Symmetry (Dover Books on Physics)

Roy McWeeny

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486421821 ISBN 13: 9780486421827

Publisher: Dover Publications Inc., 2003

Symmetry: An Introduction To Group Theory And Its Applications

About the Author:

Peter Bernath was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and was educated at the University of Waterloo (B. Sc. in chemistry 1976) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph. D. in physical chemistry 1980). After a post-doctoral stint at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics of the National Research Council of Canada, he began his academic career at the University of Arizona in 1982. In 1991, he moved to the University of Waterloo as Professor of Chemistry and of Physics and now holds an Industrial Research Chair in Fourier Transform Spectroscopy. Prof. Bernath has interests in high resolution spectroscopy of molecules with applications in astronomy and atmospheric science. He is the author of the textbook Spectra of Atoms and Molecules.
Roy McWeeny's academic career spans five decades. After a first degree in Physics (Leeds University) and a D.Phil. from Oxford University (where he worked with C.A. Coulson), he was appointed Lecturer in Physical Chemistry, University of Durham. In the mid-1950s he was an invited member of J.C. Slater's famous Solid-State and Molecular Theory Group at MIT; and in 1960 spent a year as Associate Director of P.-O. Lowdin's Quantum Theory Group at Uppsala University. His other University appointments include a Lectureship in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry (University of Keele, UK); a Readership in Quantum Theory, a personal Chair of Theoretical Physics and Theoretical Chemistry, and a Chair of Chemistry (University of Sheffield, UK). In 1982 he became the first foreign scholar (following a Ministerial Decree) to be called to an Italian University Chair, taking up the position of Professore Ordinario di Chimica Teorica, UniversitA di Pisa, where hebecame Professore Emerito in 1998. He is a Member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science (elected 1973); and a Member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and the Humanities (elected 1986). In 1996 a Special Issue of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry (Volume 60) was published in his honour: it contains sixty scientific papers, contributed by authors from many countries.
Stephen Wilson has published over 300 scientific papers and reviews, principally in theoretical and computational chemistry and molecular physics, but also in computing science and numerical analysis. He has authored two books - Electron correlation in molecules, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1984, and Chemistry by Computer: An overview of the applications of computers in chemistry, Plenum Press, New York, 1986, and has edited some 21 volumes. He is an Editor-in-Chief of Progress in Theoretical Chemistry and Physics and Series Editor of Methods in Computational Chemistry. Dr. Wilson holds a D.Sc. from the University of Bristol.

Synopsis:

This is a reprint of a work originally published in 1963 (Pergamon Press). Aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students in physics and chemistry programs, this text presents an introduction to the elementary ideas of group theory and representation theory. McWeeny (emeritus, U. of Pisa, Italy) emphasizes the finite groups describing the sy