On Physics Books

Will post again soon

2009-05-03T01:54:00.002-04:00

I have been busy at school, but will be posting regularly again sometime this summer.
For now, I will be better about responding to comments and/or email. Until the summer,
a preview:
(1) books on General Relativity
(2) books on Group Theory in Physics
(3) books on Quantum Field Theory
(4) a list of book series like Feynman, Landau+Lifshitz, Sommerfeld, etc.

Walter Greiner's Theoretical Physics

2009-01-28T05:05:00.004-05:00

Walter Greiner's "Theoretical Physics: Text & Exercise Books" is slowly becoming a classic series in the vein of Sommerfeld's "Lectures" or Landau & Lifshitz's "Course." His books cover a lot of modern topics with a heavy emphasis on Quantum Mechanics (QM) & Quantum Field Theory (QFT). Two outstanding features of his books are the many worked out exercises and historical/biographical notes. The original version (in German) of this series is already legendary in Europe. So far, 13 of the 15 books in the original series have been prepared for English speaking audiences. Note, however, that the English translations lag behind the German editions by several years! Reviews of the translation itself have generally been negative, whereas the pedagogical style has received high marks. His books do not have a bibliography, however, some references are given in situ. The original series had 11 core books and 4 "A"-label advanced topics/special chapter books. Around 1990, the first English set of "Theoretical Physics" was published. Only 5 volumes covering QM & QFT were published at that point. Since then, Springer has added 4 more volumes to English series. In the late 90's, the classical physics books were given their own series ("Classical Theoretical Physics"), but they lacked the "Contents of Examples & Exercises" that were common to the "Theoretical Physics" series. All of the English series books have essentially the same forward by D. Allan Bromley written in 1989.

Theoretische Physik (Theoretical Physics - the original series)

Band 1, Klassische Mechanik I, Kinematik und Dynamik der Punktteilchen - Relativität
Volume 1, Classical Mechanics I, Kinematics & Dynamics of Point Particles and Relativity
8th Ed. (2007), amazon.de
Band 2, Klassische Mechanik II, Teilchensysteme - Lagrange-Hamiltonsche Dynamik
Volume 2, C.M. II, Systems of Particles and Lagrangian & Hamiltonian Dynamics
8th Ed. (2008), amazon.de
Band 2A, Hydrodynamik
Volume 2A, Hydrodynamics (Fluid Mechanics)
w/ Horst Stock, 4th Ed. (1991), amazon.de
Band 3, Klassische Elektrodynamik
Volume 3, Classical Electrodynamics
7th Ed. (2008), amazon.de
Band 3A, Spezielle Relativitätstheorie
Volume 3A, Special Theory of Relativity
w/ Johann Rafelski, 3rd Ed. (1992), amazon.de
Band 4, Quantenmechanik, Einführung
Volume 4, Quantum Mechanics, Introduction
6th Ed. (2005), amazon.de
Band 4A, Quantentheorie: Spezielle Kapitel
Volume 4A, Quantum Theory, Special Chapters
4th Ed. (1993), amazon.de
Band 5, Quantenmechanik: Symmetrien
Volume 5, Quantum Mechanics, Symmetries
w/ Berndt Müller, 4th Ed. (2005), amazon.de
Band 6, Relativistische Quantenmechanik, Wellengleichungen
Volume 6, Relativistic Quantum Mechanics, Wave Equations
2nd Ed. (1999), amazon.de
Band 7, Quantenelektrodynamik
Volume 7, Quantum Electrodynamics
w/ Joachim Reinhardt, 2nd Ed. (1995), amazon.de
Band 7A, Feldquantisierung
Volume 7A, Field Quantization
w/ Joachim Reinhardt, 1st Ed. (1993), amazon.de
Band 8, Eichtheorie der schwachen Wechselwirkung
Volume 8, Gauge Theory of Weak Interactions
w/ Berndt Müller, 2nd Ed. (1994), amazon.de
Band 9, Thermodynamik und Statistische Mechanik
Volume 9, Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
w/ Ludwig Neise & Horst Stöcker, 2nd Ed. (1993), amazon.de
Band 10, Quantenchromodynamik
Volume 10, Quantum Chromodynamics
w/ Andreas Schäfer, ? Ed. (2003), amazon.de
Band 11, Kernmodelle
Volume 11, Nuclear Models
w/ Joachim Maruhn, 1st Ed. (1995), amazon.de

