Principles of Advanced Mathematical Physics

Robert D. Richtmyer

ISBN 10: 3642463800 / ISBN 13: 9783642463808

Published by Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2012

About this Item

Druck auf Anfrage Neuware - Printed after ordering - A first consequence of this difference in texture concerns the attitude we must take toward some (or perhaps most) investigations in 'applied mathe matics,' at least when the mathematics is applied to physics. Namely, those investigations have to be regarded as pure mathematics and evaluated as such. For example, some of my mathematical colleagues have worked in recent years on the Hartree-Fock approximate method for determining the structures of many-electron atoms and ions. When the method was intro duced, nearly fifty years ago, physicists did the best they could to justify it, using variational principles, intuition, and other techniques within the texture of physical reasoning. By now the method has long since become part of the established structure of physics. The mathematical theorems that can be proved now (mostly for two- and three-electron systems, hence of limited interest for physics), have to be regarded as mathematics. If they are good mathematics (and I believe they are), that is justification enough. If they are not, there is no basis for saying that the work is being done to help the physicists. In that sense, applied mathematics plays no role in today's physics. In today's division of labor, the task of the mathematician is to create mathematics, in whatever area, without being much concerned about how the mathematics is used; that should be decided in the future and by physics.

Seller Inventory # 9783642463808

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Principles of Advanced Mathematical Physics
• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3642463800
• ISBN 13: 9783642463808
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 235W x 155H x 24D millimeters 235 millimeters width by 155 millimeters height by 24 millimeters depth
• Weight: 668 grams

About this title

Synopsis

A first consequence of this difference in texture concerns the attitude we must take toward some (or perhaps most) investigations in "applied mathe­ matics," at least when the mathematics is applied to physics. Namely, those investigations have to be regarded as pure mathematics and evaluated as such. For example, some of my mathematical colleagues have worked in recent years on the Hartree-Fock approximate method for determining the structures of many-electron atoms and ions. When the method was intro­ duced, nearly fifty years ago, physicists did the best they could to justify it, using variational principles, intuition, and other techniques within the texture of physical reasoning. By now the method has long since become part of the established structure of physics. The mathematical theorems that can be proved now (mostly for two- and three-electron systems, hence of limited interest for physics), have to be regarded as mathematics. If they are good mathematics (and I believe they are), that is justification enough. If they are not, there is no basis for saying that the work is being done to help the physicists. In that sense, applied mathematics plays no role in today's physics. In today's division of labor, the task of the mathematician is to create mathematics, in whatever area, without being much concerned about how the mathematics is used; that should be decided in the future and by physics.