Classical and Quantum Dynamics: From Classical Paths to Path Integrals - Softcover

Dittrich, Walter; Reuter, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 331986369X ISBN 13: 9783319863696

Publisher: Springer, 2018

Synopsis

Graduate students who wish to become familiar with advanced computational strategies in classical and quantum dynamics will find in this book both the fundamentals of a standard course and a detailed treatment of the time-dependent oscillator, Chern-Simons mechanics, the Maslov anomaly and the Berry phase, to name just a few topics. Well-chosen and detailed examples illustrate perturbation theory, canonical transformations and the action principle, and demonstrate the usage of path integrals.

The fifth edition has been revised and enlarged to include chapters on quantum electrodynamics, in particular, Schwinger’s proper time method and the treatment of classical and quantum mechanics with Lie brackets and pseudocanonical transformations. It is shown that operator quantum electrodynamics can be equivalently described with c-numbers, as demonstrated by calculating the propagation function for an electron in a prescribed classical electromagnetic field.

About this title

About the Author

Prof. Dr. Walter Dittrich had been head of the quantum electrodynamics group at the University of Tübingen. He started his work on gauge theories and QED in collaboration with Julian Schwinger.  Walter Dittrich has worked for more than 20 years in cooperation with the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton and the National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford (SLAC). He has over 30 years of teaching experience and is one of the key scientists in developing the theoretical framework of quantum electrodynamics.

Prof. Dr. Martin Reuter is head of the quantum Einstein gravity group at the Institute for High Energy Physics of the University Mainz. His research focuses on particle physics, quantum field theory and quantum Einstein gravity. He worked in close collaboration with the synchrotron facility DESY and the large hadron collider collaborations at CERN. He has more than 30 years of teaching experience in theoretical physics. 

From the Back Cover

Graduate students who wish to become familiar with advanced computational strategies in classical and quantum dynamics will find in this book both the fundamentals of a standard course and a detailed treatment of the time-dependent oscillator, Chern-Simons mechanics, the Maslov anomaly and the Berry phase, to name just a few topics. Well-chosen and detailed examples illustrate perturbation theory, canonical transformations and the action principle, and demonstrate the usage of path integrals.

The fifth edition has been revised and enlarged to include chapters on quantum electrodynamics, in particular, Schwinger’s proper time method and the treatment of classical and quantum mechanics with Lie brackets and pseudocanonical transformations. It is shown that operator quantum electrodynamics can be equivalently described with c-numbers, as demonstrated by calculating the propagation function for an electron in a prescribed classical electromagnetic field.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 331986369X
• ISBN 13: 9783319863696
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 505