Customer Reviews

Principles of Condensed Matter Physics

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For most researchers, this book will be used as a reference when they seek a rigorous treatment of one of the many aspects of condensed matter physics. Many familiar topics such as Debye-Hückel theory or elasticity are framed in a broader context that includes not only treatments of differeing degrees of exactness but also greater generality. A reader interested in a narrow topic may find it necessary to read an entire chapter rather than a certain narrow section to gain a reasonable understanding of the subject matter. In the reviewer's view, this is a good thing.

What makes this book a good reference is that the individual chapters are usually self contained - requiring some but not excessive familiarity with chapters that have gone before. This allows the reader to gain insight into the various aspects of the subject one at a time as needed.

As a text, this book is written so as to be accessable to the student encountering the subject matter for the first time but assumes a reasonable familiarity with thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics. A strong course in physical chemistry would certainly provide sufficient background.

Overall, this is a fine book for those who wish to pursue the various topics in condensed matter physics thoughtfully and in earnest.

This textbook's main originality is its unusual mixture of latest experimental facts and observations in soft condensed matter with deep theoretical concepts and tools.
Exactly solved models of statistical physics pervades the text which also contains a good discussion on real-space renormalization methods and field-theoretical approaches to condensed matter problems.
The chapter on topological defects and excitations is particularly welcomed.
May not be particularly suited for self-study as some results are not always carefully derived and the exercises can prove quite hard to solve.
A prior exposure to phase transition phenomena is recommended.

This is simply a modern presentation of condensed matter physics, and thus includes some soft matter examples, but it is not in any sense a "soft matter book".

To those still mired in traditional solid state physics, where electronic properties are topics 1 through 987 and understanding how a semiconductor works is still a primary goal, it may appear that this is a strange book. Indeed it is: it is a condensed matter text rather than a solid state text.

Take a look at your Ashcroft and Mermin flyleaf some time---it is over 30 years old. What have you learned since then? What have your students learned? Do they really get turned on by LAPW and FLAPW? Are you sure? This book is a good place to start bringing yourself, and your students, up to date.

Given my training as an engineer in undergraduate avatar and as a polymer scientist in my graduate school (enrolled into a PhD program now), I find this book a challenging endevour. It presupposes in-depth knowledge of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics, and the chapters are written in a style which makes it most beneficial/suitable for Physics graduate students. Nonetheless, since every serious student in material science and polymer physics must indeed become comfortable with the theoretical concepts underlying soft matter physics, this book is a delightful (and hardcore!) introduction to the concepts of correlation functions, symmetry laws, conservation principles, phase transitions and critical phenomenon, topological defects, etc. The book by RAL Jones can provide a quick introduction to phenomenon and principles encountered in the book. But to master the trade, to become comfortable with notation used in papers, to understand the math, to make yourself a soft matter physicist, this book provides matter, paradigms and principles in comprehensive manner.

Specifically. this book is an essential reading for people studying physics of crystals, liquid crystals, quasi-crystals, amorphous materials, polymers and magnetically ordered systems. Specific chapters/sections on energy and potentials, structure and scattering, mean field theories, renormalization group theory, generalized elasticity, dynamics with emphasis on correlation & response functions, hydrodynamics with discussion on broken symmetries and fluctuation-dissipation formalism, and on wall, kinks and solitons are written with advanced readers in mind. Each chapter and topic can be appreaciated by additional reading from a textbook each in Statistical Mechanics (Pathria), Electrodynamics (Slater and Frank), Quantum Mechanics, liquid crystals (Chandrashekar or de gennes, polymers (Doi, de gennes) and scattering (neutron-Higgins, light-Pecora). Like potential readers, I am myself a student, just starting on this daunting but worthwhile study of condensed matter.

(07 March 2004)

It is not only a "soft Condensed Matter" book. This book has every basic (or kinda advanced) ideas of condensed matter physics. And there is almost no prerequisite for this book --- a reader needn't even know any solid state physics before he reads this book. The text is well written and easy to read.
--- These are all the features of a perfect textbook.

Captivating bedtime reading, perfect for those insomniac nights. You will only need to read page one to see how come Onslow favours Principles of Condensed Matter Physics over Daisy!

This book reveals the most important principle in condensed matter physics.