Renormalization Methods: A Guide For Beginners

McComb, W. D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199236526 ISBN 13: 9780199236527

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA, 2008

This book is unique in occupying a gap between standard undergraduate texts and more advanced texts on quantum field theory. It covers a range of renormalization methods with a clear physical interpretations (and motivation), including mean fields theories and high-temperature and low-density expansions. It then process by each steps to the famous epsilon expansion, ending up with the first-order corrections to critical exponents beyond mean-field theory. Nowadays there is widespread interest in applications of renormalization methods to various topics ranging over soft condensed matter, engineering dynamics, traffic queuing and fluctuations in the stock market. Hence macroscopic systems are also included with particular emphasis on the archetypal problem of fluid turbulence. The book is also unique in making this material accessible to readers other than theoretical physics, as it requires only the basic physics and mathematics which should be known to most scientists, engineers and mathematicians.

Review:

Review from previous edition Renormalization Methods should be an excellent source of material for anyone who plans to lead advanced undergradutes and first-year graduate students beyond the standard course material toward current research topics. (Physics Today)

I think this book is the best introductory textbook on techniques of renormalization available. It will be a delight to read for anyone who is encountering the topic for the first time and is wishing to exploit the methods to pass an exam or in one's field. (Contemporary Physics)

About the Author:

Professor William David McComb Professor of Statistical Physics University of Edinburgh Senior Scientific Officer, Theoretical Physics Division, Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell (1969-71). Lecturer, Reader and Professor, Edinburgh University (1971-present time). Guest Professor, Technical University of Delft, Netherlands (August-November 1997). Visiting Fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge (January-July 1999).