Classical Theoretical Physics - English Series

Classical Mechanics, Point Particles and Relativity (amazon)
1st English Ed. (2004), trans. from (?) 5th Ed. (1989)
Classical Mechanics, Systems of Particles and Hamiltonian Dynamics
1st English Ed. (2003), trans. from 5th Ed. (1989)
Classical Electrodynamics
1st English Ed. (1998), trans. from 5th Ed. (1991)
Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
w/ Ludwig Neise & Horst Stöcker, 1st English Ed. (1995), trans. from 1st Ed. (1987)

Theoretical Physics - English Series
(note this warning on the cheap reprints from amazon)

Quantum Mechanics, An Introduction
4th English Ed. (2001), trans. from (?) 4th Ed. (1989)
(cheap reprint (2008)? on amazon)
originally: Theoretical Physics 1, QM, Int, 1st English Ed. (1989)
Quantum Mechanics, Special Chapters
1st English Ed. (1998), trans. from (?) 3rd Ed. (1989)
Quantum Mechanics, Symmetries
w/ Berndt Müller, 2nd English Ed. (2004), trans. from (?) 2nd Ed. (1990)
(cheap reprint (2008)? on amazon)
originally: Theoretical Physics 2, QM, Sym, 1st English Ed. (1989)
Relativistic Quantum Mechanics, Wave Equations
3rd English Ed. (2000), trans. from 2nd Ed. (1987)
originally: Theoretical Physics 3, QM, Relativistic Wave Equations, 1st English Ed. (1990)
chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 12, & 13 are nearly identical to chapters 2, 4, & 5 in:
Quantum Electrodynamics of Strong Fields
w/ Berndt Müller & Johann Rafelski, 2nd Ed. (1985)
Field Quantization
w/ Joachim Reinhardt, 1st English Ed. (1996), trans. from 1st Ed. (1993)
(cheap reprint (2008)? on amazon)
Quantum Electrodynamics
w/ Joachim Reinhardt, 4th English Ed. (2009), trans. from 2nd Ed. (1995)
originally: Theoretical Physics 4, QED, 1st English Ed. (1992)
Quantum Chromodynamics
w/ Stefan Schramm & Eckart Stein, 3rd English Ed. (2007), trans. from ? Ed. (1989)
Nuclear Models
w/ Joachim A. Maruhn, 1st English Ed. (1996), trans. from 1st Ed. (1995)
appears to be an update to the three volume Nuclear Theory w/ Judah M. Eisenberg:
Volume 1, Nuclear Models (1975)
Volume 2, Excitation Mechanisms of the Nucleus (1976)
Volume 3, Microscopic Theory of the Nucleus (1975)
Gauge Theory of Weak Interactions
w/ Berndt Müller, 3rd English Ed. (2000), trans. from 1st Ed. (1986)
(4th English Ed. (2009) on amazon)
originally: Theoretical Physics 5, GToWI, 1st English Ed. (1993)

Addison Wesley/Benjamin Cummings Books Since 2000

2009-01-21T03:44:00.010-05:00

Addison Wesley & Benjamin Cummings (imprints of Pearson) have been updating classic texts over the last 8 years or so. In addition they've done a commendable job filling in the gap for undergraduate/graduate texts in astrophysics & cosmology. Their recent books can be identified by the attractive & consistent cover scheme they've been applying. Here's a fairly complete list in reverse chronological order:

