The Six Core Theories of Modern Physics

The Six Core Theories of Modern Physics reviews all the key areas of physics in one place. It provides a brief, clear, and self-contained summary of the basic theoretical structures of classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, quantum mechanics, statistical physics, special relativity, and quantum field theory. In addition, the mathematics required for these areas is conveniently summarized in the initial chapter. Advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students can use The Six Core Theories of Modern Physics as a supplement to the standard texts or for an unclutterred, succinct review of the key areas. Professionals in such quantitative sciences as chemistry, engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, and biophysics who need to brush up on the essentials of a particular area will find most of the required background material, including the mathematics. Chapters may be read in any order, although the order in which they appear indicates roughly their level of difficulty and the extent to which a particular chapter depends on knowledge and sophistication gained in preceding ones. Each chapter consists of a main part, which gives the core theory, and optional sections which are more advanced and specialized.