"Problem Solving in Theoretical Physics" helps students mastering their theoretical physics courses by posing advanced problems and providing their solutions - along with discussions of their physical significance and possibilities for generalization and transfer to other fields.

"Problem Solving in Theoretical Physics" helps students mastering their theoretical physics courses by posing advanced problems and providing their solutions - along with discussions of their physical significance and possibilities for generalization and transfer to other fields.

This book is a collection of more than 100 problems selected from the examination questions for a graduate course in theoretical physics. Every problem is discussed and solved in detail. A wide range of subjects is covered, from potential scattering to atomic, nuclear and high energy physics. Special emphasis is devoted to relativistic quantum mechanics and its application to elementary processes: S-matrix theory, the role of discrete symmetries, the use of Feynman diagrams and elementary perturbative quantum field theory.The course attaches great importance to recitation sessions, where thorough problem solving becomes a true test of mastery of theoretical background.The authors are experts in their fields. A Di Giacomo taught “theoretical physics” for about 20 years. G Paffuti and P Rossi held recitations for several years. More recently, Haris Panagopoulos followed suit. He assisted the authors in preparing this English version translated from the Italian.For physicists and especially for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in theoretical physics, this book is a positive guide in the intricacies of problem-solving. A further feature that adds practical value to this book is that most problems correspond to realistic physical processes and their numerical results are compared to experimental values whenever possible.

Sample Text

This book provides a complete, consistent, and open system for studying physics problems, which not only provides high-quality teaching materials for the field of physics education (especially for Physics Olympiad training) but also points out a new direction for physics education. In this book, a form of methodology, which can comprehensively present cogitation discipline, is built up for analyzing and solving complex physics problems. The text analyzes plenty of physics problems (classical mechanics) from both theoretical and philosophical points of view to reveal the way of exerting this form. As a set of methodology reflecting the cogitation discipline, the thinking paradigm proposed in this book (called the MLQ-(ST)C paradigm) is a theoretical tool to develop people's acquisition of this ability. The paradigm successfully deconstructs the elements and the structure in physical thinking and then eliminates the obstacles of people’s underlying thinking, so that all the thinking built on it can be clear and ordered. The physics problems included in this book are significantly more difficult than similar books within the same theoretical domains involved, leading to better teaching and learning value.

This is a companion textbook for an introductory course in physics. It aims to link the theories and models that students learn in class with practical problem-solving techniques. In other words, it should address the common complaint that 'I understand the concepts but I can't do the homework or tests'. The fundamentals of introductory physics courses are addressed in simple and concise terms, with emphasis on how the fundamental concepts and equations should be used to solve physics problems.

While group theory and its application to solid state physics is well established, this textbook raises two completely new aspects. First, it provides a better understanding by focusing on problem solving and making extensive use of Mathematica tools to visualize the concepts. Second, it offers a new tool for the photonics community by transferring the concepts of group theory and its application to photonic crystals. Clearly divided into three parts, the first provides the basics of group theory. Even at this stage, the authors go beyond the widely used standard examples to show the broad field of applications. Part II is devoted to applications in condensed matter physics, i.e. the electronic structure of materials. Combining the application of the computer algebra system Mathematica with pen and paper derivations leads to a better and faster understanding. The exhaustive discussion shows that the basics of group theory can also be applied to a totally different field, as seen in Part III. Here, photonic applications are discussed in parallel to the electronic case, with the focus on photonic crystals in two and three dimensions, as well as being partially expanded to other problems in the field of photonics. The authors have developed Mathematica package GTPack which is available for download from the book's homepage. Analytic considerations, numerical calculations and visualization are carried out using the same software. While the use of the Mathematica tools are demonstrated on elementary examples, they can equally be applied to more complicated tasks resulting from the reader's own research.