Bøger udgivet af WSPC

Galois' Theory of Algebraic Equations gives a detailed account of the development of the theory of algebraic equations, from its origins in ancient times to its completion by Galois in the nineteenth century. The main emphasis is placed on equations of at least the third degree, i.e. on the developments during the period from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The appropriate parts of works by Cardano, Lagrange, Vandermonde, Gauss, Abel and Galois are reviewed and placed in their historical perspective, with the aim of conveying to the reader a sense of the way in which the theory of algebraic equations has evolved and has led to such basic mathematical notions as "group" and "field". A brief discussion on the fundamental theorems of modern Galois theory is included. Complete proofs of the quoted results are provided, but the material has been organized in such a way that the most technical details can be skipped by readers who are interested primarily in a broad survey of the theory.This book will appeal to both undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics and the history of science, and also to teachers and mathematicians who wish to obtain a historical perspective of the field. The text has been designed to be self-contained, but some familiarity with basic mathematical structures and with some elementary notions of linear algebra is desirable for a good understanding of the technical discussions in the later chapters.

This invaluable book has been written for engineers and engineering scientists in a style that is readable, precise, concise, and practical. It gives first priority to the formulation of problems, presenting the classical results as the gold standard, and the numerical approach as a tool for obtaining solutions. The classical part is a revision of the well-known text Foundations of Solid Mechanics, with a much-expanded discussion on the theories of plasticity and large elastic deformation with finite strains. The computational part is all new and is aimed at solving many major linear and nonlinear boundary-value problems.

Blending past and present, this brief history of economics is the perfect book for introducing students to the field.A Brief History of Economics illustrates how the ideas of the great economists not only influenced societies but were themselves shaped by their cultural milieu. Understanding the economists' visions - lucidly and vividly unveiled by Canterbery - allows readers to place economics within a broader community of ideas. Magically, the author links Adam Smith to Isaac Newton's idea of an orderly universe, F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby to Thorstein Veblen, John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath to the Great Depression, and Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities to Reaganomics.Often humorous, Canterbery's easy style will make the student's first foray into economics lively and relevant. Readers will dismiss "dismal" from the science.

"… there is an abundance of interesting examples which serves as a pleasant antidote to the many abstract and abstruse articles and books on classical mechanics … The areas covered in the text are quite wide-ranging, from small oscillations, bifurcations and rigid bodies to Lagrangian, Hamiltonian and relativistic systems. There are also short chapters on perturbation and field theories."Mathematical Reviews This book is intended for first year physics graduate students who wish to learn about analytical mechanics. Lagrangians and Hamiltonians are extensively treated following chapters where particle motion, oscillations, coordinate systems, and rigid bodies are dealt with in far greater detail than in most undergraduate textbooks. Perturbation theory, relativistic mechanics, and two case studies of continuous systems are presented.Each subject is approached at progressively higher levels of abstraction. Lagrangians and Hamiltonians are first presented in an inductive way, leading up to general proofs. Hamiltonian mechanics is expressed in Cartan's notation not too early; there is a self-contained account of the traditional formulation.Numerous problems with detailed solutions are provided. Graduate students studying for the qualifying examination will find them very useful.

Gauge theory, which underlies modern particle physics as well as the theory of gravity, and hence all of physics as we know it today, is itself based on a few fundamental concepts, the consequences of which are often as beautiful as they are deep. Unfortunately, in view of the pressure to cover aspects of the theory that are necessary for its many important applications, very little space is usually devoted in textbooks and graduate courses to the treatment of these concepts. The present small volume is an attempt to help in some degree to redress this imbalance in the literature.The topics covered are elementary in the sense of being basic, not in the sense of being shallow or easy. Although all will already feature at the classical field level, and most even before the introduction of an action principle, they often lead one to pose some quite profound questions, so that much of the material treated is by necessity at the front line of research. The approach adopted is physically motivated, although there is no hesitation in introducing mathematical concepts when they are a help to understanding. In the presentation, little is assumed of the reader, and no pains has been spared to make the whole volume understandable to researchers in other fields and to graduate students, provided that the reader is willing to devote sufficient effort required by the subject matter. On the other hand, neither has there been any conscious attempt to avoid essential difficulties, or to trivialise concepts which are intrinsically abstruse. It is thus hoped that the result will be enjoyable reading for researchers and students alike.

This highly unusual book is a serious inquiry into Schrödinger's question, "What is life?", and at the same time a celebration of life itself. It takes the reader on a voyage of discovery through many areas of contemporary physics, from non-equilibrium thermodynamics and quantum optics to liquid crystals and fractals, all necessary for illuminating the problem of life. In the process, the reader is treated to a rare and exquisite view of the organism, gaining novel insights, not only into the physics but also into "the poetry and meaning of being alive". This book is intended for all who love the subject.

This revised and expanded edition of one of the important textbook in statistical physics, is a graduate level text suitable for students in physics, chemistry, and materials science.After a short review of basic concepts, the authors begin the discussion on strongly interacting condensed matter systems with a thorough treatment of mean field and Landau theories of phase transitions. Many examples are worked out in considerable detail. Classical liquids are treated next. Along with traditional approaches to the subject such as the virial expansion and integral equations, newer theories such as perturbation theory and density functional theories are introduced.The modern theory of phase transitions occupies a central place in this book. The development is along historical lines, beginning with the Onsager solution of the two-dimensional Ising model, series expansions, scaling theory, finite-size scaling, and the universality hypothesis. A separate chapter is devoted to the renormalization group approach to critical phenomena. The development of the basic tools is completed in a new chapter on computer simulations in which both Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics techniques are introduced.The remainder of the book is concerned with a discussion of some of the more important modern problems in condensed matter theory. A chapter on quantum fluids deals with Bose condensation, superfluidity, and the BCS and Landau-Ginzburg theories of superconductivity. A new chapter on polymers and membranes contains a discussion of the Gaussian and Flory models of dilute polymer mixtures, the connection of polymer theory to critical phenomena, a discussion of dense polymer mixtures and an introduction to the physical properties of solid and fluid membranes. A chapter on linear response includes the Kubo formalism, the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, Onsager relations and the Boltzmann equation. The last chapter is devoted to disordered materials.Each chapter contains a substantial number of exercises. A manual with a complete set of solutions to these problems is available under separate cover.