Walter Dittrich - Böcker

Graduate students seeking to become familiar with advanced computational strategies in classical and quantum dynamics will find in this book both the fundamentals of a standard course and a detailed treatment of the time-dependent oscillator, Chern-Simons mechanics, the Maslov anomaly and the Berry phase, to name just a few topics.

Graduate students seeking to become familiar with advanced computational strategies in classical and quantum dynamics will find in this book both the fundamentals of a standard course and a detailed treatment of the time-dependent oscillator, Chern-Simons mechanics, the Maslov anomaly and the Berry phase, to name just a few topics.

In this book, the author pays tribute to Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866), a mathematician with revolutionary ideas, whose work on the theory of integration, the Fourier transform, the hypergeometric differential equation, etc. contributed immensely to mathematical physics. The text concentrates in particular on Riemann’s only work on prime numbers, including ideas – new at the time – such as analytical continuation into the complex plane and the product formula for entire functions. A detailed analysis of the zeros of the Riemann zeta-function is presented. The impact of Riemann’s ideas on regularizing infinite values in field theory is also emphasized.This revised and enhanced new edition contains three new chapters, two on the application of Riemann’s zeta-function regularization to obtain the partition function of a Bose (Fermi) oscillator and one on the zeta-function regularization in quantum electrodynamics. Appendix A2 has been re-written to make the calculations more transparent. A summary of Euler-Riemann formulae completes the book.

The leading theme is how the action principle is applied to problems in classical physics such as hydrodynamics, electrodynamics and gravity, extending also to the modern formulation of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, especially quantum electrodynamics.

Graduate students who want to become familiar with advanced computational strategies in classical and quantum dynamics will find here both the fundamentals of a standard course and a detailed treatment of the time-dependent oscillator, Chern-Simons mechanics, the Maslov anomaly and the Berry phase, to name a few. Well-chosen and detailed examples illustrate the perturbation theory, canonical transformations, the action principle and demonstrate the usage of path integrals. This new edition has been revised and enlarged with chapters on quantum electrodynamics, high energy physics, Green’s functions and strong interaction."This book is a brilliant exposition of dynamical systems covering the essential aspects and written in an elegant manner. The book is written in modern language of mathematics and will ideally cater to the requirements of graduate and first year Ph.D. students...a wonderful introduction to any student who wants to do research in any branch of theoretical Physics." (Indian Journal of Physics)

Graduate students who wish to become familiar with advanced computational strategies in classical and quantum dynamics will find in this book both the fundamentals of a standard course and a detailed treatment of the time-dependent oscillator, Chern-Simons mechanics, the Maslov anomaly and the Berry phase, to name just a few topics.

The review is devoted to an investigation of the physical vacuum properties of quantum electrodynamics (QED), relying on the perturbative effective action approach. By probing the vacuum with external perturbations, its response is analyzed after averaging over the high-energy degrees of freedom. The book is written for scientists active in the field as well as for students who want to become familiar with the more advanced computational strategies of external-field problems which are partly outlined in great detail. Schwinger's proper-time method is the backbone of the book. Many recent results are presented, while others which are widespread in the literature are rederived in a unifying and compact way. The book ranges from full quantum theory to quantum-induced non-linear electrodynamics with its variety of applications to light propagation, photon splitting and light-by-light scattering. A special emphasis is put on systems at finite temperature.