Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Scales and complexity; 2. Quantum fields; 3. Conserved particles; 4. Simple examples of second-quantization; 5. Green's functions; 6. Landau Fermi liquid theory; 7. Zero temperature Feynman diagrams; 8. Finite temperature many-body physics; 9. Fluctuation dissipation and linear response theory; 10. Electron transport theory; 11. Phase transitions and broken symmetry; 12. Path integrals; 13. Path integrals and itinerant magnetism; 14. Superconductivity and BCS theory; 15. Retardation and anisotrophic pairing; 16. Local moments and the Kondo effect; 17. Heavy electrons; 18. Mixed valence, fluctuations and topology; 19. Epilogue: the challenge of the future; Index.

Promotional Information

This book explains the tools and concepts needed for a research-level understanding of the subject, for graduate students in condensed matter physics.

About the Author

Piers Coleman is a Professor in the Center for Materials Theory at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. A major contributor to the theory of interacting electrons in condensed matter, he invented the 'slave boson' approach to strongly correlated electron systems. He has a long-standing interest in highly correlated d- and f-electron materials, in novel forms of superconductivity and the unsolved problems of quantum criticality in metals.

Reviews

'… the field has advanced tremendously since the 1960s. Subsequent decades saw great progress in addressing new many-body systems - such as those exhibiting the Kondo effect, disordered systems, superfluid helium-3, and unconventional superconductors - and the development of new tools, such as functional integrals and the renormalization group. Students and instructors of quantum many-body physics need an updated, modern textbook that covers those developments. [This book] successfully fills the need. Coleman, an eminent condensed-matter theorist at Rutgers University, covers his subject with pedagogical flair and attention to detail … A reader who has mastered the material in this excellent book should be in a strong position to take on problems that have resisted conventional solutions.' Mohit Randeria, Physics Today