Customer Reviews

Statistical Mechanics of Phase Transitions (Oxford Science Publications)

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I liked this book because it covers in a short, but comprehensive, manner the main approaches to phase transitions (mean-field theories, transfer matrix, series expansions, Monte Carlo simulations, renormalization group) and so it is an excellent introduction to the theoretical methods of phase transitions. I recommend it to anyone who is giving the first steps in the field of phase transitions. I emphasize that the book contains two good chapters devoted to the renormalization group; the author doesn't limit the approach to the introduction of the formalim, but includes also several examples of renormalization group transformations and demonstrates how to use the renormalization group ideas to calculate critical properties.

I would not say that this is a 'serious' treatise on phase transitions but it will be great if you just want to have an overlook on the subject. You will get a glance on mean field theory, correlation fonctions, transfer matrices and even the renormalization group theory for less thant 150 pages before you could decide to study statistical field theory, which you probably will want to do if you read this book.