Mathematical Analysis of Physical Problems

Intended for the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate student, this lucid work links classical and modern physics through common techniques and concepts and acquaints the reader with a variety of mathematical tools physicists use to describe and comprehend the physical universe. For the physicist, mathematics is a language, or shorthand, for constructing workable models (necessarily approximate and incomplete) of aspects of physical reality. The present text, by a noted professor of physics at McGill University, Montreal, deals in an exceptionally well-organized way with some of the crucial mathematical tools used to construct such models. Contents include: I: The Vibrating String; II. Linear Vector Spaces; III. The Potential Equation; IV: Fourier and Laplace Transforms and Their Applications; V. Propagation and Scattering of Waves; VI. Problems of Diffusion and Attenuation; VII. Probability and Stochastic Processes; VIII. Fundamental Principles of Quantum Mechanics; IX. Some Soluble Problems of Quantum Mechanics; X. Quantum Mechanics of Many-body Problems. A special helpful feature of this volume is a Prelude to each chapter, which outlines the topics with which the chapter deals. In addition to providing a guide to the organization of its contents, it indicates the mathematical background assumed and calls attention to those methods and concepts which have an application in different physical problems. Relevant test problems are interspersed throughout the text to test the student's grasp of the material, while brief bibliographies at the chapter ends suggest further reading. Ideal as a primary or supplementary text, Mathematical Analysis of Physical Problems will reward any reader seeking a firmer grasp of the mathematical procedures by which physicists unlock the secrets of the universe.