Foundations of Astrophysics (2009)
by Barbara S. Ryden & Bradley M. Peterson
Solid State Physics: Essential Concepts (2008)
by David W. Snoke
An Introduction to Modern Galactic Astrophysics and Cosmology, 2nd Ed. (2006) errata
by Bradley W. Carroll & Dale A. Ostlie
An Introduction to Modern Stellar Astrophysics, 2nd Ed. (2006) errata
by Bradley W. Carroll & Dale A. Ostlie
An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, 2nd Ed. (2006) errata

by Bradley W. Carroll & Dale A. Ostlie
An Introduction to Computer Simulation Methods, 3rd Ed. (2006) errata
by Harvey Gould, Jan Tobochnik & Wolfgang Christian
Open Source Physics: A User's Guide, 3rd Ed. amazon (2006) web
by Wolfgang Christian
Quantum Mechanics: An Accessible Introduction (2005)
by Robert J. Scherrer
Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach (2004)
By Jonathan I. Lunine
Particle Physics: A Comprehensive Introduction (2004)
by Abraham Seiden
Spacetime and Geometry (2003) errata
by Sean M. Carroll
Classical Electromagnetism (2005) errata

by Jerrold Franklin
Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity (2003) errata

by James B. Hartle
Introduction to Cosmology (2002)

by Barbara S. Ryden
Introductory Quantum Mechanics, 4th Ed. (2002) classic
by Richard L. Liboff
Mathematica for Physics, 2nd Ed. (2002) errata: RLZ-web & FIO-web
by Robert L. Zimmerman & Fredrick I. Olness
The Science of Sound, 3rd Ed. (2001)
by Thomas D. Rossing, F. Richard Moore & Paul A. Wheeler
Electromagnetism (2001)
by Gerald L. Pollack & Daniel R. Stump
Optics, 4th Ed. (2001)
by Eugene Hecht
Classical Mechanics, 3rd Ed. (2001) errata classic
by Herbert Goldstein, Charles P. Poole & John L. Safko

Google Book Search

2009-01-19T17:07:00.003-05:00

I've been trying to decide the best way to reference books on this blog. I've decided to go with Google. Amazon is fantastic, but Google Books has a couple of features that I love (1) a direct link to worldcat for library info and (2) a way to personalize comments for each book in a library. Over the next few days, all of the links in this blog will be switched over. In addition, all the books in my collection (plus many more) will be listed.

Finally, I am working on a very long and thorough post regarding books for General Relativity.

String Theory Books

2009-01-13T15:41:00.014-05:00

String theory is a difficult subject that is still evolving. As a field of study becomes more familiar and better understood, the books that are published about it start becoming addressed to a wider audience (professional → student → layperson). There are plenty of popular books on the subject, but IMHO the more relevant indication of a field's conceptual progress is the availability of undergraduate level texts (practitioner → graduate student → undergraduate student). String theory is starting to approach the advanced undergraduate level, as evidenced by these books in reverse chronological order:

String Theory Demystified
(2008), undergraduate/graduate
by David McMahon
String Theory in a Nutshell
(2007), graduate, errata
by Elias Kiritsis
String Theory and M-Theory: A Modern Introduction
(2007), graduate
by Katrin Becker, Melanie Becker, & John H. Schwarz
Supersymmetry and String Theory: Beyond the Standard Model
(2007), graduate/practitioner, errata
by Michael Dine
An Introduction to String Theory and D-Brane Dynamics
(2004), graduate/practitioner
by Richard J. Szabo
A First Course in String Theory
(2004, 2nd Ed. in Feb 2009), undergraduate/graduate
by Barton Zwiebach
D-Branes
(hardcover 2003, paperback 2006), practitioner, errata
by Clifford V. Johnson
String Theory, Volume I: An Introduction to the Bosonic String
String Theory, Volume II: Superstring Theory and Beyond
(hardcover 1998, paperback 2005), graduate, errata for both volumes
by Joseph Polchinski
Quantum Field Theory of Point Particles and Strings
(1998), graduate
by Brian Hatfield
Supersymmetric Gauge Field Theory and String Theory
(1994), graduate/practitioner, errata
by D. Bailin & A. Love
Introduction to Superstrings and M-Theory
(1988, 2nd Ed. 1999), practitioner
by Michio Kaku
Superstring Theory: Volume I, Introduction
Superstring Theory: Volume 2, Loop Amplitudes, Anomalies and Phenomenology
(hardcover 1987, paperback 1988), graduate/practitioner
by Michael B. Green, John H. Schwarz, & Edward Witten

I'm "All the News That's Fit to Print" and an insufferable showboat

2009-01-03T22:05:00.007-05:00

Well, as I mentioned before, I won this. The whole story is here . I thought it was all over after Fine Books & Collections Magazine announced the winner of the 2008 contest. Then in mid-November, I was contacted by a NYT reporter. They were looking for students with "unusual" collections for their Education Life section. Physics textbooks appears to have fit the bill. The end result of the phone interview and photo shoot by a local photographer are two slides in their Trendsetting: Collectors' Items slide show.

