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A Guide to Feynman Diagrams in the Many-Body Problem: Second Edition
"A great delight to read." — Physics Today
Among the most fertile areas of modern physics, many-body theory has produced a wealth of fundamental results in all areas of the discipline. Unfortunately the subject is notoriously difficult and, until the publication of this book, most treatments of the topic were inaccessible to the average experimenter or non-specialist theoretician.
The present work, by contrast, is well within the grasp of the nonexpert. It is intended primarily as a "self-study" book that introduces one aspect of many-body theory, i.e. the method of Feynman diagrams. The book also lends itself to use as a reference in courses on solid state and nuclear physics which make some use of the many-body techniques. And, finally, it can be used as a supplementary reference in a many-body course.
Chapters 1 through 6 provide an introduction to the major concepts of the field, among them Feynman diagrams, quasi-particles and vacuum amplitudes. Chapters 7 through 16 give basic coverage to topics ranging from Dyson's equation and the ladder approximation to Fermi systems at finite temperature and superconductivity. Appendixes summarize the Dirac formalism and include a rigorous derivation of the rules for diagrams. Problems are provided at the end of each chapter and solutions are given at the back of the book.
For this second edition, Dr. Mattuck, formerly of the H. C. Orsted Institute and the University of Copenhagen, added to many chapters a new section showing in mathematical detail how typical many-body calculations with Feynman diagrams are carried out. In addition, new exercises were included, some of which gave the reader the opportunity to carry out simpler many-body calculations himself. new chapter on the quantum field theory of phase transitions rounds out this unusually clear, helpful and informative guide to the physics of the many-body problem.
Among the most fertile areas of modern physics, many-body theory has produced a wealth of fundamental results in all areas of the discipline. Unfortunately the subject is notoriously difficult and, until the publication of this book, most treatments of the topic were inaccessible to the average experimenter or non-specialist theoretician.
The present work, by contrast, is well within the grasp of the nonexpert. It is intended primarily as a "self-study" book that introduces one aspect of many-body theory, i.e. the method of Feynman diagrams. The book also lends itself to use as a reference in courses on solid state and nuclear physics which make some use of the many-body techniques. And, finally, it can be used as a supplementary reference in a many-body course.
Chapters 1 through 6 provide an introduction to the major concepts of the field, among them Feynman diagrams, quasi-particles and vacuum amplitudes. Chapters 7 through 16 give basic coverage to topics ranging from Dyson's equation and the ladder approximation to Fermi systems at finite temperature and superconductivity. Appendixes summarize the Dirac formalism and include a rigorous derivation of the rules for diagrams. Problems are provided at the end of each chapter and solutions are given at the back of the book.
For this second edition, Dr. Mattuck, formerly of the H. C. Orsted Institute and the University of Copenhagen, added to many chapters a new section showing in mathematical detail how typical many-body calculations with Feynman diagrams are carried out. In addition, new exercises were included, some of which gave the reader the opportunity to carry out simpler many-body calculations himself. new chapter on the quantum field theory of phase transitions rounds out this unusually clear, helpful and informative guide to the physics of the many-body problem.
892 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 28, 2012
When I picked up this book, I thought I'd be totally traumatized by it (who doesn't know a many-body problem turns you into a many-problem body? raise your hands) oh but who could have thought that such a topic can be written in such an intuitive and interesting and funny way like Mattuck's? A nice introduction into Feynman diagram method with lots of clear and witty explanations, funny how he always desperately tries to convince you how awesome Feynman diagrams are by constantly saying things like "oh I know this looks stupid and takes too much effort compared to old methods, but it's actually very cool".
I'm not going to inflict any of that stuff on you but at least, I'm tempted to show you how entertaining a physics book can be:
"on second thought, when we realize that it has taken us three pages to do by diagrams what we did directly in lines, there appears to be little cause for celebration. We seem to have built an elephant cannon to shoot a horse-fly.
if this commonplace textbook result is regarded as the end product of the elaborate vacuum amplitude approach, we might justifiably conclude that a rocket launcher has been built to fire a spitball.
second quantization may sound as useful as a pair of trousers with five legs.
Prof Schrieffer has called the spectral density function the policeman who tells you when you are doing something wrong in a calculation with propagators. a glance at the literature reveals almost more policemen than propagators, so it is worth while at least learning to recognize the uniform."
I'm not going to inflict any of that stuff on you but at least, I'm tempted to show you how entertaining a physics book can be:
"on second thought, when we realize that it has taken us three pages to do by diagrams what we did directly in lines, there appears to be little cause for celebration. We seem to have built an elephant cannon to shoot a horse-fly.
if this commonplace textbook result is regarded as the end product of the elaborate vacuum amplitude approach, we might justifiably conclude that a rocket launcher has been built to fire a spitball.
second quantization may sound as useful as a pair of trousers with five legs.
Prof Schrieffer has called the spectral density function the policeman who tells you when you are doing something wrong in a calculation with propagators. a glance at the literature reveals almost more policemen than propagators, so it is worth while at least learning to recognize the uniform."
January 11, 2024
kindle version fill of terrible errors
There are numerous errors, often many per page. In particular l (the letter el) is written as 1 (the number 1) and when bold as I (capital I). In addition the equations are not readable without zooming, and then the text is blurry after zooming. I do not recommend the kindle version. Get the hard copy which is a great book.
There are numerous errors, often many per page. In particular l (the letter el) is written as 1 (the number 1) and when bold as I (capital I). In addition the equations are not readable without zooming, and then the text is blurry after zooming. I do not recommend the kindle version. Get the hard copy which is a great book.
February 8, 2012
Well, I actually only used this book as second literature in a single course, but it was great for looking up things, and to get a second opinion on different diagrams. Apart from that, I loved the typesetting in this book - it just looks great, even though it's so old.
April 26, 2008
most interesting read of the 3 qft books (this one, Fetter and Waleka, AGD) but only some relevance to the class i was taking.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews