The Theory Of Groups And Quantum Mechanics [Hardcover]

Hermann Weyl (Author), H. P. Robertson (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2008

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, LLC (June 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1436687861
• ISBN-13: 978-1436687867
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,385,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the two great classics on group theory in physics, February 18, 2001

By 

henrique fleming - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Theory of Groups and Quantum Mechanics (Dover Books on Mathematics) (Paperback)

The other one is Wigner's "Group Theory and Quantum Mechanics". As it is true of the other great books by Weyl, this is not an easy book, but it is, by all means, accessible. Don't try to read it in front of the TV set. Get pencil and paper, put yourself in a calm and contemplative mood and patiently read the words of the master. Hermann Weyl, one of the great minds of the 20th century, wrote this book with utmost care to make it self-contained. Sometimes you have to be deep in order to be brief, so the book requires some thought. But the main ideas are all there, and the connection of group theory with quantum mechanics has here its best treatment, in my humble opinion. But in less humble too: this was the only book concerning physics which Enrico Fermi read as a grown up. Once, Max Born had to write a synthetic exposition of Quantum Mechanics. After he finished it, he saw, for the first time, this book, and Weyl's synthesis of QM. He felt depressed by the superiority of Weyl's text. The book was originally written in German, but the translation is excellent, due to the great American cosmologist H. P. Robertson, of Robertson-Walker fame.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic from the early days of quantum mechanics, June 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Theory of Groups and Quantum Mechanics (Dover Books on Mathematics) (Paperback)

Although published by Dover in 1984, this book dates back to about 1930, when Weyl was the big proponent of group theory in quantum mechanics. Because of this date, much of what modern books on group theory would include, is absent from the book. It mainly discusses the permutation group. The book is, however, of historic interest, as Weyl (mathematician) tried to convince the physicists to exploit group theory - which even gave rise to some irritation ("group pest").

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still a good book, February 26, 2003

By 

Dr. Lee D. Carlson (Baltimore, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Theory of Groups and Quantum Mechanics (Dover Books on Mathematics) (Paperback)

Written in the early years of the quantum theory, the author of this book foresaw the importance of considering symmetry in physics, the use of which now pervades most of theoretical high energy physics. Indeed, with the advent of gauge theories, and their experimental validation, it is readily apparent that symmetry principles are here to stay, and are just not accidental curiosities. A reader of the book can still gain a lot from the perusal of this book, in spite of its date of publication and its somewhat antiquated notation. Older books also have the advantage of discussing the material more in-depth, and do not hesitate to use hand-waving geometrical pictures when appropriate. This approach results in greater insight into the subject, and when coupled with eventual mathematical rigor gives it a solid foundation. One example where the discussion is superior to modern texts is in the author's discussion of group characters and their application to irreducible representations and spectra in atomic systems.

The reader will no doubt probably want to couple the reading of this book with a more modern text so as to alleviate the notational oddities in this book. The author's presentation is clear enough though to make an appropriate translation to modern notation. The reader will then be well prepared to tackle more advanced material in mathematical and theoretical physics that make use of the group-theoretic constructions that take place in this book.