Modern civilization would not have been what it is today but for the breath-taking and beautiful advances achieved in theoretical physics. The current century has witnessed many scientific developments adding immensely to the advantages of man’s life. Quantum mechanics together with relativity theories and their various ramifications form their vital core. The main aim of the well-known and well-appreciated author and his group of physicist-disciples is to present an elementary introduction to the methods of the field quantization and some of their interesting applications to many-body physics as well as to certain special features of atomic, nuclear and fundamental particle physics.
This clearly set out goal has been achieved to a considerable extent here by reassorting to exhibition of relevant facts and detailed discussions thereof. The mathematical tools employed are explained, a good number of problems are worked out, bibliographical references at the appropriate places as footnotes are given, and above all, very useful biographical notes are also provided.
The thirteen chapters start with quantum theory and free electromagnetic fields, and then cover matter-field interaction, non-interacting fields, quantum fields, QED, renormalization problems, QFT, super-fluidity, pair correlation among fermions and bosons, quasi-particles in plasmas and metals, quantum statistics, structures of atoms and molecules and finally Feynman’s path integral formulation of Schrödinger’s wave mechanics. Thus, in the special chapters we see an attractive spectrum of important topics efficiently dealt with and effectively illustrated.
Indeed, in this remarkably well done English version, every student and teacher of theoretical physics can find a rich and sumptuous choice of contributions to understand the fascninating quantum world.