A Kinetic View of Statistical Physics
Cambridge University Press, 11/18/2010
EAN 9780521851039, ISBN10: 0521851033
Hardcover, 504 pages, 25.4 x 19.6 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Aimed at graduate students, this book explores some of the core phenomena in non-equilibrium statistical physics. It focuses on the development and application of theoretical methods to help students develop their problem-solving skills. The book begins with microscopic transport processes: diffusion, collision-driven phenomena, and exclusion. It then presents the kinetics of aggregation, fragmentation and adsorption, where the basic phenomenology and solution techniques are emphasized. The following chapters cover kinetic spin systems, both from a discrete and a continuum perspective, the role of disorder in non-equilibrium processes, hysteresis from the non-equilibrium perspective, the kinetics of chemical reactions, and the properties of complex networks. The book contains 200 exercises to test students' understanding of the subject. A link to a website hosted by the authors, containing supplementary material including solutions to some of the exercises, can be found at www.cambridge.org/9780521851039.
1. Aperitifs
2. Diffusion
3. Collisions
4. Exclusion
5. Aggregation
6. Fragmentation
7. Adsorption
8. Spin dynamics
9. Coarsening
10. Disorder
11. Hysteresis
12. Population dynamics
13. Diffusive reactions
14. Complex networks
References
Index.
Advance praise: 'Non-equilibrium statistical mechanics has so many applications and is strewn with so many different tricks and treats that the only way to teach the subject is through examples. Krapivsky, Redner, and Ben-Naim have written a beautiful book that elegantly covers several of these examples, some classic, others at the boundaries of research. Their target readership is physicists and applied mathematicians, but includes computer scientists, biologists and engineers. Methinks that good students in economics would be well advised to read some chapters of this book, for I am convinced that several breakthroughs in their field will hinge upon concepts and methods from non-equilibrium statistical mechanics.' J. P. Bouchaud, Chairman of Capital Fund Management (Paris) and Statistical Mechanics Professor at Ecole Polytechnique