that require the reader to download software from the author's web site, and use it to perform calculations. Many times the software did not work as intended, and so the professor had to spend time correcting the code, or writing his own version. And of course there were the usual problems of installing the code properly, compiling it, and executing it. This idea would have worked much better if the necessary code was put onto a CD-ROM that came packaged with the book. For the software problems I dock one star out of five.

The introduction states that this text is intended for graduate students in physics, chemistry, materials science, or electrical engineering, and who have taken classes in numerical analysis. I think a more appropriate wording is that this text is for someone versed in all of these listed fields. There is extensive use of thermodynamics, symmetry and crystal structure, linear algebra, statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, etc... This book should not be used as an introductory guide to computational physics or related fields. The necessary prerequisite knowledge is quite extensive.

The intro should specify at least 2 college classes in computer programming as a prerequisite for this book. The programming assignments included at the end of each chapter are quite challenging, and should not be attempted by someone without previous experience in writing mathematical codes. This here lies another problem with the approach taken by this book. Most science and engineering majors will take 1-2 courses in programming as part of their university education, but these classes often emphasize business applications such as reading / writing to a text file, creating and using databases, formatting of screen output, linked lists, etc... These skills are not very useful in writing a code to do computations. For the latter, needed skills include parsing data, recognizing patterns, using built-in functions, importing and using algorithms from online libraries. utilizing large matrices and vectors, etc...

What the author should have done for each computational homework problem is to write out the solution (code) himself, add in the documentation, and then removed the code while leaving the documentation intact. The student can then use the documentation to craft his/her own solution.

For the difficulty of the computing problems, and of the text in general, I dock another star.

Therefore, I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a good one!, July 5, 2000

By 

Rafael F. Angulo (Caracas, D.F. Venezuela) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Computational Physics (Paperback)

This book by J. M. Thijssen is a rare gem. You note this as you browse the index. Quantum scattering, variational methods for the Schrödinger equation, the Hartree-Fock method, density functional theory, classical and quantum molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo methods and transfer matrix methods. Even a solid chapter on lattice field theory! The book isn't child's play (like most books on computational physics), but a beautifully written text covering both physical and computational issues, superficially but concisely. A neat selection of references guides readers to comprehensive, modern literature. The right balance of tricks and theory puts the readers few steps away from developing their own code. I don't award the fifth star because software engineering and object orientation issues are ignored.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best computational physics book available, January 24, 2005

By 

D. Holland - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Computational Physics (Paperback)

This is a very decent book on computational physics, focusing primarily on condensed matter. It's up there with Allen and Tildesley's "Computer Simulation of Liquids", though with a broader selection of subjects and more suited to physicists.

There are inevitable errors, some of which would take a bit of effort to fix were it not for the error web page the author maintains.

Many problems in condensed matter are tackled, always with a view toward implementing an actual numerical investigation (this may sound like a given, but several other texts seem to shy away from actually using a computer, exploiting some variant of 'computational' in the title as an excuse to write yet another redundant physics text that is only cursorily computational). Often, nice snippets of pseudocode are presented, along with suggestions for numerical control parameters to use and the corresponding numerical results obtained - so one can try things out and check the answer. Indeed, the book is best used if one sets about to write code to solve problems, both in the main text and in the exercises at the chapter ends. As is often the case, however, getting a piece of new code to behave correctly can be a bit of a pain, which becomes easier only with experience.

In a real sense, the text helps bring some physics to life, and one is rewarded, I think, with a clearer understanding, and some powerful tools at one's disposal.

Though it doesn't have any real competitor, there is room for a second edition: along with correcting errors, several subjects could do with a bit more discussion or even extensive treatment, and other things could profitably be included, e.g., a DFT implementation of Car-Parrinello quantum atomic dynamics.