Condensed Matter Physics (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The goal of condensed matter physics is to understand how underlying laws unfold themselves in objects of the natural world..." (more)
Key Phrases: deflation rule, semiclassical equations, repeated zone scheme, Physical Review, Reviews of Modern Physics, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...responds to the need in both the academic and research communities for a modern introductory treatment of this essential subject." -- Zeitschrift Fur Kristollographie, Vol. 218, No. 7, 2003

"In summary, the main strength of the book is that it conveys the enormous breadth of modern condensed matter physics and gives a basic, often conceptual account of these diverse topics." (Physics Today, June 2001)

"...there is clearly much here that lecturers and readers at the graduate level will find valuable." (Contemporary Physics, Vol 41/5, 2000)

"I can thoroughly recommend it to students, graduates and teachers. I would even say that everyone who is interested more deeply in the exciting world of matter should have this book on their library shelf." (European Journal of Physics, Vol 21, 2000)

"...responds to the need in both the academic and research communities for a modern introductory treatment of this essential subject." (Zeitschrift Fur Kristollographie, Vol. 218, No. 7, 2003)

Product Description

A modern, unified treatment of condensed matter physics

This new work presents for the first time in decades a sweeping review of the whole field of condensed matter physics. It consolidates new and classic topics from disparate sources, teaching "not only about the effective masses of electrons in semiconductor crystals and band theory, but also about quasicrystals, dynamics of phase separation, why rubber is more floppy than steel, electron interference in nanometer-sized channels, and the quantum Hall effect."

Six major areas are covered---atomic structure, electronic structure, mechanical properties, electron transport, optical properties, and magnetism. But rather than defining the field in terms of particular materials, the author focuses on the way condensed matter physicists approach physical problems, combining phenomenology and microscopic arguments with information from experiments. For graduate students and professionals, researchers and engineers, applied mathematicians and materials scientists, Condensed Matter Physics provides:
* An exciting collection of new topics from the past two decades.
* A thorough treatment of classic topics, including band theory, transport theory, and semiconductor physics.
* Over 300 figures, incorporating many images from experiments.
* Frequent comparison of theory and experiment, both when they agree and when problems are still unsolved.
* More than 50 tables of data and a detailed index.
* Ample end-of-chapter problems, including computational exercises.
* Over 1000 references, both recent and historically significant.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 928 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Interscience; 1 edition (January 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471177792
• ISBN-13: 978-0471177791
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #537,102 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars at last, an update for Ashcroft & Mermin's book, June 15, 2000

By A Customer

The classic solid state / condensed matter text by Ashcroft and Mermin (A&M) is now 25 years old. It's a very accessible and elegantly written book, but condensed matter is a fast-moving subject, and it's embarassing that A&M is still used today. The alternatives have all been too specialized, too formal, and/or too leadenly written in comparison.

This book by Marden may finally replace A&M. Like Ashcroft and Mermin, Marden is a member of the Cornell mafia. Some parts of the book practically echo A&M, and the writing style is at least as friendly to the beginning grad student ("Now it will be protested that atoms without dipole moments do not have dipole moments. This is true. However...") But the large number of new developments of the last 25 years are discussed or at least mentioned. In addition to the same-old band structure, magnetism, etc., liquids are covered (a surprising omission in A&M), as are surfaces, soft matter, optical properties of materials, etc. The book is fairly logically structured and works well as a text, except that there is way too much material here to cover in a year.

The first printing is full of errors, listed on a web page created by the author. You may want to wait until the second printing before plunking down $95 (too high for impoverished grad students). Top and bottom margins are practically nonexistent. Photographs and shaded 3D drawings are poorly reproduced and murky; they appear to have been printed on a smeary $79.95 inkjet printer and then reproduced.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Broad coverage, but lacking detail, October 4, 2003

By A Customer

I used Marder's book (the corrected printing) during a solid state physics course this past Spring 2003 semeseter. While I have to commend Marder at his attempt to provide a great deal of breadth on the enormous field of condensed matter, I think he fell short on the details and pedagogy that are necessary for someone new to the subject. Too often, I found myself (and the others I worked with) having to refer to Ashcroft & Mermin's text to complete HW problems assigned out of Marder's book. Also, his notation in certain chapters was unnecessarily confusing, especially the chapter(s) on phonons. I have since read most of the book by Taylor & Heinonen, and I found it to be of much more use than Marder's book. T&H's book is very well written and the concepts flow smoothly from one to the next. In fact, many of the things I struggled to understand last semester were so clearly explained in their text, that I wondered how I could have been so confused! Marder's book has been praised by others as a modern improvement to the A&M standard, but up-to-date topics are of little use if the first-timer has difficulty understanding the nuances of core ideas (e.g., transport, band-structure, and electron-phonon interactions). My opinion is that a good library should include A&M's text for those fundamentals that never go away (crystal structure, semiconductors, etc.) and a book such as T&H's or Chaikin & Lubensky's for the more modern topics ("soft" condensed matter, mesoscopic physics, etc.).

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars corrected printing has appeared, May 7, 2001

By A Customer

Note that a corrected printing (not 'new edition') came out in February 2001. Make sure you get this version, which is identified on the cover.