Customer Reviews

Physics of Atoms and Molecules (2nd Edition)

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

 

 

This book is excellent for a 1st year graduate course on Atomic and Molecular physics. The initial sections cover QM in as good and concise a manner as I've ever seen. The coverage of perturbation theory is also very clear. After that the book concentrates on Atomic and Molecular topics like fine structure, Hyperfine strucutre, Hartree-Fock, and a very nice section on Atomic collision physics. It's truly regrettable that this book is out of print.

This book is comprehensive, updated, and enjoys
the ineffable insight and clarity of a real
institution in the field: prof. C. J. Joachain.
A definite plus is that the discussions are
disseminated with a lot of references to the
literature, so it can work as a good introduction
to any of the manifold fields treated.
It is true, though, that it is not extremely advanced,
nor very general in its derivations, therefore if
you are looking for THE "summa theologica", perhaps
this is not what you are looking for.

here is a classic of a book. the contents are an exposition of the applied aspects of quantum mechanics. suitable for undergraduate/graduate text. a must have for any practising physicist.

This book contains a complete program on the atomic and molecular physics field, where the concepts are correctly explained, not leaving behind the formalism but making them easy to follow and understand for the student. I would like to leave a note on what I think is a very small number of examples, which sometimes would help to make the explanations and concepts more digestible.
So far, I had used the first edition, and this 2nd edition, while more complete and reformatted, has not changed too much the good book it has always been.

On another note, I simply can't understand how difficult it is to find/purchase this book anywhere else out of amazon. Even in the publishing house I had troubles trying to purchase it! Eventually, Amazon was the answer (a bit more expensive but not a huge difference) and I have no regrets. It was delivered way before the expected date and that is a thumbs-up in my opinion.
It is surprising because in every field of each science, there are always a few basic books that should be available -almost- everywhere, and in the field of atomic physics, this is definitely one.

This is a very good book in AMO. Very intelligible, nice flow, stuff comes naturally.. It's a classical text, but very well done. (I recommend Liboff for QM and introduction to AMO, and Bransden for good AMO).