Quantum Statistical Mechanics

Introduces many-body theory of modern quantum statistical mechanics to graduate students in physics, chemistry, engineering and biology.

William C. Schieve (Author), Lawrence P. Horwitz (Author)

9780521841467, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 April 2009

428 pages, 48 exercises
25.4 x 18 x 2.4 cm, 0.99 kg

'I really liked seeing all different aspects of the subject collected in one place for the first time.' Contemporary Physics

Many-body theory stands at the foundation of modern quantum statistical mechanics. It is introduced here to graduate students in physics, chemistry, engineering and biology. The book provides a contemporary understanding of irreversibility, particularly in quantum systems. It explains entropy production in quantum kinetic theory and in the master equation formulation of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. The first half of the book focuses on the foundations of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics with emphasis on quantum mechanics. The second half of the book contains alternative views of quantum statistical mechanics, and topics of current interest for advanced graduate level study and research. Unique to textbooks on this subject, this book contains a discussion of the fundamental Gleason theorem. Quantum entanglements are treated in application to quantum computation and the difficulties arising from decoherence. The relativistic generalization of the Boltzmann equation is derived, and modern transport applications to reservoir ballistic transport are developed.

1. Foundations of quantum statistical mechanics
2. Elementary examples
3. Quantum statistical master equation
4. Quantum kinetic equations
5. Quantum irreversibility
6. Entropy and dissipation: the microscopic theory
7. Global equilibrium: thermostatics and the microcanonical ensemble
8. Bose-Einstein ideal gas condensation
9. Scaling, renormalization and the Ising model
10. Relativistic covariant statistical mechanics of many particles
11. Quantum optics and damping
12. Entanglements
13. Quantum measurement and irreversibility
14. Quantum Langevin equation: quantum Brownian motion
15. Linear response: fluctuation and dissipation theorems
16. Time dependent quantum Green's functions
17. Decay scattering
18. Quantum statistical mechanics, extended
19. Quantum transport with tunneling and reservoir ballistic transport
20. Black hole thermodynamics
Appendix
Index.

Subject Areas: Engineering: general [TBC], Chemical physics [PHVQ], Biophysics [PHVN], Mathematical physics [PHU], Condensed matter physics [liquid state & solid state physics PHFC]