Customer Reviews

Many Particle Physics (Physics of Solids and Liquids)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Unfortunately, the 3rd edition of Mahan's book contains enormous number of misprints. Sometimes, it is impossible to understand what is meant by the author without consulting the previous edition. For example, in Sec. 4.1.5. the author refers in the text to the equation which apparently should be between Eqs. (4.126) and (4.127) but which had been omitted. At the same time, some evident drawbacks of the previous edition have not been corrected. For example, the definition of the thermodynamic average used in Sec. 3.6 is different from that used in the previous sections, although it is not mentioned in the text. Despite the book is an excellent introduction into the field of Many-Particle Physics, I would recommend to the customer to either buy the previous edition or to wait for a new one.

Dr. Mahan has crafted a veritable encyclopedia of results and methods in quantum many body and beyond. Much more complete that others, much clearer, less pedantic, it also has the advantage of not being too wedded to any particular formalism (like e.g. Fetter Walecka does with Green functions). Dr. Mahan, does not force unifying frameworks on the issue at hand, but instead takes a more empirical approach, which allows him to present each problem in the most spontaneous and clear way. Highly recommended for all theoretical physicists.

This book is massive and covers a huge spectrum of material. Probably not cost effective in comparison to Fetter and Walecka unless you get it for under eighty bucks. I enjoyed it quite a bit until the Postal Service stole it from me.

If you're a condensed matter theorist, you'll want to have this book on your shelf to refer to. It is extremely comprehensive. If you're just starting out learning many body theory, I wouldn't recommend this book-- it doesn't give enough physical intuition, and because of its comprehensive nature, doesn't give you a good feeling for what is more or less important. I'd recommend reading Mattuck's "A Guide to Feynman Diagrams in the Many-Body Problem" and Bruus & Flensberg's "Many Body Quantum theory in condensed matter physics" first, and then reading Mahan. Now I'm rereading Mahan after reading Mattuck and Bruus, and I'm getting much more out of it than my first attempt.

It certainly deserves the title for encyclopedia. Has a lot of thing. Must keep if you are into into condensed matter physics.

But beware of misprints!! thats why 4 stars

Un excellent livre sur un sujet d'actualite. G. Mahan discute de nombreuses en detaillant a chaque fois les etapes necessaires et en ne negligeant pas les explications ni les liens entre les differentes theories. Vu le prix, courez a votre bibliotheque pour vous le procurer!