In retrospect, I wish I would have made my Landau & Lifshitz's Course, Feynman's Lectures, or Sommerfeld's Lectures standout more in the photographs. On the other hand, you can see one of my dad's book on the right stack of books. Unfortunately, I didn't have his other book for the photo shoot. The other books in the photo are (left stack):

Magnetic Induction in Iron and Other Metals by J.A. Ewing
Quarks & Leptons by Francis Halzen & Alan D. Martin
An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory by M.E. Peskin & D.V. Schroeder
Relativistic Quantum Mechanics by J.D. Bjorken & S.D. Drell
Relativistic Quantum Fields by J.D. Bjorken & S.D. Drell
Relativistische Elektronen - Theorie II by E.M. Rose
Relativistische Elektronen - Theorie I by E.M. Rose
Physics for Scientists and Engineers by Raymond A. Serway
Physics,Vol 1 by James S. Walker
Physics by Douglas C. Giancoli
Physics by Eugene Hecht
Introduction to Nuclear Physics by Harold A. Enge
Nuclear Shell Theory by A. de-Shalit and I. Taimi

The book that I'm "reading" is The Radio Engineering Handbook edited by K. Henney and the other books are (right stack):

Atom-Photon Interactions by C. Cohen-Tannoudji, J. Dupont-Roc, & G. Grynberg
Photons and Atoms by by C. Cohen-Tannoudji, J. Dupont-Roc, & G. Grynberg
Quantum Electronics by Amnon Yariv
Statistical Optics by Joseph W. Goodman
Thermal Field Theory by Michel Le Bellac
Elementary Particles by Enrico Fermi
Statistical Mechanics by Richard E. Wilde & Surjit Singh
Statistical Mechanics by Raj K. Pathria
An Introduction to Quarks and Partons by Frank E. Close
High Energy Particles by Bruno Rossi
Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell by A. Zee
Selected Papers on Quantum Electrodynamics by J. Schwinger
Modern Elementary Particle Physics by Gordon L. Kane
The Quantum Theory of Radiation by W. Heitler

An amusing side note: during the photo shoot, they wanted me to pose with one of my older "antique" looking books. Having "antique" books is not the point of the collection, but luckily I had a few that looked old.

Studying for the Physics GRE

2009-01-03T16:42:00.011-05:00

Recently I was asked for recommendations on books for studying for the GRE Physics Test. First of all, one needs a broad-based calculus based physics (for scientists & engineers) textbook. There are many out there, but I'd recommend one of the following:

Physics for Scientists and Engineers by Raymond A. Serway (now w/ J.W. Jewett)
Fundamentals of Physics by David Halliday & Robert Resnick (now with Jearl Walker)
University Physics by H.D. Young & R.A. Freedman (formerly Sears & Zemansky)
Physics for Scientists and Engineers Paul A. Tipler (now w/ Gene Mosca)

These are all more or less equivalent to Halliday & Resnick (the classic of the genre). What's especially nice is that there are many used/older editions of these books that come very cheap online. Each of them have versions which come with chapters on "modern physics" that cover basic atomic, solid state, nuclear, & particle physics. As a subject by subject supplement to the above, I would recommend:

