Knots and Physics: Series on Knots and Everything (Series on Knots and Everything, Vol.1) [Paperback]

Louis H. Kauffman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 9810216580 | ISBN-13: 978-9810216580 | Publication Date: January 1994 | Edition: 2

This book is an introduction to knot and link invariants as generalized amplitudes (vacuum-vacuum amplitudes) for a quasi-physical process. The demands of the knot theory, coupled with a quantum statistical framework, create a context that naturally includes a wide range of interrelated topics in topology and mathematical physics. The author takes a primarily combinatorial stance toward the knot theory and its relations with these subjects. This has the advantage of providing very direct access to the algebra and to the combinatorial topology, as well as the physical ideas. This book is divided into two parts: Part one is a systematic course in knots and physics starting from the ground up. Part two is a set of lectures on various topics related with and sometimes based on part one. It also explores some side-topies such as frictional properties of knots, relations with combinatorics, knots and dynamical systems. In this second edition, an appendix has been added with a discussion of invariants of embedded graphs and Vassiliev invariants. Included is a reprinting of three recent papers by the author on quantum groups and invariants of 3-manifolds, spin networks and graph invariants.

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

"... here is a gold mine where, with care and patience, one should get acquainted with a beautiful subject under the guidance of a most original and imaginative mind."

From The New Yorker

" I find the book to be excellent value for its price. Kauffman manages to take the reader from the most elementary (and physically useful) knots to the most recent developments at the very forefront of a rapidly expanding field ... It deserves to be a classic." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company; 2 edition (January 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9810216580
• ISBN-13: 978-9810216580
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,552,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars math grad., March 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Knots and Physics (Paperback)

Overview of knots/physics. The book is fairly self-contained. It also has lots of pictures and works through the mathematics.
Introduces bracket polynomial, temperly-lieb algebra, and modeling physics ideas out of this stuff.