Path Integral Methods (Hardcover)

Providing a self contained step by step explanation, this book will guide the reader with a basic knowledge of quantum mechanics, to a sufficiently comprehensive level as well as to the frontier of contemporary physics. For the last two decades there has been a ceaseless growth of the area where the path integral (PI) method plays an important role: the main reasons are its intuitive aspect and ease of handling. However, this has raised questions elsewhere and in this book fundamental issues are resolved by starting from the canonical operator formalism to lead the reader to a more comprehensive level. Containing the most recent topics such as the lattice fermion problem in quantum field theory as well as the quantum Monte Carlo method in statistical mechanics this book will suit graduate students of quantum physics.

"This thin and very nicely typeset, using Latex, and well-presented book gives an introduction and an overview of path integral methods in physics. There are seven chapters . . . The first two introduce and define the path integral and the primary methods for getting results with it. The third chapter . . . presents the generalization to other than Cartesian coordinate systems. The reason this is important is that spin systems are defined on the sphere and it is desirable to have a path integral representation for them; also, to use spherical symmetry of some systems, it would be nice to have a path integral in polar and spherical coordinates. . . . The remaining chapters give applications of the general path integral and the perturbation and WKB method for evaluating them. . . . If you are using path integrals, this book . . . is useful . . . If you are looking for recipes to use and apply path integrals, this book can also be for you."--International Journal of Quantum Chemistry "This thin and very nicely typeset, using Latex, and well-presented book gives an introduction and an overview of path integral methods in physics. There are seven chapters . . . The first two introduce and define the path integral and the primary methods for getting results with it. The third chapter . . . presents the generalization to other than Cartesian coordinate systems. The reason this is important is that spin systems are defined on the sphere and it is desirable to have a path integral representation for them; also, to use spherical symmetry of some systems, it would be nice to have a path integral in polar and spherical coordinates. . . . The remaining chapters give applications of the general path integral and the perturbation and WKB method for evaluating them. . . . If you are using path integrals, this book . . . is useful . . . If you are looking for recipes to use and apply path integrals, this book can also be for you."--International Journal of Quantum Chemistry "This thin and very nicely typeset, using Latex, and well-presented book gives an introduction and an overview of path integral methods in physics. There are seven chapters . . . The first two introduce and define the path integral and the primary methods for getting results with it. The third chapter . . . presents the generalization to other than Cartesian coordinate systems. The reason this is important is that spin systems are defined on the sphere and it is desirable to have a path integral representation for them; also, to use spherical symmetry of some systems, it would be nice to have a path integral in polar and spherical coordinates. . . . The remaining chapters give applications of the general path integral and the perturbation and WKB method for evaluating them. . . . If you are using path integrals, this book . . . is useful . . . If you are looking for recipes to use and apply path integrals, this book can also be for you."--International Journal of Quantum Chemistry "This thin and very nicely typeset, using Latex, and well-presented book gives an introduction and an overview of path integral methods in physics. There are seven chapters . . . The first two introduce and define the path integral and the primary methods for getting results with it. The third chapter . . . presents the generalization to other than Cartesian coordinate systems. The reason this is important is that spin systems are defined on the sphere and it is desirable to have a path integral representation for them; also, to use spherical symmetry of some systems, it would be nice to have a path integral in polar and spherical coordinates. . . . The remaining chapters give applications of the general path integral and the perturbation and WKB method for evaluating them. . . . If you are using path integrals, this book . . . is useful . . . If you are looking for recipes to use and apply path integrals, this book can also be for you."--International Journal of Quantum Chemistry