Classical Mechanics
Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems by Jerry B. Marion (now w/ S.T. Thornton)
Electricity & Magnetism
Introduction to Electrodynamics by David J. Griffiths
Electricity and Magnetism by Edward M. Purcell
Optics & Waves
Waves by Frank S. Crawford
Vibrations and Waves by Anthony P. French
Thermodynamics/Statistical Mechanics
Thermal Physics by Charles Kittel
Quantum Mechanics
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by David J. Griffiths
Atomic Physics
Concepts of Modern Physics by Arthur Beiser
Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles by R.M. Eisberg & R. Resnick
Elementary Atomic Structure by Gordon K. Woodgate
Special Relativity
Special Relativity by Anthony P. French
Spacetime Physics by Edwin F. Taylor & John A. Wheeler
Lab Methods
An Introduction to Error Analysis by John R. Taylor
Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences by P.R. Bevington & D.K. Robinson
Techniques for Nuclear and Particle Physics Experiments by William R. Leo
Specialized Topics (Nuclear, Particle, Condensed Matter)
Concepts of Modern Physics by Arthur Beiser
Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles by R.M. Eisberg & R. Resnick
Introduction to Elementary Particles by David J. Griffiths
Introduction to High Energy Physics by Donald H. Perkins

Some of these books are more advanced than necessary for the Physics GRE, but they do a good job of presenting the relevant material. I would in particular point out Griffiths' books. Examples and problems from his books have an uncanny ability to show up as questions on the GRE.

I would not recommend Tribble's Princeton Guide to Advanced Physics or GRE Physics by REA. They both present a list of equations and formulas with little context. This might be useful if the both books weren't full of mistakes. The REA book also contains 4 practice tests which are unrepresentative of the real test and therefore useless.

Finally there are books published by the ETS that contain actual past exams. The most recent one is available online here. The rest are available at the bottom of the Ohio State SPS GRE webpage. This website claims to have worked solutions for every question on all four exams.

UPDATE (Jan. 09, 2009)

An American Physics Student in England gives some very useful advice here.

summary: study the positronium "atom"
section 5.14 & 4.2.1 in Perkins, 3rd & 4th ed., respectively
section 5.6 in Griffiths, 1st ed. (probably in the same place for 2nd ed.)

The very revealing story of a W&M student who scored a 990 on the Physics GRE is here.

summary: spend some time thinking about/practicing "strategy and test-taking techniques"

Online books, texts, and lecture notes

2008-12-09T19:37:00.011-05:00

There are a number of textbooks and lecture notes online. Generally speaking, a great place to start for lecture notes is the arXiv preprint server. Other more general resources are:

MIT - Open Course Ware Physics
Gerard 't Hooft - "How to become a GOOD Theoretical Physicist"
textbookrevolution.org -List of all Physics pages
freescience.info (ebooklist has strong international flavor)
DC Physics - Online Physics Textbooks

Specific notable books include:

The Basics of MRI (web-book)
by: Joseph P. Hornak
very well done and the prototype for what web-books should be
The BaBar Physics Book [SLAC-R-504] (pdf, ps)
by: The BaBar Collaboration
a great intro to CP Violation, every HEP exp needs to have a "Physics Book" like this
Advanced Mathematical Methods for Scientists and Engineers (pdf)
by: Sean Mauch
aka "Sean's Notes," simply legendary at Caltech for students taking AMa 95
Hyperphysics (web-book)
by: C. Rod Nave
another fantastic web-book example
Handbook of Mathematical Functions (web-book w/ scanned jpeg images)
by: Milton Abramowitz & Irene A. Stegun
a great reference now with electronic indexing!
Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing, 3rd Ed. (pdf) google
by: W.H. Press, S.A. Teukolsky, W.T. Vetterling, & B.P. Flannery
sample chapters available for free, full text free for developing countries
Engineering Statistics Handbook (web-book)
by: NIST/SEMATECH
a fantastic and pratical web reference for statistical methods
Mathematical Tools for Physics (pdf)
by: James Nearing
site includes animations
Quantum Field Theory (pdf) amazon google
by: Mark Srednicki
"prepublication draft...contains a number of errors (mostly minor)"
Lectures on Atomic Physics (pdf) amazon google
by: Walter R. Johnson
prepublication draft?
Lectures on Advanced Quantum Mechanics, 2nd Ed. (pdf, ps) amazon google
by: Freeman Dyson (LaTeX-ed by David Derbes)
legendary and classic notes that were the de-facto text on QED for several years
Fields (pdf, ps)
by: W. Siegel
"first free comprehensive textbook on quantum (and classical) field theory"
Order of Magnitude Physics (pdf)
by: Peter Goldreich, Sanjoy Mahajan, & Sterl Phinney
unofficial book for the popular OOM class at Caltech, partly the PhD thesis of SM
A Radically Modern Approach to Introductory Physics, Vols. 1 & 2 (pdf)
by: David J. Raymond
a brilliant idea for freshman physics course: "attempt to develop all of physics in a modern context"
Motion Mountain (pdf)
by: Christoph Schiller
an incredible 1500 page(!) introduction to physics
Essential Physics I (pdf)
Introduction to Groups, Invariants & Particles (pdf)
Age of Einstein (pdf)
by: Frank W.K. Firk
except AoE, written in the formal style of mathematical texts
Electromagnetic Field Theory (pdf, ps, dvi)
by: Bo Thidé
website also includes problem book, "a textbook on the theory of electrodynamics, at roughly the same level as the well-known textbooks by Jackson and Panofsky & Phillips"
Lecture Notes on General Relativity (pdf) amazon google
by: Sean M. Carroll
notes that eventually became the book "Spacetime and Geometry"

I have not included those websites that have illegal scanned copies of books. Writing a textbook takes alot of time & patience and it is just plain wrong to steal an author's hard work.

Errata to physics books

2008-12-06T00:32:00.009-05:00

One of the many wonders of the internets is that authors can post their Errata directly online for anyone to consult. DC Physics has a nice list of Errata reported to him directly and a list of links to particular books themselves. The In addition to those, here are ones that I have found useful in the past:

The Feynman Lectures on Physics (google: Vol. I , Vol. II , Vol, III)
by R.P. Feynman, R.B. Leighton, & M. Sands
Introduction to Electrodynamics (google)
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (google)
Introduction to Elementary Particles (google)
by David J. Griffiths
Classical Mechanics (google)
by H. Goldstein, C.P. Poole, & J.L. Safko
Lasers (google)
by A.E. Seigman
Atomic Physics (google) (verified as of 01/28/09)
by D. Budker, D. Kimball, & D. DeMille
An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory (google)
by M.E. Peskin & D.V. Schroeder
Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell (google)
by A. Zee

UPDATE (Jan. 21 & 28, 2009)

An essential source for "published errata pages for mathematical and scientific text books" is at The Errata Page. (although it does not appear to be updated anymore as of 01/28/09)

Errata pages for books that I've found online can be found at my library (by Google Book Search) or on this blog.

A selection of classics from Dover Publications

2008-12-05T14:31:00.006-05:00

Dover Publications have been reprinting out-of-print classics for almost 70 years now. Some of my favorite (that were very hard to find before Dover) are:

Classical Electricity and Magnetism, 2nd (google)
by: Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky & Melba Phillips
Quantum Field Theory (google)
by: Claude Itzykson & Jean-Bernard Zuber
Quantum Mechanics (google)
(two volumes as one!)
by: Albert Messiah
Quantum Mechanics of One- and Two-Electron Atoms (google)
by: Hans A. Bethe & Edwin E. Salpeter

Methods of Theoretical Physics

2008-12-04T14:21:00.006-05:00

Methods of Theoretical Physics, Volume I: Chapters 1 to 8 & Volume II: Chapters 9 to 13 by Morse and Feshbach had been out of print for a long time. I had to get my copy on ebay. However, since 2004, Herman Feshbach's son Mark has started reprinting his father's classic book. I don't know of many theoretical physicists who don't own this book or atleast consult it on a regular basis. Kudos to Feshbach Publishing for bringing it back to life!

A blog about physics books

2008-12-04T14:16:00.001-05:00

This is a blog about all things related to physics books/textbooks. For reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, this has become a real passion of mine. My goal is to provide a resource for people searching for just the right physics book, be it a lay person's introduction to quantum mechanics to an advanced text on quantum field theory. Questions and comments are welcome.